The Irish swept the BIFA awards ceremony in 2014 with Brendan Gleeson winning Best Actor for ‘Calvary’, Andrew Scott winning Best Supporting Actor for ‘Pride’ and composer Stephen Rennicks winning Best Technical Achievement for ‘Frank’ and this year looks set to be no different with a slew of Irish projects and talent nominated.
‘The Lobster’ garnered more nominations than any other project with seven while John Crowley’s ‘Brooklyn’ landed five.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘The Lobster’ – co-produced in Ireland by Element Pictures with funding from the IFB – was nominated for Best British Independent Film with Colin Farrell also landing a nomination for Best Actor. Farrell will be joined in that category by fellow Irishman Michael Fassbender who is nominated for his performance in ‘Macbeth’.
In the Best Supporting Actor category, father and son go head-to-head as Brendan Gleeson and Domhnall Gleeson are both among the nominees. Brendan is nominated for his work in British film ‘Suffragette’ while Domhnall is nominated for ‘Brooklyn’.
Also nominated for ‘Brooklyn’ – in the category of lead actress – is Saoirse Ronan, who has recently won a Hollywood Film Award for her performance in the film.
The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director sees Corin Hardy nominated for his horror film ‘The Hallow’ while Stephen Fingleton is also nominated for directing his acclaimed dystopian feature ‘The Survivalist’. ‘The Survivalist’ is also nominated in the category of Most Promising Newcomer.
‘Brooklyn’ (Nick Hornby), Northern Irish drama ‘High Rise’ (Amy Jump) and ‘The Lobster’ (Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthymis Filippou) are all nominated for Best Screenplay while ‘The Lobster’ is also nominated in the Producer category with Lanthimos also nominated for Best Director.
In the Outstanding Achievement in Craft category, Fiona Weir has been nominated for her much-praised casting in Irish film ‘Brooklyn’.
Lenny Abrahamson’s ‘Room’ – seen by many as an Oscar contender alongside ‘Brooklyn’ – was nominated for Best International Independent Film.
Check out the full list of nominees here.