2009 British Independent Film Award Nominations

Katie Jarvis in Fish Tank (top); Sam Rockwell in Moon (middle); Carey Mulligan, Dominic Cooper in An Education (bottom)

Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank leads the list of 2009 British Independent Film Award nominees.
The tale of a rough teenager (Katie Jarvis) whose life is upended after her mother gets a new boyfriend, Fish Tank was shortlisted in eight categories including best independent British film, best director, best screenplay (Arnold), best actress (Jarvis), best supporting actress (Kierston Wareing), best supporting actor (2008 BIFA best actor winner Michael Fassbender), and most promising newcomer (also Jarvis).
Duncan Jones‘ feature-film debut, the sci-fi thriller Moon, received seven nominations including best British film, best director, best debut director, and best actor (Sam Rockwell).
Lone [...]

London 2009: Ben Whishaw, Jane Campion, Andy Serkis

Composer Mark Bradshaw, Producers Caroline Hewitt, Jan Chapman, Samuel Roukin, Edie Martin (front), Director Jane Campion, Ben Whishaw and Antonia Campbell-Hughes pose at the premiere of potential Oscar 2010 contender Bright Star during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 19.

Andy Serkis, Lorraine Ashbourne

Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox
Photos: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

London 2009: Jane Campion, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox

Jane Campion attends the premiere of Bright Star, a potential Oscar 2010 best picture contender, during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 19.

Kerry Fox

Ben Whishaw
Photos: Ian Gavan/Getty Images

London 2009: Ben Whishaw, Catherine Breillat, Mary McCartney

Catherine Breillat attends the premiere of Bluebeard during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Vue West End on October 19. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Ben Whishaw, Jane Campion at the premiere of potential Oscar 2010 contender Bright Star during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon Leicester Square on October 19. (Photo by Ian Gavan/Getty Images)

Mary McCartney arrives for the premiere of Steven Soderbergh’s The Informant! during the Times BFI 53rd London Film Festival at the Odeon West End on October 19. (Photo by Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images)

Oscar 2010: Early Predictions – Best Director

BEST DIRECTOR

The Hurt Locker, Kathryn Bigelow

The Lovely Bones, Peter Jackson (above, with Saoirse Ronan)

A Serious Man, Joel and Ethan Coen

Up in the Air, Jason Reitman (above, with George Clooney)

The White Ribbon, Michael Haneke

In all honesty, I don’t know who the hell will get a best direction nod this year — though I’m pretty sure it’ll be five of the ten directors listed in my "tentative" 2010 best picture Oscar list.
For the record, the other five not listed above are: Lone Scherfig for An Education; Grant Heslov for The Men Who Stare at Goats; Lee Daniels for Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire; Steven Soderbergh for The Informant!, and Rob Marshall for Nine.
Unless, of course, Jane Campion manages to [...]

Cannes 2009: Best Director Favorites

Best Director
Pedro Almodóvar for Broken Embraces
Jacques Audiard for A Prophet
Jane Campion for Bright Star
Michael Haneke for The White Ribbon
Alain Resnais for Wild Grass
 
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
 

Cannes 2009: Palme d’Or Favorites

Palme d’Or 2009, Grand Prix, Special Jury Prize:
Alain Resnais‘ romantic fantasy Wild Grass (adapted by Alex Reval and Laurent Herbiet from Christian Gailly’s novel), about a man who becomes intrigued by a younger woman
Jacques Audiard’s tough prison drama A Prophet (written by Audiard, Thomas Bidegain, Abdel Raouf Dafri, and Nicolas Peufaillit)
Writer-director Michael Haneke’s The White Ribbon, about a northern German community enmeshed in a series of nasty events right before the beginning of World War I
Writer-director Jane Campion’s Bright Star, about the doomed love affair between British poet John Keats and his neighbor, Fanny Brawne
 
Photos: Courtesy Festival de Cannes
 

Cannes 2009: Jane Campion, Alain Resnais, Brillante Mendoza, Johnnie To, Lou Ye

Peter Bradshaw on Bright Star (with Abbie Cornish and Ben Whishaw, above) in The Guardian:
"Jane Campion has put herself in line for her second Palme d’Or here at the Cannes film festival with a film which I think could be the best of her career; an affecting and deeply considered study of the last years in the short life of John Keats, and the ecstasy of loss which suffuses his love affair with Fanny Brawne – a love thwarted not due to illness, but to a pernicious web of money worries, social scruples and irrelevant male loyalties."
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Maggie Lee on Kinatay in The Hollywood Reporter:
"Festival darling Brillante Mendoza’s Kinatay is a long night’s journey into the [...]