2015 BIFA NOMINATIONS - FILM4 BREAKS STUDIO RECORD

In an impressive performance for the British studio, Film4 backed all five of the Best British Independent Film nominees in today's British Independent Film Award nominations - the BIFA's top award. Greek director Yorgos Lanthimos' The Lobster leads among films with seven nominations, followed by Andrew Haigh's 45 Years and Justin Kurzel's Macbeth, both of which earned mentions for their leads in the acting categories. There, BIFA voters righted what is sure to be a slew of wrongs come awards season in December, as they rejected category fraud by recognising Tom Courtenay, Marion Cotillard and Alicia Vikander (for The Danish Girl) in lead. The 2015 BIFAs will be presented at their ceremony on the 6th of December, where Kate Winslet will receive the Variety Award for Global Achievement. All the nominations below:

Best British Independent Film
45 Years
Amy
Ex Machina
The Lobster
Macbeth

Best Director
Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Andrew Haigh (45 Years)
Asif Kapadia (Amy)
Justin Kurzel (Macbeth)
Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)

Best Actor
Tom Courtenay (45 Years)
Colin Farrell (The Lobster)
Michael Fassbender (Macbeth)
Tom Hardy (Legend)
Tom Hiddleston (High-Rise)

Best Actress
Marion Cotillard (Macbeth)
Carey Mulligan (Suffragette)
Charlotte Rampling (45 Years)
Saoirse Ronan (Brooklyn)
Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl)

Best Supporting Actor
Luke Evans (High-Rise)
Brendan Gleeson (Suffragette)
Domhnall Gleeson (Brooklyn)
Sean Harris (Macbeth)
Ben Whishaw (The Lobster)

Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham Carter (Suffragette)
Olivia Colman (The Lobster)
Anne-Marie Duff (Suffragette)
Sienna Miller (High-Rise)
Julie Walters (Brooklyn)

Best Screenplay
Efthymis Filippou and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster)
Alex Garland (Ex Machina)
Andrew Haigh (45 Years)
Nick Hornby (Brooklyn)
Amy Jump (High-Rise)

Best Achievement in Craft
Adam Arkapaw (Macbeth) - cinematography
Mark Digby (Ex Machina) - production design
Chris King (Amy) - editing
Fiona Weir (Brooklyn) - casting
Andrew Whitehurst (Ex Machina) - visual effects

Best Documentary
Amy
Dark Horse
How to Change the World
Palio
A Syrian Love Story

Best Foreign Independent Film
Carol
Force Majeure
Girlhood
Room
Son of Saul

Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director
Ben Blaine and Chris Blaine (Nina Forever)
Corin Hardy (The Hallow)
Paul Katis (Kajaki: The True Story)
John MacLean (Slow West)
Stephen Fingleton (The Survivalist)

Most Promising Newcomer
Agyness Deyn (Sunset Song)
Mia Goth (The Survivalist)
Abigail Hardingham (Nina Forever)
Milo Parker (Mr. Holmes)
Bel Powley (A Royal Night Out)

Raindance Discovery Award
Aaaaaaaah!
Burn Burn Burn
Orion: The Man Who Would Be King
The Return
Winter

Producer of the Year
Andrew de Lotbiniere and Paul Katis (Kajaki: The True Story)
Cecil Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Yorgos Lanthimos and Lee Magiday (The Lobster)
James Gay-Rees (Amy)
Tristan Goligher (45 Years)
David A. Hughes and David Moores (The Violators)

Variety Award
Kate Winslet

Best Short Film
Balcony
Crack
Edmond
Love Is Blind
Manoman

REVIEW - THE LOBSTER (YORGOS LANTHIMOS)

A window unto the weird, through which we see no wonderful world of fantasy, but a reflection of reality. Naturally, The Lobster is designed as such - to comment upon the absurdities of human interaction, or upon our engagement (or disengagement) with this notion - but its picture of peculiarity remains adequately fresh as to catch us off guard. Perhaps it's narcissism - we don't care how we see ourselves, just as long as we see ourselves. The Lobster is fresh because it is funny, possessed of a disarming wit that it sources, wisely, from its abundant absurdity. It's a surprising sense of humour, in that it shifts to best fit the material, though consistent in tone and delivery. This humour begins to dry up as the film moves beyond its initial scenario, not because it becomes tired (since it doesn't) but because it becomes scarcer; the level of invention in the overall scenario also starts to thin out, as The Lobster reaches for greater dramatic profundity in their place. By its callously inconclusive final shot, it's debatable whether or not it has reached it. One feels that the film might have been more successful had its two halves been reversed, essentially, thus to close on a comedic culmination (ofc this would make precious little sense narrative-wise, and the film is quite neatly done on the whole, so this is purely hypothetical). After all, The Lobster is finer as a comedy than as a drama, though despite its slackening of pace and purpose, it's nonetheless easy to appreciate the detail in the film's design.

TRAILER FOR YORGOS LANTHIMOS' THE LOBSTER

Funny first trailer for Cannes Jury Prize winner The Lobster, from Dogtooth director Yorgos Lanthimos. Critics quite liked the film there, which has since booked screenings at fall festivals in Toronto, New York and London, prior to its release in the UK and Ireland on the 16th of October.