Iris Prize winner Balcony to receive TV premier

This year a British short film, for the first time, won the prestigious Iris Prize.  Balcony took not only the Iris Prize Best British short sponsored by Pinewood Studios but also the £30,000 Iris Prize supported by the Michael Bishop Foundation, the main award of the festival. 

As the Cardiff based festival, often referred to as the “gay Oscars” celebrates its 10th birthday, this is the TV premiere of the winning film.  Balcony is set on a housing estate and features Tina played by Charlotte Beaumont (Broadchurch), a troubled teenage girl, who falls for Dana, whose family are from Afghanistan.  The films shocks and surprises but not in the way you might expect.

Christina Macaulay, Commissioning Executive at BBC Wales said:

“When I saw the winning film from Iris this year I was really keen to give audiences in Wales and beyond a chance to see it. It is great that we are able to give Balcony its TV premiere on BBC 2 Wales and make it available to audiences through iplayer for the next 30 days after transmission.  I hope through BBC Wales it can reach audiences across the UK as it really deserves to be widely seen.”

Cheryl Dunye, the Chair of the jury said:

“We felt that the director crafted a powerful film where not a single moment of its 17 minutes was wasted. The lead performance by Charlotte Beaumont was particularly outstanding as she took us on an internal transformation that left us speechless”.

“The film explored a myriad of social justice issues not only relevant to LGBT filmmaking but also with those that intersect with race, class, and gender issues in both the UK and the world today”. 

Accepting both prizes, director Toby Fell-Holden said:

“We are thrilled and humbled to have been awarded both the Iris Prize and Best British Award.  The film was a huge labour of love that tackled issues of perception around race and sexual identity.”

“It is a big honour to have Iris recognise the film”, he continued, “particularly given the current political climate around immigration and what it means to be ‘other’. Our deepest thanks goes out to the jury of the awards”.

Commenting on this year’s first British winner, Festival Chair Andrew Pierce said:

“What’s incredible about Balcony’s success is that two independent juries reached the same conclusion.  We’ve waited ten years for this to happen and I’m thrilled that British talent has been recognised in this year when BAFTA officially acknowledged the Iris Prize for award eligibility”. He added, “We’ve also seen many memorable moments, one of the highlights being Michael Sheen paying an unexpected visit to wish Iris a happy birthday”.

Balcony will receive its TV premier on Monday 7 November at 11.10pm (23.10) on BBC Two Wales and will then be available on the BBC iPlayer for 30 days across the UK.

The main festival sponsors are: The Michael Bishop Foundation, Welsh Government, BFI, Ffilm Cymru Wales, Pinewood Studios Group, Cardiff University, Gorilla Group, Cineworld, Chapter, Gay Star News, Pride Cymru, British Council Wales, Orchard.                                           

Further details of Iris Prize    www.irisprize.org       Facebook:   IrisPrizeFestival   Twitter:  @irisprize