LFF - George Clooney attends the closing night gala

'Good Night, and Good Luck' screens with the writer/actor/director lending glamour to the event.

Nov  4 2005

The London Film Festival ended on a high last night with a screening of George Clooney's brilliant new feature 'Good Night, and Good Luck'.

A powerful account of journalist Edward R Murrow's confrontations with Senator Joe McCarthy during the communist witch-hunts of the 1950s, the film was was widely praised by those in attendance.

Lending some glamour to the event, Clooney was on hand to present his film, and said that a London screening was fitting as Murrow first came to prominence reporting from the nation's capital during the Blitz.

And speaking of the film's political controversy regarding freedom of speech, Clooney said: 'It is a good time to talk about these issues, not to preach, but to raise the debate.'

The evening also gave the festival's artistic director Sandra Hebron an opportunity to hand out a few awards to new and emerging talent.

Full-length features 'For The Living and the Dead', 'Man Push Cart', 'Workingman's Death' and 'Pavee Lackeen' were all honoured, while 'Jane Lloyd' was named best short.

And once all the back-slapping was over, the audience made their way to the closing night party at Floridita to drink too much, ogle Clooney, dance badly and discuss what has been an utterly fantastic fortnight of film.

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