Sunday night saw the awards ceremony for the 2009 instalment of the British Independent Film Awards. As we said a few weeks ago, there’s a lot to like about the BIFAs. Yes, all awards ceremonies are fundamentally shit and compromised to some greater or lesser extent by corporate interests, but generally the BIFAs have a good track record and do a good impression of being honestly interested in films that actually are a) British, and b) independent. So good on them.
The night unfolded pretty much in line with our predictions, which is great not just because it makes us feel smart and prescient, but because our predictions focused on people we thought deserved to win, not who might come through a political process unscathed.
So hats off to Andrea Arnold, Carey Mulligan (main photo) and Tom Hardy, who won Best Film, Actress and Actor respectively. Arnold no doubt will continue to plough her own furrow, while Mulligan is already well on her way to becoming Hollywood hot shit. But look out now for Hardy. If rumours that he’s landed the lead in Mad Max 4 prove to be true, then we could well be looking at the next Colin Farrell. Exciting times.
Other correct calls included Let The Right One In scoring a win for Best Foreign Film ahead of the more visible Hurt Locker, with Katie Jarvis following up her Edinburgh award with the prize for Best Newcomer. And Sam Taylor-Wood can take heart from winning Best Short for the amazing Love You More, even if Nowhere Boy was (rightly) overlooked for the big prizes beyond Anne-Marie Duff’s Best Supporting Actress nod. Best of all, Bright Star was restricted to a single, technical award. Okay, we’ll stop the BS bashing now because it’s, um, bs.
Congratulations to all the winners. Anybody fancy making a few early predictions for next year? Some love for Plummer, McAvoy and Mirren in The Last Station (subtitle: bore and peace) maybe? Rhys Ifans in Mr Nice? Matthew Vaughn for Kick-Ass? Lebanon for Best Foreign (let’s hope not)? What do you reckon?
