Ex Machina was the big winner at the Moët British Independent Film Awards on Sunday (December 6) at the 18th BIFA ceremony, hosted by Richard Ayoade and held at Old Billingsgate in London. The film won four awards: Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay for Alex Garland and Outstanding Achievement in Craft for its Visual Effects, by Andrew Whitehurst.
The film will be screened in 74 cinemas across the country on Sunday 13 December as part of a landmark BIFA screening series supported by the BFI.
Staring in both ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘Brooklyn’ was actor Domhnall Gleeson, running for Best Supporting actor alongside his father actor Brendan Gleeson who got the award for his role in Suffragette.
“You know I was so impressed with my father’s performance and I’m always so proud to be associated with him just as father and son, when you work together is even better. It’s a funny one i mean it’s a pity he’s not here tonight, he’s working in Los Angeles but I’m very proud to be recognized alongside him. It’s a nice moment”, he said.
Performance awards were spread across the board: Saoirse Ronan picked up Best Actress for Brooklyn and Tom Hardy won Best Actor for his dual role as Ronnie and Reggie Kray in Legend.
In ‘Brooklyn’, Saoirse plays a an Irish immigrant in 1950’s New York, a role which bears resemblance to her own Irish roots.
“Yeah it’s the most personal thing I’ve ever done. And to make it at the time that I did when I was personally going through allot of the things Eilis was experiencing, that meant it wasn’t just another film you can leave behind afterwards or leave it on set at the end of the day. I think ‘Brooklyn’ is one of these things like a book that you’ve read or a really great film you watched when you were a kid that you take with you for the rest of your life and I refer it back to all the time and it’s just a film that is a part of my life and I think it will be for a very long time”
Olivia Colman won her third BIFA for her Best Supporting Actress performance in The Lobster. Brendan Gleeson made it two years in a row, winning Best Supporting Actor for Suffragette this year after taking away Best Actor for Calvary last year.
Colin Farrell presented the Most Promising Newcomer award to Abigail Hardingham for her breakthrough performance in Nina Forever.
Farrell was also nominated for his role in ‘The Lobster’, a film about a group of people who try to find romantic partners to avoid being transformed into beasts and sent of into the woods. When asked about which beast he would prefer to be transformed in, Farrell did not consider the Lobster, but said “I think I’d pick a bird of flight, probably. probably an apex predator so I could have a long and joy filled life. But I think I would distance myself from the planet a little bit”
As previously announced, the Variety Award, which recognizes a director, actor, writer or producer who has made a global impact and helped to focus the international spotlight on the UK, was presented to Kate Winslet. The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film was presented to Chiwetel Ejiofor who said of Harris “I was always a huge fan of his work. He was always an extraordinary actor and a force of nature. He was a real inspiration to me as a young actor. And I got to meet him once and it was amazing and so this was an incredible moment.”(Reuters)
