The winning film, Chevalier, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, is a grim and absurd comic character study of masculine prowess and anxiety

A deadpan Greek comedy about a contest of machismo among six men on board a yacht has won the top prize at the British Film Institute’s London Film Festival Awards.

The film Chevalier, directed by Athina Rachel Tsangari, is a grim and absurd comic character study of masculine prowess and anxiety. The men embark on a series of challenges with the winner to be presented with a ring, the Chevalier of the title.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The film was described as ‘both a hilarious comedy and a deeply disturbing statement on the condition of western humanity’. Photograph: BFI

Announcing the best film award prize, the festival’s bronze Star of London, on Saturday, the president of the festival jury, Pawel Pawlikowski, director of last year’s winner, Ida, said: “Chevalier is a study of male antagonism seen though the eyes of a brave and original film-maker. With great formal rigour and irresistible wit, Tsangari has managed to make a film that is both a hilarious comedy and a deeply disturbing statement on the condition of western humanity.”

Cate Blanchett later accepted a BFI fellowship from Sir Ian McKellen.

Before Blanchett received her fellowship from her Lord of the Rings and Hobbit co-star, she attended the British premiere of the film Truth, which was screened in honour of her award. Based on the biographical book Truth and Duty by Mary Mapes, it tells the story of an award-winning CBS News journalist and of the risks she took to expose a story on the then president, George W Bush.



Facebook Twitter Pinterest Cate Blanchett received a BFI fellowship. Photograph: Mike Marsland/WireImage

Other winners were Robert Eggers for The Witch, which scooped the Sutherland Award for a first feature, and Jennifer Peedom, who won the Grierson documentary award for Sherpa, about the sherpas of Nepal.

Grierson trustee and documentary film-maker Alex Cooke, who announced the winner, said: “We are taken into the lives, homes and families of the Sherpas, who have for too long been overlooked and exploited, dependent for their livelihoods on an increasing number of tourists who sometimes regard them as little more than owned slaves.

“We’re left with an appreciation of the sacrifices the Sherpa community have made for over six decades. We applaud this impressive film for giving voice to a previously voiceless community, and we hope it reaches the wide, general audience that it deserves.”

An Old Dog’s Diary, directed by Shai Heredia and Shumona Goel, won the festival’s first best short film award.