“LOVELESS,” Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev’s tragedy that first bowed in Cannes, has won the best film award in the BFI London Film Festival’s official competition.

The announcement was made Saturday night at a special ceremony at the United Kingdom’s capital Banqueting House, three years after Zvyagintsev’s previous film, the Golden Globe-winning and Oscar-nominated “Leviathan,” won the same award in 2014.

“Loveless,” Russia’s submission for the foreign-language film Academy Award, will be distributed in the United States by Sony Pictures Classics in early 2018.

The event — hosted by James Nesbitt with guests including Andrea Arnold, Hayley Atwell, Eric Bana, Jason Isaacs, Anya Taylor Joy and Lily Cole — also saw Palestinian film “Wajib” from Annemarie Jacir commended by the main jury, headed by Arnold.

Elsewhere, John Trengove’s South African LGBT coming-of-age story “The Wound” won the Sutherland Award for first feature, with a special mention given to Carla Simon’s dreamlike Spanish drama “Summer 1993.” “Kingdom of Us” from British director Lucy Cohen took home the documentary competition award, commendations also going to “Makala” and “Before Summer Ends.”

In the short film competition, the best film award went to Patrick Bresnan’s “The Rabbit Hunt.” (SD-Agencies)