Jack King wins £50k prize with his film The Ceremony

Jack King, who started making films with friends as a teenager, won the Sean Connery Prize for Feature Filmmaking Excellence for his first feature film, The Ceremony.

He beat off competition from nine other hopefuls to clinch the £50k prize.

“I am completely blown away – I am genuinely in shock,” Jack told the T&A from his Edinburgh hotel room.

Jack with Sean Connery's son Jason, at the Edinburgh International Film Festival. Picture: EIFF (Image: Edinburgh International Film Festival)

“We are a small independent film company so I just am completely overwhelmed.

"The competition was insane and I was absolutely convinced we had no chance, so I was completely knocked for six when the festival called out my name. I couldn't speak!”

The Ceremony, shot in black and white and filmed in Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales, is a road drama telling the story of a young asylum seeker’s death, and the struggle of the two migrants forced to bury him in the Dales.

“I hope that the themes in the film have connected with the audience," said Jack.

"I think there's a lot of need at the moment for stories about strangers finding connection beyond borders, beyond cultural or faith or language barriers - it's sadly relevant and timely and perhaps it resonated with the audience right now. 

“But I also think that despite its international cast I couldn't escape making a distinctly Northern film, and I feel like the audience in Edinburgh has been very receptive and warm to that.”

Jack said that his background, as a mixed-race youngster growing up in Manningham and Frizinghall, may have influenced his film-making, which often explores issues around race, culture, and class – as well as the rugged Yorkshire landscape.

Jack with the award. Picture: Pako Mera (Image: PAKO MERA)

“It’s not conscious, but if I think about it, all my work has a preoccupation with race, class, different cultures and outsider or fish-out-of-water stories, often about marginalised or misunderstood people," he said.

“I'm so interested in race and class and cross-culture stories and it seems like that could be a Bradfordian point of view for many. The geography too - I'm obsessed with hills and rugged wild landscapes - also must be the Bradford in me!”

Jack explained that if it hadn’t been for the hospitality of a local hotelier, the film may have never seen the light of day.

“The film was shot predominantly in Kettlewell. It was the most rugged and impressive part of the Dales we could access within an hour of where I live, in Shipley. 

“I'd originally wanted to shoot in the most northerly and hilly parts like Gunnerside, but the extra hour to travel there meant that planning the shoot became completely unaffordable and impractical on our budget. 

“In the end it couldn't have worked out more perfectly, because we met Kevin at the Racehorses Hotel and he put the entire cast and crew up in his beautiful pub. He really looked after and fed the whole crew for the duration of the shoot. We wouldn't have been able to make the film or stay sane if it hadn't been for his hospitality.”

Jack says his films are inspired mostly by people, and that he’s “obsessed” with rugged landscapes.

“I'm drawn to outsiders and people I don't fully understand or feel aligned with. I'm interested in why good people do bad things and moral dilemmas. I like to try and figure complex people out and find a way to connect with them.”

The £50k prize money will help fund Jack’s current and future projects.

“I've written for 20 years but never been paid to write, or to do more extensive and deeper research, into the topics and people I write about. 

“It took years and a lot of money for me to gain enough authentic understanding of the people I was writing about to feel comfortable to make The Ceremony. 

“It’s interviews, it’s translators, it’s residencies and work trips abroad, it's going to markets and getting feedback from script editors and industry folks and having discussions with so many people. 

“This pays for me and my producer Hollie to do it again on a much bigger scale, giving us the space, time and funds to research all the other features we're developing for the next two-three years and be able to package them up and push them. 

“They're all tricky international stories about outsiders and people whose lived experience is far different than my own, and so this money is going to enable me to write constantly and extensively research, and the freedom to authentically connect myself to what I'm writing about, on a much deeper level."

“It’s going to help us get proper financing for the next one. And we'd also like to start paying our incredible investors back.”