Stars of the silver screen descended on Shoreditch’s Electric Light Station on 10 October for a gala dinner to mark the eve of the BFI London Film Festival. Event organiser IWC, sponsor of the BFI and the Official Time Partner of the BFI London Film Festival since 2014, used the event to present director Richard Billingham with its annual Filmmaker Bursary Award.

Rosamund Pike

The £50,000 prize is intended to provide financial support to a writer, director and/or writer/director at the start of their career. Billingham won this year’s award for Ray & Liz, a black comedy set in Birmingham that’s based on Billingham’s own upbringing. “Making Ray & Liz involved juggling so many things over six years,” he said. “No matter how driven you are, you still need time and space to develop ideas. This Bursary will clear my mind of financial pressures and time constraints.”

Director Edgar Wright, chief Executive of BFI Amanda Nevill, winner of the IWC Schaffhausen Filmmaker Bursary Award Richard Billingham, & IWC CEO Christoph Grainger-Herr

Academy Award and BAFTA nominated actress, and friend of IWC, Rosamund Pike said: “The British film industry thrives on new, exciting, independent voices with stories to tell. But as we know it’s one thing to have a story to tell, another to find the means of expressing it. This partnership between IWC and the BFI, and the bursary from IWC ­allows us to shine a bright light on a few young film makers at the beginning of their careers, to celebrate their visions and to give them the signal ‘we hear you, we see you, your stories matter, please keep on going.’ I am delighted to be part of it.”

Oliver Cheshire

Natalie Dormer

Ronan Keating, Storm Keating, Eliza Cummings and Greg Williams