This year sees the return of some giants in the directing field, and some new talent have also bought fresh films to the table. The nominees for best director is:
Jon S Baird- Filth
Born and raised in Aberdeenshire, Baird moved to London to immerse himself in all factions of the film industry. He began his career as a runner and quickly rose through the ranks to earn his name as one of the brightest young directorial talents of the nineties. In 2001, Baird started directing for the BBCs comedy department for a time until he directed and produced his first short film It’s a Casual Life in 2004. From then the credits grew to include Green Street (2005) and Cass (2008).
Clio Barnard- The Selfish Giant
Clio won critical acclaim for her debut The Arbour and has now been hailed as a significant voice in British film for The Selfish Giant. Barnard was educated has a first class BA (Hons) in with distinction in fine art and received a post-graduate diploma in electronic imaging and before launching her film career,she worked in the visual arts; she has shown her work at MoMA and the Tate. In an interview with Tank magazine, Barnard talks of making film for the first time: “I studied fine arts and have a visual arts background but I used film from pretty early on. To begin with, I was using a handheld camera to record my charcoal drawings and that’s how I got into making films.” (Maria Dimitrova)
Sean Ellis- Metro Manila
Starting life with an interest in photography, Ellis developed a dark, cinematic style of fashion photography through working with magazines such as iD, Vogue, Visionaire and Dazed and Confused. He made the crossover into film by directing a number of adverts for Land Rover, Rimmel, Jean Paul Gautier, O2 (to name but a few) and a string of acclaimed music videos as well. Sean has written and directed three short films, Left Turn (2001), Cashback (2004) and D’affaires (2008) which was nominated for a BAFTA.
Jonathan Glazer- Under the Skin
Glazer, trained in Theatre Design at Nottingham Trent university, made his fame with some of the most memorable adverts out there, including the ground-breaking Guinness ‘Surfer’ advert which picked up 2 D&AD Black Pencils. He has also been involved with revolutionary music videos such as Radiohead’s ‘Street Spirit’ and Jamiroquai’s Multi-MTV award winning ‘Virtual Insanity’ video.
David Mackenzie- Starred Up
Raised in Scotland, Mackenzie is an alumunus of Duncan Jordanstone College of Art and Design. He made his name with Young Adam (2003), an adaptation of Alexander Trocchi’s novel of the same name. This was followed by Asylum (2005) and Hallam Foe (2007) until he reached his Hollywood debut with Spread (2009). He is also a partner of the production company Sigma Films and is setting up the production and post-production facility Film City Glasgow.
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.
Raindance promotes and supports independent filmmaking and filmmakers.
From new and emerging to industry pros, Raindance connects, trains, supports, and promotes visual storytellers through every step of their career.
The Raindance Film Festival runs each Summer in London’s Leicester Square.
Raindance has been delivering film training since 1992. A wide range of Open Classes to a 2 year HND Level 5 BTEC in Moving Images to a Postgraduate Film Degree are delivered to students on five continents, both in person and online.
