Honours for Scottish films about prisons and school racism

A Scottish short film about a prisoner who finds joy by foraging for weeds and caring for birds has won a top award.

Friends on the Outside, by Annabel Moodie, won the Scottish Short Film Awards at the 17th Glasgow Short Film Festival on Sunday.

Meanwhile Blackwool - about a teenager from London on her first day at high school in rural Scotland - received a special mention.

Euba Akilade's short film follows the girl as she is targeted by the class bully for her Afro hair.

Friends on the Outside and Blackwool were among 20 new films which were considered by a jury for the Scottish Short Film Award.

Saleh Kashefi's And How Miserable is the Home of Evil, which explores the near future of Iran scooped the Bill Douglas Award for International Short Film.

It was one of 28 documentary, animation, fiction and experimental shorts from around the world including Haiti, Sudan and Kosovo in the running for the award.

The International Audience Award, chosen by festivalgoers, was won by Nina Gantz for Wander to Wonder.

The stop-motion short follows Mary, Billybud, and Fumbleton who are stars in an 1980s kids’ TV series. After the creator of the show dies, they are left alone in the studio and struggling to find enough to eat, they continue to make increasingly strange episodes for their fans.

Meanwhile the Scottish Audience Award was won by Jagoda Tłok for Care. The Young Scottish Filmmaker Prize went to Mouth by Guy Woods and The House of Culture by Becky Miková.

The festival ran from 20 - 24 March at the Glasgow Film Theatre, Centre for Contemporary Arts and Civic House.

Matt Lloyd, festival director, said: “This has been a very special edition of the festival for many reasons, and I will treasure the conversations that took place for a long time.”