It might last for only two weeks, but for those of us in the thick of The Times BFI London Film Festival, it feels longer than many wars. But battle-scarred and sleep-deprived as most of the festival faithful undoubtedly are by now, the consensus is that, bar a few days of ticketing chaos and teething problems at the new venue (the Vue cinema in Leicester Square), this year’s festival was a resounding success.

The festival director Sandra Hebron and her team pulled in a good balance of big starry titles and lower-profile works — but it was in the latter that the real discoveries were to be found, as the festival’s awards attested. The new prize of Best Film rightly went to Jacques Audiard’s exemplary prison drama A Prophet (starring Tahar Rahim). The Sutherland Prize for Best First Feature was awarded to the excellent Israeli film Ajami, a tough multistranded drama set in a rough Jaffa neighbourhood. But a special cheer goes to Jack Thorne, the screenwriter of The Scouting Book for Boys, who won Best British Newcomer. A well-deserved boost for a great little film.

Worst press conference question
Poor George Clooney. His mere presence is enough to trigger a complete dignity bypass in most people. He must think that the entire planet is populated by imbeciles. Although all the assembled members of the press managed to keep their clothes on (unlike at the recent Venice Film Festival), there were plenty of groaningly embarrassing moments. The worst was the television showbiz reporter who blurted during the press conference for The Men Who Stare at Goats: “George, this is a film about psychic powers, so I ask you: do you see a future for you and me together?” Tumbleweed drifted across the room.

Best creatively themed party
To celebrate the premiere of the Romanian film Tales from the Golden Age, a 1980s-themed party was held in the Romanian Cultural Centre in Manchester Square. To recapture that authentic austerity of Communism under the Ceausescu regime, the party organisers staged a power cut and arranged for a “bread queue”. Revellers were treated to party snacks that mostly amounted to variously shaped bits of processed meat. And a special Party newspaper was printed up for London comrades. The proletariat toasted the revolution with locally produced alcoholic beverages.

Best news for boarding-school gardeners everywhere
The delightful Carey Mulligan might be a Hollywood player in the making but the star of An Education remains refreshingly unaffected. She announced to the assembled press that she used to have a huge crush on the man who mowed the lawns at her boarding school but was too shy to speak to him.

Best discovery
This year’s programme has been packed with exceptionally strong films — audiences loved Audiard’s A Prophet and shed a tear over the dazzling Australian feature debut Samson and Delilah. But the film that has the festival abuzz is the extraordinary Venice prizewinner, Lebanon. This powerful Israeli film about the first Lebanon war is set almost entirely inside a tank. Ang Lee, who is in town to promote Taking Woodstock, has been telling everybody who’ll listen that Lebanon is the best film of the year.

Worst injury sustained in the name of festival fashion
This prize goes to the press officer of a film distribution company who fell off her incredibly high heels on only the second day of the film festival and spent the rest of the fortnight sporting a shiny black eye — and flat shoes.

Best new festival event
A new initiative at this year’s festival was the introduction of an Archive Gala in which a newly restored version of a long-lost classic is presented to the public. And programmers could hardly have picked a better film with which to launch the new gala strand than Anthony Asquith’s Underground. The restoration of this 1928 silent film, set in and around the London Underground, presented a huge challenge to the dedicated team who pieced it together from the degraded fragments that remained. But their hard work resulted in one of the high points of the festival. With an energetic live, semi-improvised accompaniment by the pianist Neil Brand and his Prima Vista Social Club, the film reveals the Underground as a hotbed of sexual tension, intrigue and chance romantic encounters. It also gives a fascinating glimpse of industrial London’s lost skyline. A climatic chase across the roof of the Lots Road power station in Chelsea reveals a forest of chimneys shrouded in coal smoke. It’s a cause for celebration that this cinematic gem and piece of London history has been preserved for future generations.

Worst dancing
It all went a bit wedding disco towards the end of the party for the Times Gala film, The Men Who Stare at Goats. George Clooney had long since left the building so partygoers let their hair down with some ill-advised grooves in the early hours. It wasn’t pretty.

Best excuse for hitting your brother with a hammer
“A cat did it. It just went out of the window” — from the weird, unsettling and creepily brilliant Greek film Dogtooth. Word of mouth from Cannes suggested that this picture was one to watch during the festival and it didn’t disappoint. A mother and father have managed to keep their three children completely isolated from the outside world. The kids, now young adults, invent competitive games and learn erroneous facts from audio tapes recorded by their parents. But even in this cloistered environment, sudden shocking bursts of violence jolt the audience. This film announces the director Giorgos Lanthimos as a distinctive and provocative talent (although probably no great lover of cats).

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