Screendaily reports the winners of the British Independent Film Awards. Last year, Control won all of the top spots:
Awards in full
Best British Independent film
Slumdog Millionaire (Danny Boyle)
Best director, sponsored by The Creative Partnership
Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire)
The Douglas Hickox Award (best debut director)
Steve McQueen (Hunger)
Best screenplay sponsored by BBC Films
Best actress Sponsored by M.A.C
Vera Farmiga – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
Best actor
Michael Fassbender – Hunger
Best supporting actress
Alexis Zegerman – Happy-Go-Lucky
Best supporting actor Sponsored by Tiscali
Eddie Marsan – Happy-Go-Lucky
Most promising newcomer
Dev Patel – Slumdog Millionaire
Best achievement in production Sponsored by Recorded Picture Company
The Escapist
Raindance Award
Zebra Crossings
Best technical achievement Sponsored by Skillset
Cinematography – Sean Bobbitt – Hunger
Best documentary Sponsored by Chapter Media
Man on Wire
Best British short Sponsored by Dailymotion
Soft
Best foreign film
Waltz with Bashir
The Richard Harris Award(for Outstanding Contribution to British Film) Sponsored by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, UK
David Thewlis
The Variety Award
Michael Sheen
Special Jury Prize Sponsored by UK Film Council
Joe Dunton
No Response for "Slumdog, Boyle Triumph at BiFAs"
I think you should add In Bruges to the Best Original Screenplay category. It may not be a front-runner right now but I’d say it has more of a shot than Burn After Reading (which I loved).
LOL, I just posted these in the other thread. Interesting that Vera Farmiga beat Sally Hawkins, yet both Zegerman and Marsan won in supporting for Happy-Go-Lucky.
I’m loving all the Slumdog wins, and In Bruges for screenplay!! Also early wins for Waltz with Bashir and Man on Wire.
interesting all the categories sponsored by one company or another. At least they’re up front about it all and recognize that handing out those awards ain’t free.
Bravo for Slumdog “Millonaire” (I will never pronounce that word without thinking of this film).
Best actress Sponsored by M.A.C
Vera Farmiga – The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
That’s a surprise. No Sally Hawkins.
Very happy for Michael Fassbender as Best Actor. Hunger needed a strong showing at the BIFAs to get any additional nominations in the coming months.
Mark my words, In Bruges is VERY MUCH a contender for a nomination as Best Original Screenplay. The writers’ branch of the Academy, which consistently nominates the most deserving screenplays will not recognize the drekky messes that Straczynski’s Changeling and Siegel’s Wrestler screenplays are.
I would say, with 95% confidence, that the nominees will come from these:
-Black, Milk (Surefire BP nominee.)
-Kaufman, Synecdoche, New York (Has been nominated every year he’s been eligible.)
-Leigh, Happy-Go-Lucky (Is a favorite here.)
-Lumet, Rachel Getting Married (The probably winner.)
-McDonagh, In Bruges (Respected playwright makes the transition to screen.)
-Stanton, WALL-E (Pixar’s almost always in.)
In Bruges should be re-released. It was a heck of a movie.
In Bruges not being on the contender tracker over Changeling, The Wrestler and Ballast is pretty strange if you ask me.
Honestly, I think we’re all underestimating what something as simple as doing that could do to help the film’s chances…
really happy with the winners
very nice surprise seeing Vera Farmiga win
Much as I admire The Visitor, if there’s only one movie allowed to survive all the way from February (a la Once) then I’d love for In Bruges to be the one. Highly underrated movie and — so far — one of only three moves this year to land on the IMDb Top 250 (the other three are The Dark Knight, WALL-E and Let the Right One In).
(unless I’ve miscounted)
All due respect if one is to survive it ain’t going to be In Bruges. We’re talking the British Independent Film Awards here, folks. Tepid reviews from the NY Times, EW, the New Yorker – no champions particularly – I agree that many on the list shouldn’t be there but I have absolutely zero buzz for In Bruges other than the people who comment here. I’ve never seen it singled out anywhere for the writing. How is it going to get a WGA nod if it isn’t even popular with the critics?
ok, I’m wrong.
I think Roger Ebert gave In Bruges a four-star review. But I think he was the only real champion of the movie. Or at least he’s the only big one I could remember.
I’m sure if it ever started getting nominated for awards, he’d be out in front about it just like he was for Juno, Monster, Monster’s Ball, and others. He’s pretty passionate about the movies he loves.
In Bruges rules.
The AD tracker has only 7 possible nods for Best Original Screenplay, which inexplicably excludes Woody Allen for Vicki Christina Barcelona. He so totally will be nominated.
As much as I liked In Bruges, it was a very, very small film with a style that was popular nearly 10 years ago. It probably won’t be short listed. If anything, RocknRolla is more the radar than In Bruges.
Unless, a naked Colin starts campaigning for it.
VERY happy about Michael F. winning Best Actor for “Hunger.” I still think he’s going to be a nominee. People haven’t really seen it yet. And if you want to talk about a naked nominee….
He’s nude or wrapped in a dirty blanket for the ENTIRE film.
As he starves himself to death right before your eyes you see every inch of him dwindling…
Well, not, EVERY inch…I didn’t say that right…
In any case, it’s a chilling, brave, unforgettable perfomance and he’ll be nominated for Best Actor in the BAFTAS, too.
I wonder if the NBR will note him and “Hunger”?….
Lest we put too much stock in the starvation angle, let us remember Christian Bale and The Machinist.
[/devil's advocate]
While a top win here is nice and certainly doesn’t hurt, something else happened this week that I think is going to have much more of an effect on one of the most likely BP contenders.
Not to sound callous, but everything is taken into account by voters and I think the recent terrorist attacks in Mumbai are going to significantly help the overall chances of Slumdog Millionaire.
Just as the passage of the backward and unconstitutional Proposition 8 in California highlights the topical nature and continued importance of Milk and will play into voter’s choices, so too I think will a film that celebrates the beauty, the squalor, and the rapid diversification and transformation of modern Mumbai be especially remembered and significant in the wake of the recent tragedy there.
Based on critical reception and it’s crowd-pleasing nature, top nominations were already a pretty sure thing, but now I think it’s safe to call them a total lock regardless of how the film fares at the box-office.
It’s great to see Hunger win for best cinematography, and over the likes of highly touted Slumdog too. I hope it continues to receive attention like this throughout awards season. The cinematography was more of a standout than Fassbender for me (though I’d love to see him recognised too).
yay for the in bruges victory. and yep sasha the amazing thing about in bruges is it made to the imdb top 250 without every having the advantage extra push from being in blog essential list or being popular with critics or unlike uh hmm wall-e or the dark knight doesn’t have the overt populist appeal and ultra big box ofiice to help prop it up…
and the in bruges reign in the top 250 has been there well at least since when the dvd hit(i don’t the date it hit the imdb top #250.but i rember when it was number #250 or some lower nunber that barely means just entering the chart)
and even scarier in bruges has climbed up the imdb chart (it’s currently #233 but i think the highest i’ve seen it is #231)
nope the bruges making the top 250(talk about against all odds) is the real indie success story of the year/ not the visitor being everywhere…..nope that’s the number two indie story of the year…
but the fact it made to this list despite zero box office (less than $ 8 million stateside) having the lamest trailer ever being written off as lame/medicore/ by the uh critcal establishmment and bloggers is damn amazing. and what other uh films this deacde or specially *now* can say this aoubt ?? this is big deal and the fact that those that wrote this film off/are ignoring it is to be expected….
it’s being propelled all by word of mouth modem and ignoring the usual supposed standard bearers of quality or buzz. we doing it without them and we refuse to let this film die.
maybe the usual people can’t win every battel/even if the have the last word.
all we’re saying is in bruges is under appreciated/and it deserved to be put on the map.and maybe the usual suspects were wrong again. but whatever…in bruges was under sung but not forgotten.not forgotten by it’s rabid fan and now we have a legit award victory too.
but hey critics can kill alot of dreams. hell, they’ve killed more than a few of mine. but this not this time !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Crash: Metacritic 69 (37 reviews) | Users 6.7 (463 reviews)
In Bruges: Metacritic 67 (34 reviews) | Users: 8.1 (81 reviews)
Ebert: “This film debut by the theater writer and director Martin McDonagh is an endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy, with a plot that cannot be foreseen but only relished. Every once in a while you find a film like this, that seems to happen as it goes along, driven by the peculiarities of the characters.”
But that’s probably not enough…
paul, also didn’t ebert name in bruges his fave film of the year pre-summer ????
It was in the Top 5:
http://www.tv.com/ebert-and-roeper/the-best-and-worst-of-the-year…so-far/episode/1205558/recap.html
We liked it too:
http://www.awardsdaily.com/?p=632
thanks for the info/links and kindness paul !!!!!
Happy to see there is more love for In Bruges than just my own fanatic lobbying
In Bruges, in my eyes, has not been backed up properly by Focus Features. They gave it a small release in the US with 232 theatres, which would be slightly understandable if they had planned to do it bigger in Europe (which could be a better platform for it). But they had promotional events for those 232 theatres in the US… and then nothing in Europe. It was a quiet release in Europe. It’s pretty clear to me that Focus Features’ heart wasn’t in it and that’s sad because they could have easily pumped it up a little.
The film made $7.8 million in the US, $24 million outside the US – that’s a total of $31.8 million profit… and Martin McDonagh was given a budget of $15. No, it’s not a James Bond budget, but it’s the same as the budget for, say American Beauty, A Mighty Heart, Top Gun, The Grudge. I’m not saying *woot-woot*-amazing, but I am making clear that they seemed to take on McDonaghs FIRST feature film with confidence, and he delivered the profit that was expected. With a very narrow and relatively quiet release.
I say they could have played it better by putting more effort into the promotion and marketing.
Invest more in spreading the trailer, use the high profile lead actors who are both respected and well-known with the public, use McDonagh’s status as the “rebel of theatre” to sell the film to a wider indie-alternative audience, make the cast and director show up at premieres in Europe – European cities never say no to a bit of glamour. And the profits would have gone higher up, as would the chances of getting nominations.
Juliana, if you don’t mind, could you please email me at simonetvc@gmail.com.
Thanks!
I emailed you
it doesn’t have Julianna in the address though so check the spam as well!
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