Wordless film wins shorts prize

Happy's four-minute film was selected from a shortlist of six

Jane Lloyd, a four-minute film with its story told without dialogue, has won the £10,000 TCM Classic Shorts prize.

Director Happy was selected by a panel that included director Gurinder Chadha and actors Kate Winslet, Alan Rickman and Dame Helen Mirren.

"It was inventive storytelling that had you hooked from the first minute," said Chadha, while Winslet said she found it "brilliantly composed and edited".

The six finalists were chosen from 459 competition entries.

Second prize went to Andrew Greener's Endgame, described as a "gritty interpretation of the troubles in Northern Ireland".

'Confidence'

Screenwriter Julian Fellowes, another of the judges, called it "beautifully constructed, well thought-out [and] genuinely surprising".

Hattie Dalton's The Banker, a comedy starring Michael Sheen and Spooks' Lisa Faulkner, took third prize at this year's awards ceremony, held at the National Film Theatre in London on Wednesday.

"I was impressed by the confidence with which this clever idea was accomplished," said director and producer Stephen Woolley.

Presented by Turner Classic Movies, TCM Classic Shorts has been running for six years.

Together with three runners-up, the three finalists will be screened on the TCM channel this weekend.