Lucrecia Martel’s Landmarks Win 2025 BFI London Film Festival Award
Another year nearly over and on the final day for the 69th BFI London Film Festival announce the winners of this year’s Awards. Lucrecia Martel ‘s documentary Landmarks (Nuestra Tierra) wins Best film Award (official competition).
The other winners include David Bingong’s personal documentary The Travelers picking up the David Grierson Award. Whilst Vincho Nchogu‘s One Woman One Bra wins first feature (Sutherland) Award. Said Zagha, received the Short Film Award in the LFF short film competition with his film Coyotes.
Artistic ambition and political advocacy meld in Lucrecia Martel’s documentary Landmarks, a bold and beautiful reflection on the death and legacy of indigenous activist Javier Chocobar.
The Official Competition jury said: “Our jury has chosen “Landmarks” as the BFI London Film Festival’s Best Film for 2025. With deep empathy and extraordinary journalistic and cinematic rigor, the director Lucrecia Martel dives deep into the events surrounding the 2009 murder of the Chuschagasta leader Javier Chocobar, in Argentina’s Tucumán Province. In foregrounding present-day voices and neglected histories, Martel emerges with a portrait of — and for — an Indigenous community, and grants them a measure of the justice the courts have long denied them. Within a remarkably strong competition, our jury is proud to honor this singular achievement.”
Kenyan filmmaker Vincho Nchogu stuns with her humorous account of one woman’s fight to keep her ancestral land in One Woman One Bra. “We are delighted to award the Sutherland Prize to Vincho Nchogu for her brilliant debut film, “One Woman One Bra” . We were incredibly impressed by her ability to confidently move between so many tones, but always holding the audience with care” commented The First Feature jury. “Her film uses humour to shattering effect. Vincho also elicited fantastic performances from her entire cast, complemented by stunning cinematography throughout. The piece is at once funny, life-affirming, and deeply moving; its emotional journey stayed with us and will continue to do so.”
David Bingong’s personal film The Travelers is an intimate and hopeful account of the dangerous journey taken by a group of migrants from Cameroon to Europe. “Facing the most inhumane of circumstances—a dangerous sea crossing from Morocco to Spain—the camaraderie of young Cameroonian men is rendered with kinetic intensity. An immersive journey of intimate photography, humour, and a spontaneously arising soundtrack contextualises the past lives and present perils of its protagonists. In his raw film “The Travelers”, David Bingong, himself a migrant among them, offers a deeply personal and affecting lens on the humanitarian crisis of African refugees and asylum seekers adrift in both the Mediterranean Sea and the legal limbo of the EU’s broken immigration system.” said the Documentary Competition jury.
Finally in Said Zagha‘s Coyotes, Israeli soldiers interrupt her commute home, a Palestinian doctor is forced down a desolate road and her future is thrown into disarray. The Short Film Competition Jury said: “Coyotes quietly opens a door into a psychological state of fear faced by people caught in the midst of conflict; a fear that cuts through the everyday atrocities witnessed by those watching publicly from outside. We chose the film for its subtle introduction of characters, the evident love for its craft, and its confident command of viewer expectations.”
The 69th BFI London Film Festival will end tonight with the premiere of Julia Jackman‘s 100 Nights Of Hero starring Emma Cronin, Maika Monroe, Amir El-Masry and Richard E Grant. You can enjoy our coverage of this years festival here.
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