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.