The BIFA’s are a strange beast. They have all the glitz and celebrity shine of the big US ceremonies but somehow they remain credible. Recent Best film winners include This is England, Control and Vera Drake. This year Slumdog Millionaire took the top spot, but Steve McQueen’s excellent Hunger and Man on Wire also did well. These are all excellent films and deserving of recognition. Their success at the BIFAs is indicative of the more than excellent state of the British film industry and an example to some other awards (lets’ just say it: the Oscars) of how things can/should be done.
On the night itself, the celebrities were out in force: Kiera, Sienna, Jimmy (Nesbit – he hosted) – all of whom were kept well away from the journalists in attendance, especially us. But we did grab a (brief) chat with a couple of the winners.
Slumdog Millionaire got Best film and Best Director, but Danny Boyle himself was nowhere to be seen. However, lead actor, Dev Patel (he of Skins fame) was, and could barely contain his excitement at winning – which was actually quite refreshing and charming. He spoke to us about working with Danny Boyle:
LWLies: What’s Danny’s style as a director?
Patel: Danny’s great, he’s very active in all parts of the filmmaking and he’s very much an actor’s director. He wants you to find your feet in the character and be it. He let me do my own thing and improvise here and there, but if I got too far off track, he’d bring me back without knocking my confidence, which is what you want in a director. He’s always thinking of the bigger picture. Sometimes I’m stuck in one thing, and when he suggests something you think, ‘Why would the character do that?’ Then when you watch the film it totally makes sense in the whole scheme of things.
LWLies: What did you think of his previous films?
Patel: I’m a fan of his films, I watched 28 Days Later too young, but I remember that afterwards I couldn’t step out of my house for weeks – I was too scared.
LWLies: Did you get a sense of what the film might end up like as you were filming it?
Patel: Stepping into the film I knew it would be a great experience because of Danny Boyle’s involvement, but never in my wildest dreams did I realise what people were going to make of this film. The script is so different; I thought it would be like marmite – people would either love it or hate it, but people have really taken to it… which is really great.
And then he was dragged off to talk to someone else. That’s the way it works – three questions, better make ’em count.
More restrained in their celebrations, but no less excited, were the team behind Man on Wire, a LWLies favourite which deservedly won Best Documentary. Shamefully there was little attention for director James Marsh and producer Simon Chinn from most of the celebrity hungry media in attendance, but that gave us a chance to talk to them again.
LWLies: James, how does it feel looking back to have made a British film about a Frenchman, which has more to say about America than anything else this year?
Marsh: Well, we never set out to do that. We wanted to make a film about an extraordinary event, and only afterwards did we see that Philippe’s creativity, his excitement and ambition tied perfectly with American culture. People have seen all sorts of messages in the film, but for us it was all about making a film about an amazing event.
LWLies: We appreciated you coming with Philippe to our screening the other month, how has Philippe reacted to the reception the film’s received and the promotional side of things?
Marsh: Philippe has been very supportive. He’s spent several months now travelling around the world promoting the film. He loves it and he loves the attention he’s getting.
Chinn: “Ah… he wasn’t always like that though. At first when we came to him with the project and during filming, he could be a little bit of a…. handful. But he’s been great recently.
See the full list of winners here.
