BAFTA Promotes Iris Prize to A List Festival Status

Iris Prize, Cardiff’s International LGBT Film Prize, is delighted to announce that it has received significant endorsement from the film industry by officially being recognised as a qualifying festival for the BAFTA awards.  From this year, all 15 nominated films for Iris Prize Best British Short Film are eligible to be entered automatically for the BAFTAs. This means that the filmmakers are now entitled to submit the films themselves.

Berwyn Rowlands, festival director says, “To be added to BAFTA’s festivals ‘A’ list is amazing news for Iris and the British film makers who are shortlisted annually for the Iris Prize Best British Award sponsored by Pinewood Studios Group. To be included in a list of prestigious film festivals like Cannes, Venice and Sundance is quite mind blowing! This recognition by BAFTA is simply the icing on the cake in this our 10thanniversary.”

The recognition from BAFTA promotes Iris Prize to the same level as other prestigious international festivals such as Cannes, Venice, Sundance, Tribeca, Berlin, Sydney as well as UK-based organisations such as BFI London Film Festival, Edinburgh Film Festival.

Andrew Pierce, the Iris Prize chair, says, “This recognition from BAFTA confirms what we have known for a long time that Iris is the home of amazing film making talent. Iris has been shining a light on these important LGBT stories for almost a decade and with the support of BAFTA we can now share them with a new audience.

“We are always looking at new ideas to support the British film industry, and this will continue as we look forward to the next ten years.”

The Iris Prize Best British Short Award offers the chance of winning a post-production package, worth an amazing £20,000, to help with the making of their next film, comprising of sound mixing, sound track lay and dub plus layback. This is sponsored by Pinewood Studios Group.

A record-breaking number of films were submitted for consideration this year, demonstrating the growing awareness of the Prize’s significance to filmmakers themselves. The shortlist of 15 films that have successfully been nominated for this year’s prize are due to be announced on the 8th of August at the same time as the 35 international films competing in the Iris Prize, with the winner receiving £30,000.  The Iris Prize celebrates its tenth anniversary this year and runs 12 – 16 October.