BIFA Gives an Early Boost to "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
Monday, November 5, 2012 at 12:00PM The British Independent Film Awards are what I like to think of, rightly or wrongly, as the UK version of the Gotham Awards... or maybe the Spirit Awards. British readers can correct that assumption in the comments if it's totally untenable. They've announced their nominations and on the heels of the EFA announcement this is more minor good news for Amour but I'm already off track. That's barely a blip story here since the awards focus (almost) exclusively on British Indies. Let's talk headline.
In terms of Oscar the biggest boost (i.e. more laurels for the FYC ads to tout) goes to the sleeper hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which we should've figured would come back to life at year's end given how well liked slash comfy it is. It even doubles up on the Dames for maximum BAFTA/AMPAS pleasure.
BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
Berberian Sound Studio
Broken
Sightseers
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
The Imposter
Broken, a film about a young girl who witnesses a violent attack, leads the BIFA nods with 9 nominations including 4 for acting. Marigold Hotel won 3 acting nominations. Complete list of nominations with commentary after the jump...
BEST DIRECTOR
Bart Layton – The Imposter
Ben Wheatley – Sightseers
John Madden – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Peter Strickland – Berberian Sound Studio
Rufus Norris – Broken
My Brother the Devil about British-Egyptian brothers has been winning strong reviews
THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]
Bart Layton – The Imposter
Ben Drew – Ill Manors
Rowan Athale – Wasteland
Rufus Norris – Broken
Sally El Hosaini – My Brother the Devil
BEST SCREENPLAY
Abi Morgan – The Iron Lady
Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Amy Jump – Sightseers
Mark O'Rowe – Broken
Paul Andrew Williams – Song for Marion
Peter Strickland – Berberian Sound Studio
BEST ACTRESS
Alice Lowe (Tina) – Sightseers
Andrea Riseborough (Colette McVeigh) – Shadow Dancer
Elle Fanning (Ginger) – Ginger & Rosa
Judi Dench (Evelyn Greenslade) – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
"Andrea Riseborough" hasn't really caught on yet stateside but damn she's a good actress. Elle Fanning is still a newbie to awards season but how long until she's a regular nominee? And finally, since The Iron Lady arrived so late last season it's eligible for the BIFAs this year. Gross... we still can't be done with that thing?
BEST ACTOR
Riz Ahmed (Aaron) – Ill Manors
Steve Oram (Chris) – Sightseers
Terence Stamp (Arthur) – Song for Marion
Tim Roth (Archie) – Broken
Toby Jones (Gilderoy) – Berberian Sound Studio
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Alice Englert (Rosa) – Ginger & Rosa
Eileen Davies (Carol) – Sightseers
Maggie Smith (Muriel Donnelly) – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Olivia Colman (Queen Elizabeth) – Hyde Park on Hudson
Vanessa Redgrave (Marion) – Song for Marion
Given the rather vague state of the current Best Supporting Actress race, it might be worth parsing this list for candidates who are stronger than most pundits are expecting. Most of these women are or will be eligible for Oscar consideration.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Billy Connolly (Wilf) – Quartet
Cillian Murphy (Mike Kiernan) – Broken
Domhnall Gleeson (Connor) – Shadow Dancer
Rory Kinnear (Bob Oswald) – Broken
Tom Wilkinson (Graham Dashwood) – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
Elliott Tittensor (Tits) – Spike Island
Eloise Laurence (Skunk) – Broken
James Floyd (Rashid) – My Brother the Devil
Paul Brannigan (Robbie) – The Angels' Share
Zawe Ashton (Joyce Vincent) – Dreams of a Life
BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
Berberian Sound Studio
Ill Manors
Sightseers
The Imposter
The Sweeney
BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Nic Knowland Bsc– Cinematography – Berberian Sound Studio
Joakim Sundström, Stevie Haywood AMPS IPS– Sound Design – Berberian Sound Studio
Electric Wave Bureau – Music – Broken
Robbie Ryan – Cinematography – Ginger & Rosa
Andrew Hulme – Editing – The Imposter
Berberian Sound Studio (trailer above), about a sound engineer (Toby Jones) working on a horror film sure cleaned up in the nominations as well. Have any of you seen it?
BEST DOCUMENTARY
Dreams of a Life
London: The Modern Babylon
Marley
Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir
The Imposter
BEST BRITISH SHORT
Friday
Junk
Skyborn
Swimmer
Volume
BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM
Amour
Beasts of the Southern Wild
Rust & Bone
Searching For Sugar Man
The Hunt
More early attention for Amour & Beasts... it can't hurt. Three of these films have buzzy Best Actress bids but they aren't eligible for the BIFAs since you have to be starring in a British indie for the acting awards.
THE RAINDANCE AWARD
Frank
Strings
Love Tomorrow
City Slacker
Jason Becker: Not Dead Yet
Reader Comments (11)
Have seen The Imposter, Berberian Sound Studio, Shadow Dancer and Dreams of A Life.
Favourite by far is The Imposter. The twists and turns of this incredible documentary make it seem more like a thriller than a documentary. I was a little surprised by lack of fanfare that greeted its US release.
Berberian Sound Studio is a strange, fascinating and confounding arty horror film. Starts off very promising celebrating foley artists but it seemed like it did not know how to end.
Shadow Dancer is a serviceable IRA thriller that was perhaps a little too subtle.
Zawe Ashton nomination makes me very happy!
Although the film I am most looking forward to is Sightseers. Trailer looks hilarious.
I'm intrigued by anyone named Elliott Tittensor. Takes a bit of courage to keep that name!
Starting a few years ago, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) here in New York has put on a year-end film series called The Contenders which they say is about the films that are "contenders for lasting historical signficance," but it's really mostly about showing as much Oscar bait as they could get their hands on. Last year they screened, among others, The Artist, My Week With Marilyn, The Tree of Life, The Descendants, The Help, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, A Separation, Moneyball, and Hugo—many of them days before their commercial release. (At the final screening of the series last year, the overly loquacious series runner—y'know, the guy who monopolizes the Q&A with his own insights and then gives the audience a paltry few minutes before they have to wrap up—he unctuously announces how many total Academy Award nominations the films MoMA chose for this series racked up, patting themselves on the back as if they'd programmed this independently of all the Oscar buzz. And not like, say, they scrambled to shoehorn in Beginners after it was clear Christopher Plummer was a lock for Supporting Actor last year—which is exactly what happened.)
ANYway...I notice that Best Exotic Marigold is programmed in this year's series, so I figure MoMA's film department with their ear to the ground and has heard some rumblings.
I'm quite surprised actually. I thought they would find Marigold too mainstream. God knows I adore Judi and Maggie, but Wilkinson was best in show.
BERBERIAN SOUND STUDIO! God damned, that was a crazy, amazing flick. That it got citations for its sound design is almost too obvious, but definitely worth it. If it ever gets a release in America I'd hope the sound branch would notice it over, oh I dunno, a seventh Transformers flick. It's about the making of a giallo horror flick, before... well, the rest is a bit vague. I'm not sure what happens. British travel documentaries haven't been used in quite an interesting way, that's for sure. David Lynch's favourite film of 2012?
Seconding the amazingness of Berberian Sound Studio - in a just world, it would clean up in just about all the technical categories (both sound categories, editing, production design and cinematography in particular). Some great and subtly insinuating supporting performances too, from Cosimo Fusco and Eugenia Caruso. It probably helps to love but also feel a little bit queasy about Italian horror movies of the seventies.
Riseborough was excellent in W.E. I'm glad her talent isn't overlooked
I like the choice of "Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir" in the Documentary category; it's quite good.
The Best Exotic etc etc, was the biggest piece of contrived sentimental malarkey this year. It's only independent edge was it's inherent racism.
JKD -- but is racism really edgy? I'd say it's actually the opposite of edgy. racism is so predictable and old school.
NR - You're right - replace edgy with "edgy" - meaning it's not. Which is what I meant (like texting, message boarding can be tonally elusive).