News Article

EM Media films receive five nominations at the British Independent Film Awards

Published: 26 October 2009

Films made in the East Midlands and co-financed by EM Media are nominated for FIVE awards at the UK’s most important celebration of independent film, the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs). The nominations enhance the East Midlands’ reputation as the UK’s most exciting filmmaking region and continue the tradition of BIFA acknowledgement for EM Media films, which have received nominations every year since 2005.

Nominated films are Nicolas Winding Refn’s biopic Bronson, actress Samantha Morton’s directorial debut, The Unloved and Mighty Boosh director Paul King’s off-the-wall road movie Bunny and the Bull. All the films were co-financed by EM Media and filmed entirely in the East Midlands.

Bronson, the acclaimed biopic of ‘Britain’s most dangerous prisoner’, is nominated for two BIFAs. The film is nominated in the Best Achievement in Production category and Tom Hardy receives a Best Actor nomination for his visceral performance in the titular role. Bronson filmed at locations in Nottinghamshire and Leicestershire for the whole of its ten week shoot in the spring of 2008. The film is currently wowing cinema audiences in America and is available on DVD in the UK.

Samantha Morton’s acclaimed debut The Unloved gives a unique insight into Britain’s care system as seen through the eyes of a child. Loosely drawn from Samantha’s own childhood experiences and shot entirely in her home city of Nottingham, The Unloved recently garnered further critical acclaim following its North American premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival. Samantha is nominated for the Douglas Hickox Award for her Directorial Debut.

Paul King’s Bunny and the Bull, which premiered to sell-out audiences at the London Film Festival last week, is nominated for Best Achievement in Production and Production Designer, Gary Williamson, is in the running for Best Technical Achievement. The entire shoot took place in the University of Nottingham studios where the production was also based. The nomination is testament to the skills of the region’s talented crew who, though working to a tight budget, managed to transform the studios into a surreal and fantastical world for the film shoot.

The BIFA nominations follow hot on the heels of the recently announced BAFTA Scotland nominations. Nottingham production company Wellington Films’ feature film Crying With Laughter received three BAFTA Scotland nominations and Robert Carlyle received a Best Actor nomination for his performance in Samantha Morton’s The Unloved.

Also to be congratulated is Graham Lester George. The Nottingham writer’s short film Washdays receives a BIFA nomination in the Best British Short Film category.

Debbie Williams, Chief Executive of EM Media, comments on the nominations, “That EM Media films have once again received nominations at the British Independent Film Awards clearly demonstrates that the East Midlands continues to punch above its weight, gaining recognition on the world stage as a place where innovative and exciting filmmaking happens – and where filmmaking talent is developed and supported through incisive investment from EM Media. I would like to congratulate all the filmmakers involved; we are proud to have played a role in their success.”

Films made in the East Midlands are up against a stellar line-up, competing alongside Sam Taylor Wood’s Nowhere Boy and Duncan Jones’s Moon. Lincolnshire-born Jim Broadbent also receives a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for The Damned United, which partly filmed in Derbyshire and Emily Blunt receives a Best Actress nomination for her role as The Young Victoria, which filmed partly at locations in Leicestershire and Lincolnshire.

The British Independent Film Awards set out to celebrate merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, to honour new talent, and to promote British films and filmmaking to a wider public. BIFA 2009 will take place at The Brewery in Central London on Sunday 6 December, 2009. For more information about the awards and a full list of nominees see www.bifa.org.uk.

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