A FILM about a small farm, shot in and around Keighley, has won a top award at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Film-maker Francis Lee's directorial debut God's Own Country, which had its UK premiere at the festival, is the winner of the prestigious Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film, which honours imagination and creativity in British film-making.

The film is described as a story of love and longing in Yorkshire.

Mr Lee told the Telegraph & Argus: “I’m inspired by the landscape here. The film is about rural Yorkshire life, which I haven’t seen depicted on screen before in a modern context. It’s incredible to think people are still making a living out of these small farms.

"My father and others members of the farming community have been brilliantly supportive."

The Michael Powell Award jury - composer David Arnold, International Film Festival Rotterdam artistic director, Bero Beyer and BAFTA-nominated film and television writer Andrea Gibb - were impressed with the film's "singularity of storytelling and consistency of vision".

They added: "Assured direction with raw and endearing performances result in a film that has an authenticity that is both tender and brutal, a juxtaposition of landscape and emotion, which explores the question of what it means to be a man.”

Mr Lee, whose film was supported by the BFI and Creative England using National Lottery funds, said: "I am thrilled with this honour for God's Own Country, especially when you consider the British films that have won before. After premiering at Sundance and Berlin it has been wonderful to see how the film has created a real resonance with people and that is why the Michael Powell Award feels so brilliant.”

Mr Lee worked as an actor in theatre, television and films before he began making films.

More than 150 films from 46 countries were screened at this year’s EIFF festival. The award winners were announced today ahead of Sunday’s closing night Gala, which concludes the 12-day festival with the world premiere of Mark Gill’s highly anticipated England Is Mine.

The winner of the Festival’s Audience Award will be announced at Sunday's gala.