The drama behind closed doors in an English cul-de-sac and a comedy thriller about a camping holiday with a dark side are among the most nominated films for next month’s British Independent Film Awards.

Raindance – the film education and exhibition body that organises the awards – says they honour films that display “great acting, storytelling and production values, each made with limited resources against impossible odds.”

There are nine nominations for Broken – theatre-director Rufus Norris’s first film, about the interwoven lives of three families on an unassuming English back-street. As well as being up for Best British Independent Film, Norris himself is nominated for Best Director and Best Debut Feature. It’s also up for Best Actor (Tim Roth), Best Supporting Actor (Rory Kinnear and Cillian Murphy), Most Promising Newcomer (Eloise Laurence), Best Screenplay and its score is nominated for the Best Technical Achievement.

Ben Wheatley’s new comedy thriller Sightseers is up for seven awards, including Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay (Alice Lowe and Steve Oram) and Best Actress and Actor nominations for its co-writers.

Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio has also been nominated in seven categories, including Toby Jones in the race for Best Actor.

Other films with multiple nominations include London Film Festival award winner My Brother The Devil, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, the documentary The Imposter and The Iron Lady, whose nominations include Meryl Streep, for her portrayal of Lady Thatcher.

The nominees in the Best Actress category range in age from 14 year old Elle Fanning, for Ginger & Rosa, to Dame Judi Dench, whose performance in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel has earned her a special night out to celebrate her 78th birthday, when the awards are handed out on 9th December.

Other more experienced nominees include Billy Connolly, for his supporting role as a retired opera singer in Dustin Hoffman’s Quartet, while his co-star in that film, Dame Maggie Smith, for Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is up against Vanessa Redgrave, for Song for Marion, in the Best Supporting Actress category.

Many of the nominees recently won similar acclaim at the London Film Festival Awards, which provided an opportunity for the public to see all the nominated films. But in BIFA’s case, the awards calendar is somewhat unclear. It’s recognising films from The Iron Lady, released in January this year, through to Hyde Park on Hudson, which doesn’t come out until February next year. The most nominated film, Broken, doesn’t even have a scheduled release date in the UK.

The full list of nominees:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM

Berberian Sound Studio; Broken; Sightseers; The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; The Imposter

BEST DIRECTOR

Bart Layton – The Imposter; Ben Wheatley – Sightseers; John Madden – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Peter Strickland – Berberian Sound Studio; Rufus Norris – Broken

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD for 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 – Sightseers; Andrea Riseborough – Shadow Dancer; Elle Fanning – Ginger & Rosa; Judi Dench – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady

BEST ACTOR

Riz Ahmed – Ill Manors; Steve Oram – Sightseers; Terence Stamp – Song For Marion; Tim Roth – Broken; Toby Jones – Berberian Sound Studio

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Alice Englert – Ginger & Rosa; Eileen Davies – Sightseers; Maggie Smith – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel; Olivia Colman – Hyde Park On Hudson; Vanessa Redgrave – Song For Marion

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Billy Connolly – Quartet; Cillian Murphy – Broken; Domhnall Gleeson – Shadow Dancer; Rory Kinnear – Broken; Tom Wilkinson – The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER

Elliott Tittensor – Spike Island; Eloise Laurence – Broken; James Floyd – My Brother The Devil; Paul Brannigan – The Angels’ Share; Zawe Ashton – Dreams Of A Life

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION

Berberian Sound Studio; Ill Manors; Sightseers; The Imposter; The Sweeney

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Nic Knowland – cinematography – Berberian Sound Studio; Joakim Sundstrom, Stevie Haywood AMPS IPS – sound design – Berberian Sound; Studio Electric Wave Bureau – music – Broken; Robbie Ryan – cinematography – Ginger & Rosa; Andrew Hulme – editing – The Imposter

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