The LOCO Discovery Award is an annual prize for a British comedy feature film that does not yet have distribution. It’s a way of bringing new talent to a wider audience: last year’s winner Black Pond went on to be nominated for a BAFTA and a Guardian First Film Award.
This year’s shortlisted films were 8 Minutes Idle, Up There and the winner, Wizard’s Way, a brilliantly twisted faux documentary about two friends who lead glorious lives online in a global role-playing game but struggle to adapt to “real” life when the game is closed down. The film was made by Metal Man, a collective of three successful authors, Socrates Adams-Florou, Chris Killen and Joe Stretch, who also star:
We had a fantastic range of entries this year, but Wizard’s Way stood out as a film with a truly original comic spirit, made with much love and no compromise. Chris, Joe and Socrates are a very talented collective, and we’re delighted to bring their work to a wider audience.
Metal Man said: ”We’re thrilled and honoured to win this year’s LOCO Discovery Award. Wizard’s Way was made with extremely limited resources. We bought a £300 camcorder on Gumtree and made our own boom pole from an Argos lamp. As a consequence, we knew we had to focus much harder on character, story and performance. We hope Wizard’s Way demonstrates that if you have a good idea, some likeable characters and a lot of spare time at the weekends, you can make a feature film without any external support or funding.”
