15 MAY 2025 | BREST. FRANCE

The Farm wins awards at Brest, Novella & FOCUS Wales

Leo Villares’ short film ‘The Farm’ has been enjoying a strong festival run, with a recent string of award wins.

The film was awarded the Audience Prize (‘Prix du Public’) at the Brest European Short Film Festival. Fourteen short films competed in the International Competition - and an open vote via poll cards distributed amongst the audience saw The Farm come out on top.

This means a lot because the audiences at Brest were excellent - the Le Quartz cinema was packed with over 900 people for the award winners’ screening. There were viewers of all ages but what particularly struck us was how invested the festival attendees were - their reactions were audible, and many stayed on for a spirited discussion after the screening.

Brest is renowned as one of the top short film festivals in France, and the competition was fierce. Brest’s Prix du Public is sponsored by the Association Cote Ouest, who are offering a cash donation to support Leo’s next short film production.

FOCUS Wales festival in Wrexham was another big win for ‘The Farm’, where it was awarded Best International Comedy. FOCUS Wales’ 15th edition welcomed over 25,000 people to Wrexham - their record attendance to date. FOCUS Wales was recently awards ‘Best Festival for Emerging Talent’ by the UK Festival Awards.

Two weeks later, ‘The Farm’ was awarded Best Fiction at Novella Film Festival in London. Novella is organised by the team behind Klatch Studios in Park Royal and Free Bird Films - a great group of young filmmakers who have created a platform to help emerging filmmakers. Novella is a proudly progressive festival, with five dedicated prize winning categories for underrepresented perspectives - PoC, LGBTQIA, female, disability and environmental narratives.

The Best Fiction award was sponsored by Hollyland, who gifted a Hollyland Lark-Max Duo Wireless Lavalier Mic set - excellent kit There was also a cash prize - with the support of these prizes from Brest and Novella, Picloc is well on the way to funding Leo’s next short film - ‘How to Scare Foxes’. Watch this space!