We are absolutely delighted that Pikadero, the first feature film of Scottish director Ben Sharrock (MFA Advanced Film Practice, Screen Academy Scotland, Edinburgh Napier 2014) has won the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival 2016. Each year EIFF award the Michael Powell Award, named after the great director of The Red Shoes and Peeping Tom, to the best British film in the programme. Pikadero which was shot in the Basque region of Spain and is entirely in the Basque language, tells the story of the plight of a young couple searching for love in troubled economic times.
Many of the crew on Pikadero are Screen Acdemy Scotland and Edinburgh Napier gradutes. Written and directed by Sharrock and produced by fellow MFA Advanced Film Practice graduate Irune Gurtubai, MA Film graduate Bjorn Tobiasson was in the Camera Department on the film (which was shot by Nick Cooke frpm the NFTS). Pikadero was edited by Edinburgh Napier BA Film graduate (and MFA AFP student) Karel Dolak. In 2014 the trailer for the Pikadero called Patata Tortilla, which was Sharrock and Gurtubai’s Screen Academy Scotland graduation film, won two BAFTA in Scotland New Talent Awards for Best Drama and Best Screenplay.
Ben Sharrock said of his win:
“I am absolutely thrilled and honoured to receive the Michael Powell Award. It is an incredible feeling. It is so valuable to have this kind of recognition for Pikadero in the UK. It is awards and recognition like this that help us get the film out to as wide an audience as possible. We have been lucky enough to screen Pikadero in different countries around the world but it has been a very special experience having the UK premiere here at EIFF and showing it to audiences in my home city. I am extremely grateful and I would like to thank the jury, the festival team and Mark Adams. Finally, I want to thank everyone who was involved in this film for all their talent and hard work. What a journey!”
The Michael Powell Jury said:
“We wanted to recognise the very personal and individual voice of director Ben Sharrock for his film Pikadero. In a year when the jury viewed a selection of very distinctive and different films his film really stood out.”
http://www.bensharrock.com/
http://cineuropa.org/nw.aspx?t=newsdetail&l=en&did=299498
http://cineuropa.org/it.aspx?t=interview&l=en&did=312047