American Honey triumphs at the British Independent Film Awards 2016

5 December 2016

Film4 backed American Honey took home four awards from six nominations at last night’s British Independent Film Awards, including top prize Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Andrea Arnold, Best Actress for star Sasha Lane, and Outstanding Achievement in Craft for cinematographer Robbie Ryan.

Film4’s Head of Creative Rose Garnett commented: “We are thrilled that BIFA’s jury saw fit to award American Honey with four prizes. Andrea is one of the great directors working today, and a truly independent filmmaker. American Honey is a landmark film that places British talent at the centre of the world cinema stage, and Film4 are proud to have supported the project from its inception.”

 

American Honey previously won the Jury Prize at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, and has also been nominated for six Independent Spirit Awards: Best Feature, Director, Female Lead, Supporting Female (Riley Keough), Supporting Male (Shia LaBeouf) and Cinematography (Robbie Ryan).

 

American Honey tells the story of Star (Sasha Lane), a teenage girl from a troubled home, who runs away with a travelling sales crew that drives across the American mid-west selling magazine subscriptions door to door. Finding her feet in this gang of teenagers, one of whom is Jake (Shia LaBeouf), she soon gets into the group’s lifestyle of hard partying, law-bending and young love.

A24 released the film in the US on September 30th; Universal / Focus Features released the film in the UK on October 14th.

ENDS

 

ABOUT FILM4:

Film4 is Channel 4 Television’s feature film division. Film4 develops and co-finances films and is known for working with the most distinctive and innovative talent in UK and international filmmaking, whether new or established.  

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Mike Leigh’s Mr. Turner, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Clio Barnard’s The Selfish Giant, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and David Mackenzie’s Starred Up.

Film4’s recent releases include Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Ben Wheatley’s High-Rise, Susanna White’s Our Kind of Traitor, Todd Haynes’ Carol, Sarah Gavron’s Suffragette, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Lobster and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years. Forthcoming releases include Ang Lee’s Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, Ben Wheatley’s Free Fire, Benedict Andrews’ Una, Adam Smith’s Trespass Against Us, Baltasar Kormákur’s The Oath and Danny Boyle’s T2. Films in production include Garth Davis’s Mary Magdalene, Clio Barnard’s Dark River, Andrew Haigh’s Lean on Pete, Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Killing of a Sacred Deer, Michael Pearce’s Beast, Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Paddy Considine’s Journeyman, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not A Witch, John Cameron Mitchell’s How To Talk To Girls At Parties and Toby MacDonald’s Old Boys.

For further information visit www.film4.com/productions