’71’ Starring Jack O’Connell Leads The 17th British Independent Film Awards Nominees

While the 17th British Independent Film Awards have little if any bearing on the Oscars, for the cinephile it offers a nicer shorthand of U.K. movies worth keeping an eye on. And the recently announced list of nominees is led by one movie we haven’t stopped talking about since we caught it at the Berlin Film Festival.

The Troubles drama " ’71" (read our review) starring Jack O’Connell leads the pack with nine nominations, covering pretty much every category you can imagine. We can’t say we’re surprised, but this is a nice boost for O’Connell, if only get the conversation around his turn in Angelina Jolie‘s "Unbroken" buzzing a bit more. The workers rights dramedy "Pride" (read our review) wasn’t far behind with seven nods, while Daniel Wolfe’s "Catch Me Daddy" (our review), Lenny Abrahamson’s underrated and slept on "Frank" (our review), and Mike Leigh’s artist biopic "Mr. Turner" (our review) tied with five each. It’s a nice, wide range of genres, and mostly movies we really like too, so certainly, the quality is up there in 2014.

Check out the full list of nominees. The Tom Hooper-led jury announces the winners on December 7th. [Fandor]

The Imitation Game

BEST DIRECTOR

Yann Demange  – ’71

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD FOR BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR

Yann Demange –  ’71

BEST SCREENPLAY

Stephen Beresford – Pride

BEST ACTRESS

Sameena Jabeen Ahmed – Catch Me Daddy

BEST ACTOR

Timothy Spall – Mr Turner

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sienna Guillory – The Goob

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Sean Harris – ‘71

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER

Sameena Jabeen Ahmed – Catch Me Daddy

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION

The Goob

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Tat Radcliffe – Cinematography – ’71

BEST DOCUMENTARY

Virunga

BEST BRITISH SHORT

The Kármán Line

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM

The Badadook

THE RAINDANCE AWARD