Film4 earns 52 British Independent Film Awards nominations including three of the four most nominated films

9 December 2020

Nominations for Saint Maud, Rocks, Calm With Horses and The Father include near shutouts in film and director categories

Film4 titles earned 52 nominations for the 2020 British Independent Film Awards announced this morning, including leader of the pack Saint Maud with 17 nominations. Rocks (15) and Calm With Horses (10) were also among the top four most highly nominated films, with The Father (6) and Limbo (4) also picking up multiple nominations

Saint Maud, Rocks, Calm With Horses and The Father are four of the five films competing for the top prize of Best British Independent Film, with the directors of those films also making up four of the five competing for Best Director – Rose Glass (Saint Maud), Sarah Gavron (Rocks), Nick Rowland (Calm With Horses) and Florian Zeller (The Father).

Over 50% of Film4’s nominees (39 out of 71) are women.

Director of Film4 Daniel Battsek commented: “It’s exciting to see debut films and filmmakers nominated in so many of the major categories. Thank you to the BIFA jurors on behalf of all at Film4 for recognising such a diverse and youthful range of artists behind and in front of the camera, and congratulations to all our nominees.”

Saint Maud led this year’s nominations with 17. On top of nominations for Film and Director, Rose Glass scored nominations for Best Screenplay sponsored by BBC Film, The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director) sponsored by Kodak & Pinewood, and Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4. Morfydd Clark competes for Best Actress, Jennifer Ehle for Best Supporting Actress. Oliver Kassman is nominated for Breakthrough Producer. The film’s other nominees were Kharmel Cochrane (Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society of America), Ben Fordesman (Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks), Tina Kalivas (Costume Design), Mark Towns (Best Editing sponsored by Intermission Film), Scott Macintyre, Baris Kareli and Kristyan Mallett (Best Effects), Jacquetta Levon (Make Up & Hair Design), Adam Janota Bzowski (Best Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group), Paulina Rzeszowska (Best Production Design sponsored by Studio Juice) and Paul Davies (Best Sound supported by Halo Post)

Rocks’ 15 nominations made it the third most nominated film. Alongside its nominations in Film and Director categories, young stars Bukky Bakray and Kosar Ali compete for Actress and Supporting Actress respectively while also lining up against each other for Most Promising Newcomer. D’Angelou Osei Kissiedu is nominated for Supporting Actor. Theresa Ikoko and Claire Wilson compete for both Screenplay and Debut Screenwriter. And in the craft categories there were nominations for Lucy Pardee (Casting), Hélène Louvart (Cinematography), Ruka Johnson (Costume Design), Editing (Maya Maffioli), Nora Robertson (Make Up & Hair Design), and Connie Farr and Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch (Music).

Fourth placed film Calm With Horses secured Director and Debut Director nominations for Nick Rowland on top of its nomination for Best Film. Cosmo Jarvis is nominated for Best Actor, Barry Keoghan as Supporting Actor and Niamh Algar as both Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer. Joe Murtagh is nominated for Debut Screenwriter, Daniel Emmerson as Breakthrough Producer and Shaheen Baig for Casting.

Rounding out Film4’s Best Film nominees is The Father, with Florian Zeller nominated both for Director and alongside Christopher Hampton for Screenplay. Anthony Hopkins is nominated for Best Actor. Yorgos Lamprinos is nominated for Editing and Peter Francis for Production Design.

Film4’s final nominated film Limbo sees Amir El-Masry nominated for Best Actor, Irune Gurtubai for Breakthrough Producer, Dan Jackson for Casting and Nick Cooke for Cinematography.

For further information please contact:

Phil Cairns

Press & Publicity Manager, Film4

pcairns@channel4.co.uk

 

Notes to editors:

 

About Film4

 

Film4 is Channel 4’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, both new and established.

 

Film4 has developed and co-financed many of the most successful UK films of recent years, Academy Award®-winners such as Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite, Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Lenny Abrahamson’s Room, Alex Garland’s Ex Machina, Asif Kapadia’s box office record breaking documentary Amy, Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire and Phyllida Lloyd’s The Iron Lady, in addition to critically-acclaimed award-winners such as Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, Andrea Arnold’s American Honey, Rungano Nyoni’s I Am Not a Witch, Chris Morris’s Four Lions, Shane Meadows’ This is England, Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin and Andrew Haigh’s 45 Years.

Film4’s recent releases include Rose Glass’s Saint Maud, Sarah Gavron’s Rocks, Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield, Coky Giedroyc’s adaptation of Caitlin Moran’s How To Build a Girl, Nick Rowland’s Calm With Horses, Michael Winterbottom’s Greed, Justin Kurzel’s True History of the Kelly Gang and Asif Kapadia’s Diego Maradona. Forthcoming releases include Jonathan Butterell’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, Edgar Wright’s Last Night in Soho, Florian Zeller’s The Father, Euros Lyn’s Dream Horse, Ben Sharrock’s Limbo and Cathy Brady’s Wildfire. Films in production include Eva Husson’s Mothering Sunday, Michael Pearce’s Invasion, Prano Bailey-Bond’s Censor, Will Sharpe’s Louis Wain, Rebecca Hall’s Passing, and Chasing Chaplin from Peter Middleton and James Spinney.

For further information please visit www.film4productions.com.