Award Winners 2021
We are delighted to announce the recipients of this year’s Aesthetica Film Festival Awards, spotlighting powerful new docu-dramas, cinematic thrillers and eye-opening stories across multiple genres.
Best of Festival Award & Best Documentary
Hanging On
Alfie Barker
A docu-drama spotlighting the strength of community in a neighbourhood that unite when they are forced to the edge of extinction. This is what it means to be hanging on.
Hijack Visionary Filmmaker Award & Best Editing Award
One Thousand and One Attempts to be an Ocean
Wang Yuyan
If you don’t want to drown, be an ocean. One Thousand… reflects on the experience of being unable to see the world with the depth perception.
The North Face x Gucci presented by Highsnobiety
Fiona Jane Burgess
A new generation of birdwatching enthusiasts are breaking the stereotypes of what outdoor recreation looks like and who it is for.
Best Animation
The Chimney Swift
Frédéric Schuld
19th century Europe. A child climbs up a chimney whilst a bird sails down into it to build a nest. An encounter with no way back. A British chimney sweeper describes his everyday routines.
Best Artists’ Film
Centarium
Aleksander Johan Andreassen
Staged and filmed in shopping centres during mostly normal opening hours, a chain of events is sparked by a mannequin coming to life. The film follows two characters’ movements.
Best Comedy
Taj Mahal Presents… A Short Film
David Dearlove
A short film for people who don’t like short films. A hilarious swipe at a genre that often seems longer than it is short. Starring Bafta-nominated actor and director Phil Davis.

Best Dance
Blast
Joshua Ben-Tovim & Roseanna Anderson
BLAST takes its cue from the growth of radical ideologies and modern art in London, 1914. From hereon, we consider the ways in which we “progress” as a species.

Best Drama
See You Garbage!
Romain Dumont
For Christmas, three garbage collectors, Élie, Nino and Belz, are surprised to be received for dinner at the house of the Prime Minister and the First Lady. A dramatic comedy.

Best Experimental
The Bang Straws
Michelle Williams Gamaker
The Bang Straws considers the violent mechanisms of 20th century Studio Films and takes Anna May Wong as its starting point to revisit the casting discrimination that she experienced.
Best Fashion Film
Rejoice Resist
Elisha Smith-Leverock
Rejoice Resist is a film that celebrates and shows Black pleasure as the ultimate form of resistance. It highlights the importance of allowing yourself to feel joy in the face of adversity.
Best Music Video
Tesfay
Leah Vlemmiks
Tesfay uses dance, narrative and documentary to tell the story of Witch Prophet’s late grandfather, Tesfay, who raised five daughters as a single father.
Best Thriller, Best Cinematography Award & Best Director Award
Such Small Hands
Maria Martinez Bayona
At a girls’ orphanage, an unchecked pack mentality alienates a new arrival. To swing the power balance, she invents a manipulative game.
Best 360 Film
Meet Mortaza
Joséphine Derobe
At the age of 24, Mortaza had to flee Afghanistan because he was sentenced to death by the religious authorities. Forced into exile, Mortaza will reach Europe to join France to ask for asylum.

Best Documentary Feature
Bank Job
Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell
An unlikely team, seemingly insurmountable odds, even explosions… taking steps towards a future in which money works for us all. This mischievous feature follows a community making a currency.

Best Narrative Feature & Best Screenplay Award
The Cleaner
Ta Pu Chen
Yan-Ting is a death-scene cleaner. Yan-Ting, ex-convict Ah-Chun, and En-Ya, who was born with a silver spoon, team up to not only scrub the places but also clear uneasiness and grudges.