Dragon Post wins at the FOCAL International Awards 2023

Media Cymru Consortium partner Dragon Post (Wales) are celebrating that one of their film restoration projects commissioned by the British Film Institute, The Draughtsman’s Contract (Peter Greenaway, 1982), has won Best Archive Restoration & Preservation Project or Title at the FOCAL International Awards 2023.  

The Draughtsman’s Contract is a hugely significant film both in the history of British cinema and for its principal funder, the British Film Institute (BFI). Director Peter Greenaway’s vision to use cinema as more an image-based medium marked by elaborate details, bold lighting and balanced planimetric compositions, proved an enormous success and vindicated the BFI’s faith in the potential for such films to win over a mainstream audience.  

Following just over 11 months of painstaking restoration and working in conjunction with the BFI and Peter Greenaway himself, Dragon Post delivered the finished project in time for the film’s 40th anniversary release whereupon the 4K remaster premiered in Venice Classics in September 2022 at the Venice International Film Festival and was then released in UK cinemas and on Blu-ray and BFI Player from November 2022.  

Paul Wright, Managing and Technical Director of Dragon Post said, “We are truly honoured that once again, the BFI demonstrated their faith in the quality of our restoration work, entrusting us with one of the most remarkable and iconic British films – The Draughtsman’s Contract – to remaster and to now have that work recognised by the highly esteemed FOCAL association makes us beyond proud.” 

About Dragon Post 

Dragon Post is an award-winning, industry leading restoration, post-production and digital delivery facility based within Cardiff’s Seren Stiwdios.  

Dragon Post’s Media Cymru project, Cloud-Based Post Production, will utilise the latest technology to inform new cloud-based post-production methods. To find out more and to stay updated on this project, visit their Media Cymru webpage.