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NEWS
Babel to Abstraction Wins Best Documentary at CYIFF​​​​
Babel to Abstraction has been awarded Best Documentary at the Ceylon International Film Festival (CYIFF) 2025, held in Santa Barbara, California.
CYIFF is the first Sri Lankan international film festival in the United States, dedicated to advancing cross-cultural understanding and fostering dialogue between Sri Lankan and international cinema.
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We are honoured by this recognition and deeply grateful to the CYIFF team for their commitment to empowering independent cinema and artists, and to fostering meaningful artistic dialogue across borders.
Babel to Abstraction Wins Best Documentary Feature at L´HIFF Barcelona
Babel to Abstraction has been awarded Best Documentary Feature at the Love & Hope International Film Festival (L’HIFF) Barcelona 2025, marking its Spanish premiere.
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Co-directed by Rob Lemkin and Irina Johnstone, and produced by Three Highgate in collaboration with the George Claessen Estate, the film explores the life and art of George Claessen — from colonial Ceylon to post-war London — revealing an artist who lived between worlds yet never lost sight of beauty and transcendence through abstraction.
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We’re grateful to the L’HIFF team for celebrating artistic freedom, imagination, and the enduring resilience of creation.
Babel to Abstraction:
ISFMF Nomination
We are delighted to share that Babel to Abstraction has been nominated for Best Original Musical Score for Documentary Film at the International Sound & Film Music Festival (ISFMF). This recognition honours the extraordinary work of the film’s composer, Frank Denyer — a British avant-garde composer celebrated for his originality, inventiveness, and deeply expressive use of sound. Frank’s score for Babel to Abstraction amplifies the film’s exploration of identity, migration, and artistic freedom, and we’re thrilled that it will be heard in this setting.
ISFMF brings together Academy Award, BAFTA, and Emmy-winning artists, alongside rising talents and passionate audiences, to celebrate the art of film sound and music.
Frank Denyer and Rob Lemkin during the filming of
Babel to Abstraction
Photo by Irina Johnstone
George Claessen Documentary
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Three Highgate and George Claessen’s Estate have partnered with Emmy/Sundance award-winning documentary film director, Rob Lemkin, to produce a documentary film delving into Claessen's life and artistry.
To date, Babel to Abstraction has received the Best Documentary Feature Award at the Love & Hope International Film Festival (L’HIFF) Barcelona and has been nominated for Best Feature Documentary by Orion IFF in Australia and Berlin, Ceylon International Film Festival in California, as well as for Best Original Music Score by International Film and Music Festival in Croatia. The film has also been selected by a number of other international festivals, getting recognition across Europe, the US, India, and Australia.
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Ken Kiff
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To celebrate the life and work of one of the most distinctive British artists of the late 20th century, Three Highgate in collaboration with the Estate of Ken Kiff has published a book of art and poetry, A Hundred Suns. Alongside Kiff’s selected art works, it features poetic works by Frank O’Hara, Vladimir Mayakovsky and Kiff’s close friend Martha Kapos, and an essay by the writer and art curator, Alistair Hicks.
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