God's Own Country wins Edinburgh Film Festival award

Filmmaker Francis Lee's directorial debut, God's Own Country, has won the award for best British feature at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The film, which is about the relationship between a Romanian worker and the owner of a Yorkshire sheep farm, won the Michael Powell Award.

The award for Best International Feature Film went to Kristina Grozeva and Petar Valchanov's Glory.

Chico Pereira's contemplative Donkeyote was the best documentary feature.

The award for Best Performance in a British Feature Film went jointly to actresses Emily Beecham for her role in Daphne and Anne Reid for her roles in Kaleidoscope and Romans.

Other awards included best short film won by The Full Story and the McLaren Award for Best British Animation went to Paloma Baeza's Poles Apart.

Edinburgh International Film Festival awards jurors considered 151 features from 46 countries which were screened at this year's festival.

The Michael Powell Jury said God's Own Country was a film "with a singularity of storytelling and consistency of vision".

They said: "Assured direction with raw and endearing performances result in a film that has an authenticity that is both tender and brutal, a juxtaposition of landscape and emotion, which explores the question of what it means to be a man."

Director Francis Lee said: "I am thrilled with this honour for God's Own Country, especially when you consider the British films that have won before.

"After premiering at Sundance and Berlin it has been wonderful to see how the film has created a real resonance with people and that is why the Michael Powell Award feels so brilliant."