LOS ANGELES, Oct 23 — Two Oscar hopefuls were among the five films named by the BFI London Film Festival’s Jury — Belgium’s Best Foreign Film submission Girl, and Colombian entrant Birds of Passage.

On the tail of a prestigious double win in Venice, Sudabeh Mortezai’s Joy, a story of sex industry hopes and fears of a woman and her daughter far from home, won the BFI London Film Festival’s overall Best Film Award during an October 20 ceremony.

For the first time at the London Film Festival, award winners were revealed as part of a schedule of public, surprise screenings, the British Film Institute said in a statement.

Coming in from Cannes, where it won the Camera d’Or and the Queer Palm, and put forward as Belgium’s submission to the Best Foreign Language Film selection process at February 2019’s Academy Awards, Girl tells the story of a transgender teenager who dreams of becoming a ballet dancer.

It won the First Feature award, with competition president Francis Lee praising a "truly remarkable central performance,” a "complex balance between heartbreak and hope,” and an "imaginative and original directorial debut.”

Girl was the second Best Foreign Film hopeful to be mentioned during the awards ceremony, after Colombian submission Birds of Passage was given a Special Commendation in the Best Film category.

A Louisiana-set documentary on race, dignity and survival in the aftermath of a series of police shootings, What You Gonna Do When The World’s On Fire? won the LFF’s Grierson Award, while Lasting Marks, which focused on outsider subcultures and criminality in 1980s Britain, won the Short Film Award. — AFP-Relaxnews