British director wins $35,000 prize to help fund next feature.

Olivia Stewart Ben Rivers Isaac Julien

Ben Rivers has been named as the second winner of the EYE Art & Film Prize at a ceremony in Amsterdam’s EYE Filmmuseum

The London-based artist and filmmaker, whose work includes A Spell to Ward Off the Darkness, received the $35,000 (£25,000) prize to fund the making of new work.

In 2018, EYE will present an exhibition of the first three prize winners’ work in Amsterdam.

The prize, created by the Dutch film museum EYE and the Paddy & Joan Leigh Fermor Arts Fund, aims to support and promote an artist or filmmaker whose work has contributed to the developments in the field between art and film in a remarkable manner.

Rivers was chosen from a shortlist presented to the jury by an international advisory board and the selection was made on the basis of the recipient’s body of work.

The British filmmaker has become known for treading a line between documentary and fiction - often following and filming people who have in some way separated themselves from society.

Sandra den Hamer, CEO of the EYE Filmmuseum and chair of the EYE Art & Film Prize, said: “Ben Rivers is one of the new strong voices of his generation, where boundaries between cinema and the other arts no longer exist.

“In his visually stunning work, he shows his engagement with today’s society. Ben Rivers has a poetic eye, which makes him an elegant and sensitive observer of life and nature.”

Ben Rivers received the EYE Art & Film Prize at the annual EYE Gala yesterday, coinciding with the EYE’s fourth anniversary.