It’s still October but the Awards Season has begun in earnest – on this side of the Atlantic at least – with the nominations for the British Independent Film Awards.
Olivia Colman (right) and Rachel Weisz have two of The Favourite’s 13 BIFA nominations
Up for the most awards is The Favourite – with thirteen nominations in twelve categories; Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz are up against each other in the Best Supporting Actress as two women vying for the attention of Queen Anne, played by Olivia Colman, who’s already picked up one Best Actress award at the Venice Film Festival.
Weisz is also nominated against Colman for her role as a Jewish lesbian in a religious north London community, in the upcoming Disobedience, which has a total of five nominations. Gemma Arterton’s role in the self-produced The Escape also puts her in contention for Best Actress, alongside Funny Cow’s Maxine Peake.
Bart Layton’s American Animals has 11 BIFA nominations
The second most honoured film, up for awards in eleven categories, is the crime caper American Animals, which – while it doesn’t feel very British – was financed by Film 4 and has a British writer-director in Bart Layton, who’s up for four awards himself, for directing, writing, debut screenplay and producing the best film.
The other two films in contention for Best British Independent Film of 2018 are Beast, with a total of 10 nominations, and Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, which is in the running for a total of eight awards, including Joaquin Phoenix, for Best Actor, whose competition will include Steve Coogan for his portrayal of the black-and-white movie star Stan Laurel in Stan & Ollie.
Two of Britain’s biggest contemporary rock musicians are in the running for the Best Music category, with Richard Hawley having scored Funny Cow and Radiohead’s Jonny Greenwood having composed the music for You Were Never Really Here.
The awards – which for the first time will also include a full array of technical categories – will be handed out at Old Billingsgate, in the City of London, on 2nd December, with the winners selected from the following full list:
