Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) announced the winners of the prizes for both feature filmmaking and short filmmaking at a ceremony in the Cameo cinema on Wednesday evening.
The awards were presented by Jason Connery on behalf of The Connery Foundation, and by legendary film editor, Thelma Schoonmaker.
The winner of this year’s The Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence, decided on by an audience vote and funded by The Connery Foundation is Abdolreza Kahani’s Mortician.
Ten feature-length World Premieres were presented at EIFF as part of the competition with the winning filmmaker being awarded £50,000 to support their future projects.
In Mortician, a reclusive mortician faces an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding, their bond providing the beating heart of this disarmingly elegant film. Combining a distinctive, lo-fi visual style, naturalistic performances and familiar wit and humanity, Director Abdolreza Kahani’s film is both utterly distinctive and affecting.
In Mortician director Abdolreza Kahani returns to EIFF following his film A Shrine screening as part of last year’s Festival. Mortician is presented as part of Spotlight Canada 2025, supported by The High Commission of Canada and The Beaverbrook Canadian Foundation.
EIFF Director, Paul Ridd, said about the film: “Director Abdolreza Kahani (A SHRINE) returns to EIFF with another entirely original and gripping character study and puzzle piece. A reclusive mortician faces an unusual request from a dissident singer in hiding, their bond providing the beating heart of this disarmingly elegant film. Combining a distinctive, lo-fi visual style, naturalistic performances and familiar wit and humanity, Kahani’s new film is utterly distinctive and affecting with a gut punch ending that will leave audiences reeling.”
The winner of The Thelma Schoonmaker Prize for Short Filmmaking Excellence Competition is Joanna Vymeris’s Mother Goose. The short film competition winner was also decided on by an audience vote and is awarded £15,000 to support their future projects.
The prize was collected on Ms Vymeris behalf – she was already on a plane on her way back to the US.
After the death of her husband, Janet decides to distract herself by rearing a goose, which is to be the centrepiece of her Christmas dinner. However, as she grows ever more isolated from her daughter, Janet’s need to nurture the goose becomes an obsession: one which will cost her dearly. A modern day Grimm’s fairy-tale about grief, isolation and a goose.
