Britain’s Got Talent: Edinburgh Awards “Moon,” Katie Jarvis

Katie Jarvis at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Photo by Peter Knegt.

“This has been an amazing year for me in more ways than one,” Jarvis said at the ceremony. “I was lucky enough to spend my 18th birthday in Edinburgh last week, where ‘Fish Tank’ was shown, and this is such a great 18th present! It is a real honour to receive this award, both for myself and the film. I would like to thank Andrea for the opportunity and for believing in me.”

Earlier in the week, Jarvis was also given an award as one of the festival’s 25 “Trailblazers,” emerging talent that the fest considered to have produced some of the most innovative and outstanding work this past year. Other honorees included many from Michael Powell Award finalists, from “Running In Traffic” actor and writer Bryan Larkin, “Kicks” actor Kerrie Hayes, “Crying With Laughter” director Justin Molotnikov, and “A Boy Called Dad”‘s young star, Kyle Ward.

The festival’s audience award also found its way to homegrown talent, as well as to a newcomer. Tomm Moore’s animated fairytale “The Secret of Kells,” his directorial debut, won the Standard Life Audience Award. As well, the festival also looked across to honor emerging talent. Kyle Patrick Alvarez’s “Easier Than Practice” won the inaugural New Independent Feature Award, while Cary Fukunaga’s “Sin Nombre” won the Skillset New Directors Award.

“I’m delighted by these results and I thank our juries for their hard work and their presence in Edinburgh, which helped to make this year’s Festival so exciting,” Hannah McGill said yesterday. “It says a lot about EIFF and its mission as a discovery festival that Duncan Jones, Kyle Patrick Alvarez, Tomm Moore and Cary Joji Fukunaga are all first-time feature directors.  We have had a fantastic year and I’m thrilled that all of our prizewinners have been part of it, as well as, of course, all the other filmmakers who’ve attended and given us the privilege of screening their work.  I hope their success here helps them go forward in their careers, and I hope we’ll see them all back in Edinburgh in the future with further work.”

For a full list of the festival’s winners, please click over to the next page. You can also check out some of indieWIRE‘s previous coverage of the 2009 Edinburgh International Film Festival, including an interview with Hannah McGill, a report from Lord David Puttnam’s keynote address, an interview with “Surrogate” director and emerging international talent Tali Shalom Ezer, a dispatch from the world premiere of Shane Meadows’ “strange, little experiment”, and a collection of iPOPS from on the scene.