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Story: Jack Foley
KEVIN Bacon became the toast of the 2004 London Film Festival
when his film, The Woodsman, received top honours at the conclusion
of this year's two-week event.
The controversial film, which finds the former Footloose star
as a convicted paedophile trying to come to terms with his actions,
won the Satyajit Ray Award, named after the Indian director.
The film was directed by Nicole Kassell and has already played
to great acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year.
It co-stars Bacon's wife, Kyra Sedgewick, who joined her husband
at the official LFF screening of the movie.
In the film, Bacon is depicted as he attempts to rebuild his
life after 12 years in jail for molesting a child.
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Judges praised The Woodsman for tackling
the difficult and contentious issue with 'great insight and sensitivity'.
Of the other award-winners from the two-week showpiece event,
Cannes favourite, Tarnation,
picked up the Sutherland Trophy, for its creator, Jonathan Caouette.
While British writer-director, Amma Asante, received the UK Film
Talent Award for her debut, A Way Of Life.
The film is set in South Wales and is about a teenage single
mother who becomes involved in a tense stand-off with a Turkish
neighbour.
The Fipresci International Critics' Award went to Aaltra, a Belgian
film about the handicapped.
The festival - which proved to be the most popular ever - was
brought to a close with a screening of the existential comedy,
I Heart Huckabees,
starring Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law and Dustin Hoffman, and directed
by Three Kings film-maker, David O Russell (who was also in attendance).
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