This year's BBC Big Screen Online Film Festival awards ceremony and screening was held at Harbour Lights Picture House in Southampton on Saturday 26 January. Over 100 producers, directors, cast and crew joined friends and family of entrants for the event hosted by BBC South Today's Georgie Palmer.

The festival is a showcase of the best in student, amateur and up-and-coming independent film producers in the Solent region. It runs on the BBC's Hampshire and Dorset Where I Live websites and is held in partnership with the local filmmaking organisation City Eye and Harbour Lights Picturehouse .

Entrants must be from, based in or study in Hampshire, Dorset or the Isle of Wight , or their film must be connected to the area. Films are streamed in broadband on the BBC Hampshire and Dorset websites. A shortlist was chosen by Big Screen organisers and BBC film critic Mark Kermode picked his favourite in each category - Drama, Animation, Comedy and Arts/Factual/Documentary. In addition a new award was created this year by City Eye and given to a filmmaker in whom they see potential and future promise.
Georgie announced Mark 's favourites in each category before the winning films were screened in full.

Winners
Elinor Geller won the Best Animation for her moving and evocative Spirit Child which she produced as a graduation film while studying at Southampton Solent University .Mark Kermode's comments: "Enchanting, evocative animation melts with a poetic voice-over and an accomplished score. The film deals with the difficult subject of death in a manner which is universal and uplifting. Tim Burton would love this!"

Andy Phelps from Southampton scooped the award for best comedy for his zombie spoof Just Another Day of the Dead shot on location on Dorset's Jurassic Coast . Mark Kermode's comments: "Proof that the simplest - and shortest - gags can often be the funniest. A straightforward dead-pan joke, wittily executed (with resourceful make-up and location), and swiftly despatched. It made me laugh!"

In the Drama category, it was a second win for Bournemouth Arts Institute's Rob Brown. Rob's award for the mysterious short Open Skies now shares his mantelpiece with his award for Family Portrait which he won in 2006. Rob had just flown in from Poland where he was shooting scenes for his next production.
Mark Kermode's comments: "Handsomely composed and hauntingly simple. A n e ffective use of light and colour to distinguish between time periods and mood tones add to the resonant visual atmosphere. Lara Belmont's expressive face benefits the overall picture greatly."

In the final category, Arts/Factual/Documentary. Andrew Bradley from Portsmouth won the award for his journey of self-discovery into his family history - Who is Me? Mark Kermode's comments: "An intimate, engaging self-examination which owes a debt to Jonathan Caouette's Tarnation, this benefits from a self-mockingly deconstructive approach ("I don't have a style") and draws on a treasure-chest of cinefilm and stills photos shot by the film-maker's shutterbug parents. The results are funny, insightful, and entertaining."

City Eye Special Award
This year a special award was presented by festival Partners City Eye. The Southampton filmmaking resource supports local filmmakers and awarded a special prize of equipment use and support for a filmmaker in whom they see potential and future promise.

Kevin Turrell was handed the City Eye Special Award for comic-strip spoof, Comicman.

Details of the festival and all the films entered can be viewed on the BBC Hampshire website, www.bbc.co.uk/hampshire/entertainment/big_screen

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