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dirty great winner
Stephen Frears’ (pictured above) edgy comedy-thriller, Dirty Pretty Things, won no fewer than four awards at this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs).
It was named Best British Film while Frears was Best Director and Chiwetel Ejiofor Best Actor. Steve Knight also won for Best Screenplay.
Two awards went to Michael Winterbottom’s In This World – for Best Achievement in Production and Technical Achievement for editor Peter Christelis.
There was a brace too for Richard Jobson’s directing debut, 16 Years Of Alcohol. He received the Douglas Hickox Award for best work by a new director while Susan Lynch earned Best Performance by a Supporting Actor/Actress.
Olivia Williams won Best Actress for The Heart Of Me and the ensemble cast – Anne-Marie Duff, Dorothy Duffy, Geraldine McEwan, Nora-Jane Noone and Eileen Walsh – of Peter Mullan’s The Magdalene Sisters got the Jury Award.
John Hurt was presented with The Richard Harris Award, a new award inaugurated last year recognising Outstanding Contribution by an Actor.
Sir Ian McKellen received this year’s Variety UK Personality Award, given each year by the international film trade to honour the career of a British actor who has dominated the international film community in this year and across his career.
Veteran UK producer Jeremy Thomas received The Special Jury Prize, and Best Foreign Film was awarded to Brazilian director Fernando Meirelles for City Of God.
A new award this year, the British Airways Bursary, which pro- vides a scholarship at the National Film and Theatre School to a stu-
dent picked by the school itself, was granted to Lenka Clayton. Other awards included Best
Newcomer Award to Harry Eden for his performance in Pure, Best Documentary Award to Simon Pummell for Bodysong, and Best British Short Film for Dad’s Dead.
Dirty Pretty Things and In This World also picked up, respective- ly, four and three nominations each at the European Film Awards which were due to be announced in Berlin on December 6 after we go to press.
BPBC’s indie shortfall
act, the 1000-strong produc- ers’ association, had called for sanctions following the BBC’s failure to meet its inde- pendent production quota for the third year in a row.
As a result, The UK independ- ent production sector has been denied commissions worth approximately £77m from the Corporation.
A report published by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) in
October showed the BBC had, for the period April 1 2002 to March 31 2003, commissioned just 21% of qualifying hours from UK independent producers.
Said John McVay, chief exec- utive of Pact, said: “Yet again this is another stark illustration of the casual disregard displayed by the BBC towards the indie sector, and it proves that the BBC doesn’t event bother to treat the quota as a ceiling. This has a huge financial impact on individual businesses across the length and breadth of the UK.”
Eileen Gallagher, managing director of Shed Productions and chair of Pact said: “Clearly the only way the BBC will understand the importance of the quota to the health of the independent sector is through the use of sanc- tions by Ofcom in future years.
“Pact will be writing to the BBC governors asking them to state what action will be taken as a result of the BBC failing to com- ply with its requirements under the law.”
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