Noel Clarke & Terry Pheto lead award winners at 2019’s BUFF Awards

Terry Pheto’s performance as a long suffering wife and domestic abuse victim won her international success on Saturday evening – one of three awards for the anthology drama Faces. The film was the biggest winner at the VIP ceremony, picking up prizes including best actor for Aki Omoshaybi and best feature for director Joseph A. Adesunloye.

There was other film success for director Richard Etienne, winning best documentary for The ID project – My Dominica Story and director Greg Hall, winning best short film for Smack Edd (sponsored by Met Film School).

In the live script category (presented by Kelly Edwards from HBO), there was success for Jo Southwell (‘Loyalty’), Eno Enefiok (Asylum) and Malcolm J Solomon (Raped).

The final award of the night was presented by actors Ashley Walters (Top Boy, Bulletproof) and Wil Johnson (Adulthood, Outlander) and accepted by Noel Clarke for recognition of 20 years of outstanding contribution to the film and TV industry. It was an emotional moment for Clarke who received two standing ovations from the packed audience, one at the start of his speech and one at the end. Moments after watching a summary of his accomplishments, Clarke said “the interesting thing about it and maybe that’s just testament to what I do is that I don’t feel like I’ve achieved anything. I don’t mean that in a sympathetic way. I haven’t done half of what I know I can do or what I know I want to do and so for me a lot of that stuff is just work it’s just what I do. I get up in the morning and I want to create. I want to succeed not just for myself but for others.”

The winning films and scripts were pooled from 51 submissions selected by the board of the British Urban Film Festival, chaired by it’s founder Emmanuel Anyiam-Osigwe. The submissions were showcased during the week-long festival – now in it’s 14th year – at Met Film School, Ealing Studios.

Short film (sponsored by Met Film School)

Smack Edd (Dir: Greg Hall) – WINNER
Eli (Dir: Colin Gerrard)
No Exposure (Dir: Marcus Thomas)
Paparazza (Dir: Aurora Fearnley)

Blessing Anyiam-Osigwe best actress

Elinor Machen-Fortune (Acceptable Damage)
Seyi Shay (Lara and the Beat)
Terry Pheto (Faces) – WINNER
Zoe Ranson (Stray Dog)

Best actor

Vector (Lara and the Beat)
Elijah Baker (Acceptable Damage)
Eddie Linina (Stray Dog)
Aki Omoshaybi (Faces) – WINNER

Best documentary

Block and Censor (Dir: Awei Chen)
The ID Project – My Dominica Story (Dir: Richard Etienne) – WINNER
The Mayor’s Race (Dir: Loraine Blumenthal)
Song for our People (Dir: Mustapha Khan)

Live Script (presented by HBO)

Loyalty (Written by Jo Southwell) – WINNER
Asylum (Written by Eno Enefiok) – WINNER
Raped (Written by Malcolm J Solomon) – WINNER

Victor Adebodun best feature

Faces (Dir: Jospeh A. Adesunloye) – WINNER
Acceptable Damage (Dir: Lavinia Simina)
Lara and the Beat (Dir: Tosin Coker)
Stray Dog (Dir: Luke Hefferman)

British Urban Film Festival honorary award – RECIPIENT

Noel Clarke