Choice: Film

The Hanging Garden, Curzon West End (0171-369 1722)

Thom Fitzgerald's debut feature has snapped up every award in sight (against stiff competition from the likes of Atom Egoyan) and no wonder. Not only is this a beautifully wrought chronicle of adolescence and hindsight as 25-year-old William returns home after a decade for his sister's wedding, it's also a visual feast. Whether saturating the screen with lustrous images of nature or finding humour in religious icons, Fitzgerald's powerfully sensual picture is both densely structured and full of light. In other hands, this tale of a painful past and an uncertain present could teeter over into melodrama, but Fitzgerald's sure sense of humour lifts everything onto a different plane. Shot in just 25 days, the film is unexpectedly buoyant and charming with Kerry Fox (above) blasting her way through scenes adding salt to the recipe. Showing for tonight only as the gala opening of the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival.