A beautifully-made portrait of a newspaper seller in Crouch End scooped the Londonist Award for Best London Short Film at the climax of the London Short Film Festival on Saturday.
Seven Days A Week by filmmaker Tal Amiran tells the story of Paul Saxton, who has opened his North London paper stall every morning at 4.40am, seven days a week for the last 36 years, rain or shine. It’s a poignant depiction of a life that has changed with the city, a job that may disappear altogether after Paul and his generation retire.
The Londonist team picked the documentary from an impressively strong and varied shortlist, citing Amiran’s poetic approach and his ability to get under the skin of his subject, so that the life of a type of Londoner so often taken for granted both resonates and lingers long in the memory.
Amiran told Londonist: "It's particularly exciting to be part of such a wonderful festival in London, because it's where I'm from and it's where Paul's from". We will have an interview with Amiran later this month, plus information about where the film is screening.
And here are the other winners of the London Short Film Festival 2016:
- The Evening Her Mind Jumped Out Of Her Head by Kim Noce and Shaun Clark (Encounters Award for Best Animated Short Film)
- Dailies To Dawn by Kristina Cranfeld (ICA Award for Best Experimental Short Film)
- Rituals by Daisy Moore and Anthony Lucas (Kodak Award for Best Cinematography)
- Oh-Be-Joyful by Susan Jacobson (The LOCO Award for Best Comedy Short)
- Keith by Luke Kondor (Lomography Award for Best Lo-Budget Short Film)
- Alana Boden in The Earth Belongs To No One (MMBF Award for LSFF Rising Star)
- Mining Poems Or Odes by Callum Rice (Open City Docs Award for Best Documentary Short Film)
- Better Than Tomorrow by Eui Jeong Hong (Shooting People Award for Best Student Short Film)
- Award 11 by Eva Riley (Women & Film in TV for Best Woman Director)
- No Wolf Has A House by Hana Jušić (ShortsTV Award for Best International Short Film)
- Tamara by Sofia Safanova (Best British Short Award Sponsored by British Council)
To watch more great short films about the capital, check out our London Shorts section.
