The British Independent Film Awards, founded in 1998 by British indie godfather and galactic-level self-publicist Elliot Grove, founder of the Raindance Institute, are undeniably a good thing — like the Independent Spirit Awards, they bring much-needed attention to some of the smaller movies that would be otherwise overlooked by BAFTA and other similar awards ceremonies. Well, at least in theory — last year’s awards were dominated by “Slumdog Millionaire.” This year, with the exception of Oscar hopeful “An Education,” it’s a pretty broad church, and one that speaks to the strengths of the strength of the British indie scene in the last few years.
Andrea Arnold’s “Fish Tank” leads the field with eight nominations, followed by “An Education,” “Moon,” and “In The Loop” all with six, and “Nowhere Boy” with five. It’s also good to see a banner year for female directors: Andrea Arnold, Jane Campion and Lone Scherfig are all nominated for Best Director, while the Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director also includes Sam-Taylor Wood and Samantha Morton, for the excellent “The Unloved.” Full nominations are below, with our picks for each category starred (with the proviso that we haven’t yet seen “Nowhere Boy” — maybe things will change when we catch up with it in a couple of days):
Best British Independent Film
“An Education” *
“Fish Tank”
“In The Loop”
“Moon”
“Nowhere Boy”
Best Director
Andrea Arnold, “Fish Tank” *
Armando Iannucci, “In The Loop”
Duncan Jones, “Moon”
Jane Campion, “Bright Star”
Lone Scherfig, “An Education”
The Douglas Hickox Award [Best Debut Director]
Armando Iannucci, “In The Loop”
Duncan Jones, “Moon” *
Peter Strickland, “Katalin Varga”
Sam Taylor-Wood, “Nowhere Boy”
Samantha Morton, “The Unloved”
Best Screenplay
Nick Hornby, “An Education” *
Andrea Arnold, “Fish Tank”
Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche, “In The Loop”
Nathan Parker, “Moon”
Matt Greenhalgh, “Nowhere Boy” Best Actress
Emily Blunt, “The Young Victoria”
Abbie Cornish, “Bright Star”
Katie Jarvis, “Fish Tank”
Carey Mulligan, “An Education” *
Sophie Okonedo, “Skin” Best Actor
Peter Capaldi, “In The Loop”
Tom Hardy, “Bronson” *
Aaron Johnson, “Nowhere Boy”
Sam Rockwell, “Moon”
Andy Serkis, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll” Best Supporting Actress
Anne-Marie Duff, “Nowhere Boy”
Kerry Fox, “Bright Star”
Rosamund Pike, “An Education” *
Kristin Scott Thomas, “Nowhere Boy”
Kierston Wareing, “Fish Tank” Best Supporting Actor
Jim Broadbent, “The Damned United”
Michael Fassbender, “Fish Tank”
John Henshaw, “Looking For Eric”
Tom Hollander, “In The Loop”
Alfred Molina, “An Education” *
Most Promising Newcomer
Christian McKay – “Me & Orson Welles”
Edward Hogg – “White Lightnin’”
George MacKay – “The Boys Are Back”
Hilda Péter – “Katalin Varga”
Katie Jarvis – “Fish Tank” *
Best Achievement in Production
“Bronson”
“Bunny & The Bull”
“The Hide” *
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Katalin Varga” Raindance Award
“Colin” *
“The Disappearance of Alice Creed”
“Down Terrace”
“Exam”
“They Call It Acid” Best Technical Achievement
“Bright Star” – Cinematography – Greig Fraser *
“Bunny & The Bull” – Production Design – Gary Williamson
“Fish Tank” – Cinematography – Robbie Ryan
“Moon” – Original Score – Clint Mansell
“Moon” – Production Design – Tony Noble Best Documentary
“The Age of Stupid”
“The End of The Line”
“Mugabe and The White African”
“Sons of Cuba”
“Sounds Like Teen Spirit” *
Best British Short
“Christmas with Dad”
“Leaving”
“Love You More” *
“Sidney Turtlebaum”
“Washdays” Best Foreign Film
“Il Divo”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Let The Right One In”
“Sin Nombre”
“The Wrestler” *
The Richard Harris Award [Outstanding Contribution To British Film]Daniel Day Lewis
A pretty solid list, all in. The major omission is our now-beloved “The Scouting Book For Boys,” but we can only assume that there are some eligiblity issues — expect it to figure highly in next year’s awards. The ceremony will take place on December 6th, so we’ll report back then with the results.