We are delighted to announce ‘Black Pond’, directed by Will Sharpe & Tom Kingsley, as the winner of the first LoCo Discovery Award. It will be screened at 8.30pm on Saturday 28th January at BFI Southbank. Tickets are available here: http://bit.ly/ynD6S0
One of LoCo’s core objectives is to help kickstart the careers of new British comedy filmmakers, and a key part of this is our annual LoCo Discovery Award for new British comedy films without distribution. Each year the winning film will be screened at LoCo’s London Comedy Film Festival, alongside films by established directors.
Denise Hicks, Director of LoCo, said: “We had a fantastic range of entries, but Black Pond really stands out as an original, beautifully crafted film, and LoCo is proud to champion it and to help it reach a wider audience. All three of the shortlisted films show huge promise for their directors, writers and performers, so we’re happy to say that British comedy is in good health, and good hands. Submissions for the 2013 LoCo Discovery Award will open later this year, so watch this space and get shooting!”

Tom Kingsley and Will Sharpe, directors, said:
“It’s great to win the first ever LoCo Discovery award. Film festivals don’t always treat comedy films as kindly as they do straightforward dramas, so it’s great that there’s now a film festival that recognises the importance of comedy to the exclusion of Everything Else. And awards such as this offer invaluable support for low budget films like ours. The two of us double-handedly organised Black Pond’s distribution, so it’s a nice change to be invited to a cinema, rather than having to wage a protracted phone campaign where we target small independent cinemas and insist they screen our film. Our DVD release will give the film a much wider audience, but we think the best place to watch comedy films is in the cinema. At the LoCo Film Festival. We couldn’t have made the film without the hard work and support of our extremely talented cast and crew. In particular, the film would not have been half as brilliant as it is without the magnificent performances of Chris Langham, Amanda Hadingue, Colin Hurley, Anna O’Grady, Helen Cripps and Simon Amstell.”

Congratulations to all involved in ‘Black Pond’, find out more by visiting http://blackpondfilm.com/ and guarantee your place at LoCo’s screening at the BFI Southbank on 28th January by purchasing your ticket here: http://bit.ly/ynD6S0.
We would also like to congratulate the two films that were shortlisted:
Pulp (Dir: Adam Hamdy, Shaun Magher) – “A comedy about comics.”
Weekend Retreat (Dir: Brett Harvey) – “Get away from it all. Relax. Survive.”