The 16th Moët British Independent Film Awards are here! It‘s been 15 years already that it has been celebrating the highly characteristic, unique and independent cinema. The industry has changed a lot, but the British Independent Film remained the main focus of the ceremony.
Here’s a list of the nominees for this year’s Best British Independent Film:
Metro Manila
Director: Sean Ellis (“Cashback”, “The Brøken”)
Synopsis: A young family from the province moves to the big city in search of a better life. Soon they get tangled in the mean and manipulative schemes of the cold-hearted locals.
Metro Manila won the Audience award for best World Dramatic Competition film at Sundance 2013 and it is the official submission of the UK to the Academy Awards 2014 Best Foreign Language Film category.
Philomena
Director: Stephen Frears (“Tamara Drewe”, “The Queen”)
Synopsis: A story of an Irish woman trying to find her son years after she was forced to abandon him in order to live in a covenant.
Philomena was screened in the main competition section at the 70th Venice International Film Festivalwhere Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope won the award for Best Screenplay and it was awarded the People’s Choice Award Runner-Up prize at the 2013 Toronto International Film Festival.
The Selfish Giant
Director: Clio Barnard (“The Arbor”)
Synopsis: Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s story, the film centres around two mischievous teenagers who were excluded by the society and started working for a dodgy scrap dealer – Kitten.
The Selfish Giant won the Europa Cinemas award at the 2013 Cannes Film Festivaland was also nominated for the 2013 Lux Prize.
Starred Up
Director: David Mackenzie (“Young Adam”, “Spread”)
Synopsis: Disturbed and vicious teenager get transferred to an adult prison only to get confronted with his own father.
Starred Up was nominated for the Best Film at the 57th BFI London Film Festival.
Le Week-end
Director: Roger Michell (“Venus”, “Notting Hill”)
Synopsis: A British couple returning to Paris for a second honeymoon to refresh their long years of marriage.
Le Week-end was screened at the San Sebastián International Film Festival 2013 where Jim Broadbent won a Silver Seashell as Best Actor.
The Moet British Independent film Award winners will be announced on Sunday December 8th at Old Billingsgate in London in an event hosted by the actor and BIFA patron James Nesbitt. The event will be live cast by Film3Sixty.
Brett Welcher was a student at Syracuse University (Syracuse, NY, USA) where studied Public Relations at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications. He is interned at the Raindance Film Festival the summer or 2007 and thoroughly enjoyed his time working with professionals and learning about different aspects of the film industry. In the fall of 2007 Brett returned to the States where he will be finishing his last year in school.
Since then we have lost touch and found this excellent article in the archives. Brett – if you see this, get in touch! We miss you!
