Ben Whishaw, Abbie Cornish in Bright Star (Apparition)
The winners of London's Evening Standard awards will be announced at the London Film Museum on Monday, Feb. 8. Curiously, all three best picture nominees were either directed or co-directed by women: Jane Campion's Bright Star, about the love affair between John Keats and Fanny Brawne; Andrea Arnold's Fish Tank, in which a teenager rebels against her mother's new boyfriend; and Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor's Helen, the tale of two friends, one of whom has gone missing. Neither of the Bright Stars leads, Ben Whishaw and Abbie Cornish, was nominated, but Fish Tank's Katie Jarvis is up for the most promising newcomer award.
Anne-Marie Duff was shortlisted in the best actress category for Sam Taylor-Wood's film debut Nowhere Boy, in which she plays John Lennon's mother. Her fellow nominees are Kelly Macdonald as a woman trying to escape from an abusive relationship in The Merry Gentleman and Academy Award and BAFTA nominee Carey Mulligan as a high-school student involved with a man twice her age in An Education.
In the best actor category, three performers were nominated for portraying real-life characters: Tom Hardy as inmate Charles Bronson (the man had a fixation on the Hollywood star), Christian McKay as Orson Welles, and The Lord of the Rings' Andy Serkis as rocker Ian Dury. The fourth nominee was Alex MacQueen, in the running for his birdwatcher in Mark Losey's thriller The Hide.
The Evening Standard Award judges are Standard critics Derek Malcolm, Andrew O'Hagan and Charlotte O'Sullivan, in addition to Tim Robey of The Daily Telegraph and Catherine Shoard of The Guardian.
Complete list of nominees:
Best Film
Bright Star, Jane Campion
Fish Tank, Andrea Arnold
Helen, Joe Lawlor/Christine MolloyBest Actor
Tom Hardy, Bronson
Christian McKay, Me And Orson Welles
Alex MacQueen, The Hide
Andy Serkis, Sex & Drugs & Rock & RollBest Actress
Anne-Marie Duff, Nowhere Boy
Kelly Macdonald, The Merry Gentleman
Carey Mulligan, An EducationThe Peter Sellers Award for Comedy
Peter Capaldi, In The Loop
Sacha Baron Cohen, Bruno
Ricky Gervais, The Invention Of LyingBest Screenplay
Jesse Armstrong/Simon Blackwell/Armando Iannucci/Tony Roche, In The Loop
Nick Hornby, An Education
Paul Laverty, Looking for EricLondon Film Museum Award for Technical Achievement
Barry Ackroyd, Cinematographer,
The Hurt Locker
James Herbert, Film editor, Sherlock Holmes
Tony Noble, Production designer, MoonMost Promising Newcomer
Katie Jarvis, for her performance in Fish Tank
Duncan Jones, for his direction of Moon
Peter Strickland, for his direction and screenplay of Katalin VargaBest Documentary
Afghan Star, Havana Marking
Anvil! The Story Of Anvil, Sacha Gervasi
Sleep Furiously, Gideon Koppel
Source: Evening Standard