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Exclusive: Peccadillo Pictures has picked up UK-Ireland rights for Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s Australian animation Lesbian Space Princess, winner of the Teddy award for queer cinema at this year’s Berlinale.

Blue Finch Films represents sales. Queer cinema specialist Peccadillo Pictures will release the film theatrically later this year.

The sci-fi comedy animation, which also screened at SXSW London and is playing in the Horizons strand at Karlovy Vary, follows a space princess that is thrust out of her sheltered life and into a galactic quest to save her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens.

Exclusive: Peccadillo Pictures has picked up UK-Ireland rights for Emma Hough Hobbs and Leela Varghese’s Australian animation Lesbian Space Princess, winner of the Teddy award for queer cinema at this year’s Berlinale.

Blue Finch Films represents sales. Queer cinema specialist Peccadillo Pictures will release the film theatrically later this year.

The sci-fi comedy animation, which also screened at SXSW London, follows a space princess that is thrust out of her sheltered life and into a galactic quest to save her bounty hunter ex-girlfriend from the Straight White Maliens.

Voice cast includes Shabana Azeez, Gemma Chua Tran and Richard Roxburgh.

Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie leads new titles in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as the video game adaptation opens in 675 locations.

This is slightly fewer screens than Universal’s fellow videogame adaptationThe Super Mario Bros which launched in 721 cinemas in 2023. That scored £8.7m in its opening weekend and went on to gross a mega £55m.

A Minecraft Movie is based on the multibillion-dollar sandbox game Minecraft in which players are free to build, create and form communities. Films based on video games have proved successful in the territory – all three Sonic The Hedgehog titles opened above £4m while...

Warner Bros’ A Minecraft Movie leads new titles in UK and Ireland cinemas this weekend as the video game adaptation opens in 675 locations.

This is slightly fewer screens than Universal’s fellow videogame adaptationThe Super Mario Bros which launched in 721 cinemas in 2023. That scored £8.7m in its opening weekend and went on to gross a mega £55m.

A Minecraft Movie is based on the multibillion-dollar sandbox game Minecraft in which players are free to build, create and form communities. Films based on video games have proved successful in the territory – all three Sonic The Hedgehog titles opened above £4m while...

Ruaridh Mollica is very good as Max, a freelance writer with a secret app life in prostitution, but Mikko Mäkelä’s film is not clear enough about his motivations

Sex work as a window into human nature is a longstanding theme in cinema, from Kenji Mizoguchi’s Street of Shame to Chantal Akerman’s Jeanne Dielman, and onwards. It is intensified here by the fact that the protagonist Max (Ruaridh Mollica), who mines his side-hustle escort work for material, is also a writer. But this uneasy, self-regarding sophomore effort by Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä, never fully distancing itself from the narcissistic prism of artistic creation, only fleetingly makes contact with flesh-and-blood human truths.

By day, Max is a freelance hotshot for London’s trendy Wall magazine; he has just bagged himself a sweet assignment to interview Bret Easton Ellis. By night he is “Sebastian”, a hot commodity on an app called DreamyGuys.

In Sebastian, a writer sells his body to provide material for his debut novel, then doesn’t give the night job up. Mikko Mäkelä explains what inspired his film – and remembers his cinematic sexual awakening

Growing up in a small Finnish town close to the Russian border, Mikko Mäkelä knew he was gay from the age of 11. “I think I was happy until then,” says the shy 36-year-old, whose slippery second film Sebastian is about to be released. Isolated he may have been, but at least the young Mäkelä had movies. Alone in his room, he watched queer gems such as Mysterious Skin, Presque Rien and Beautiful Thing, keeping the volume low in case his parents heard. Then a trip to the cinema to see Brokeback Mountain changed everything.

“When I got home, they asked me, ‘Did you like that film?’ They had read about it and wanted to make...

Production began this week in Belgium on Anke Blonde’s Dust, which LevelK has boarded for international sales.

Taking place in the span of one day, the suspense film follows two tech visionaries coming to terms with the fall of their empire due to an imminent exposé about their fake companies. Dries Phlypo produces for Belgium’s A Private View, with a script by Angelo Tijssens, co-writer of Lukas Dhont’s Girl and Close.

Girl and The Goldman Case star Arieh Worthalter and Mr. Nobody’s Jan Hammenecker lead the cast, alongside Anthony Welsh, Fania Sorel, 2024 European Film Promotion Shooting Star Thibaud Dooms,...

Exclusive: This year’s Manchester Film Festival is set to run from March 14 – 23 and will open with a screening of The Penguin Lessons, directed by British filmmaker Peter Cattaneo and starring Steve Coogan.

Based on the best-selling memoir, the film tells the story of an Englishman’s personal and political awakening during a cataclysmic period in Argentine history, brought about by his unlikely adoption of a penguin.

Manchester will screen 37 features, including 15 UK premieres and 4 world premieres. All films will be screening in Manchester for the first time. This includes the Manchester premiere of the UK’s Oscar selection Santosh from Sandhya Suri, Sundance, and Cannes hit Good One directed by India Donaldson, and South by Southwest Audience Award Winner My Dead Friend Zoe from Kyle Hausmann-Stokes.

Other highlights include the UK premieres of Y2K, A24’s latest horror comedy starring Fred Durst and directed by Kyle Mooney, the...

Since bursting on the scene in 1998 as a scruffier and scrappier distant cousin to the BAFTAs, the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) have been an early bellwether for future talent in front of and behind the camera. Giving a very early shout out to some of the biggest stars working today is the BIFAs breakthrough performance award (formerly the most promising newcomer award).

Jamie Bell and Ben Whishaw were recipients more than 20 years ago, while other winners have included Dev Patel, Naomi Ackie and Jessie Buckley. As for Emily Blunt, John Boyega, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mia Goth, Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter, George MacKay, Jodie Whittaker and Cosmo Jarvis, they’re among a formidable lineup of names who only managed a nomination.

So it’s only natural that this year’s crop of nominees are perhaps a little excited about what lies ahead. Speaking to Variety ahead of the awards ceremony on Dec.

QCinema Project Market (Qpm) wrapped this weekend with an awards ceremony in which cash prizes and in-kind services worth $442,000 were handed out to projects from the Philippines and the rest of Southeast Asia.

The event is part of an expanding roster of industry programs at QCinema International Film Festival (November 8-17), one of the Philippines’ major film gatherings, hosted by Quezon City, which is the largest city within the vast metropolitan area of Metro Manila.

While the festival has been running for 12 years, Qpm (November 14-16) was holding its second edition this year, and was joined by the launch of Asian Next Wave Film Forum, a series of panel discussions, masterclasses and case studies of regional co-productions.

Qpm selected 20 projects, including 13 from the Philippines and seven from the rest of Southeast Asia. Winning projects included Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon and upcoming works from Filipino filmmakers Martika Ramirez Escobar,...

The Philippines’ QCinema Project Market (Qpm) handed out $442,000 (PHP26M) in grants and co-production support at its closing ceremony on November 16.

Three projects from the Philippines received the QCinema Project Market Philippine Co-Production Grant, each valued at $ 34,000 (PHP2M) – Daughters Of The Sea, from Martika Ramirez Escobar; Heaven Help Us, directed by Eve Baswel, and Sonny Calvento’s Mother Maybe.

The QCinema Project Market – Southeast Asia Co-Production Grant, worth $17,000 (PHP1M) was awarded to Myanmar-Indonesia co-production The Beer Girl In Yangon, directed by Sein Lyan Tun. In addition, co-production grants of $12,000 each were presented to Other People’s Dreams, directed by Singapore’s Daniel Hui, and The Passport, from Malaysia’s Ananth Subramaniam.

Qpm’s industry partners also handed out several awards including Nathan Studios’ development grant of PHP250,000, which went to Secret Cries, while the Taiwan Creative Content Agency presented the $5,000 Taicca Award to Ewa, the sole animation...

Vietnam talent showed strong presence at the 12th QCinema International Film Festival in Quezon City, Philippines, as Trương Minh Quý’s “Viet and Nam” claimed the top prize, while compatriot Dương Diệu Linh’s “Don’t Cry, Butterfly” secured the Grand Jury Prize.

“Viet and Nam,” which made its debut in Cannes Un Certain Regard, emerged victorious in the Asian Next Wave competition. The jury, comprising Babyruth Villarama, Gabor Greiner, Ming-Jung Kuo and Nguyen Le, praised the film for “conjuring the haunting presence of trauma and memories that are embedded within the landscape, and tenderly following a romance that unfolds deep within the coal mines.”

“Don’t Cry, Butterfly,” Dương’s debut feature, follows a middle-aged wife who, upon discovering her husband’s infidelity, embarks on a mystical journey in search of a better life. The film previously won three prizes at Venice.

Elizabeth Lo took home the Best Director award for “Mistress Dispeller,...

On October 22, 2024, the QCinema International Film Festival announced its much-anticipated lineup for this year, with The Gaze as its central theme. With 76 titles—22 short films and 55 full-length features—spanning across 11 distinct sections, the festival invites audiences to explore diverse perspectives through film. The Gaze seeks to challenge and expand how we view the world, from traditional masculine and feminine perspectives to new and transformative ways of seeing.

Quezon City Mayor Maria Josefina Belmonte officially opened the occasion, emphasizing QCinema’s vital role in advancing the city government’s cultural policies. She highlighted the festival’s contribution to Quezon City’s vision for sustainability and environmental friendliness, underscoring the partnership between the city and the festival to fulfill these goals.

The 12th edition of QCinema will open with Directors’ Factory Philippines, an omnibus film project in collaboration with Cannes Directors’ Fortnight. The project features four films created by Filipino directors alongside filmmakers from neighboring countries.

Mikko Makela and James Watson’s UK production company Bêtes Sauvages is expanding into Finland, where the firm will work on both Finnish and international projects.

Bêtes Sauvages Finland was launched at last week’s Finnish Film Affair, the industry strand of Helsinki International Film Festival – Love and Anarchy (Hiff).

The company’s inaugural slate includes a TV adaptation of Finnish novelist Pajtim Statovci’s 2019 novel Bolla, a love story about a man fleeing the Kosovan war of the 1990s.

Through its UK base, Bêtes Sauvages produced Makela’s second feature Sebastian, which premiered at Sundance in January, in co-production with Finland’s Helsinki-film,...

The British Film Institute (BFI) has issued a further 11 awards through the UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf), including Karim Aïnouz’s Rosebushpruning, Irish football story Saipan, starring Steve Coogan, and The Bureau-produced Moroccan co-production Behind The Palm Trees.

Rosebushpruning is the next feature from Brazilian director Aïnouz. It is a contemporary adaptation of Marco Bellocchio’s Fists In The Pocket, with Elle Fanning attached to star.

Producers are Kavac Film, The Match Factory and Surfilm, with CryBaby the minority UK producer on the project. Fremantle’s Italy-based The Apartment is on board as a co-producer, and Mubi is one of the backers.

The indie/arthouse market is showing some breadth as Kneecap has a great debut, CatVidoFest as well, and holdovers like Didi and Sing Sing are kind of raking it in considering how few screens they’re on. As more wide releases and tentpoles show up and take flight a rising tide may be raising indie boats – maybe not as much or as many as distributors hope, but some.

Theater chain CEOs on quarterly earnings calls last week insisted they need all kinds of movies and that’s what they’re getting, including Indian specialty fare that continues to pop at the box office. Daru Na Peenda Hove, a Punjabi film from Rhythm Boyz Entertainment, is no. 9 this weekend, Comscore says, grossing $616k on 118 screens.

Kneecap from Sony Pictures Classics led new indie openings with $492.4k on 703 screens. The music biopic is playing arthouses and multiplexes, reaching younger demos, and music...

In a summer of sparkling indie releases, may we suggest you take a detour to chilly London and Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian”? Debuting at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival, this stylish drama centers on Max (Ruaridh Mollica), a young writer on the verge of landing a deal for his first full-length novel. The project centers on a fictional young sex worker who specializes in hookups with much older men.

Continue reading ‘Sebastian’: Mikko Mäkelä & Ruaridh Mollica Revisit Their “Sex-Positive Sex Worker” Drama [Interview] at The Playlist.

Write what you know, as the saying goes — so if you don’t know it, do the research. A young Londoner takes on that task and goes through the digital looking glass in Finnish-British writer-director Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian,” now in limited release from Kino Lorber after premiering at Sundance earlier this year. Titled after the pseudonym that aspiring novelist Max (Ruaridh Mollica) employs when propositioning himself for other men, this adamantly morose drama keeps a close eye on its lead as he navigates his intimacy issues. But despite the film’s confident naturalism, it seems less intimate as it goes on, with Max somehow growing more distant and generic as he becomes more comfortable in his own skin.

By day, Max makes his way as a freelance writer, turning in half-hearted features for a culture magazine. He tinkers away at short stories and idolizes Bret Easton Ellis (whose own...

“Max leaps into someone’s eyes as they are jerking off whilst Max thrusts into him.”

Ok, maybe that’s not verbatim a line from Finnish writer/director Mikko Mäkelä’s “Sebastian” screenplay. That’s Mäkelä demonstrating how specific his script was about the gay sex he wanted to make happen onscreen. This provocative drama, a Sundance 2024 premiere, stars newcomer Ruaridh Mollica as Max, a 25-year-old writer who submerges himself in London’s underground world of escort services in order to research a novel about a sex worker. Posing as his protagonist, Max accepts money, travel, and more from older men in exchange for on-demand sex in cold hotel beds and elsewhere, sending Max in a spiral the movie shows in explicit terms, and while not shying from the twinky beauty of its lead.

“I don’t think I approached it so much from the point of view of thinking about sexiness,...

Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh and Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight are among the films to receive backing from the latest round of UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) awards.

The BFI has made 19 additional awards totalling £527,563 through the £7m Ukgsf, which is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).

Cannes premieres Bird, Santosh and Sister Midnight all received international distribution awards via the festival launch track, which supports festival runs for UK films to reach global audiences.

The only film to receive an international distribution award via the prints and advertising support track in...

Andrea Arnold’s Bird, Sandhya Suri’s Santosh and Karan Kandhari’s Sister Midnight are among the films to receive backing from the latest round of UK Global Screen Fund (Ukgsf) awards.

The BFI has made 19 additional awards totalling £527,563 through the £7m Ukgsf, which is financed by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (Dcms).

Cannes premieres Bird, Santosh and Sister Midnight all received international distribution awards via the festival launch track, which supports festival runs for UK films to reach global audiences.

The only film to receive an international distribution award via the prints and advertising support track in...

Black Bear’s management arm has signed Mikko Mäkelä, the Finnish-British writer and director of “Sebastian.” Mäkelä is a rising force in international queer cinema having made movies that explore sexuality and identity.

Mäkelä’s directorial debut “A Moment in the Reeds” premiered at the BFI London Film Festival and screened at nearly a hundred festivals worldwide, including Göteborg Film Festival, Seattle International Film Festival and Frameline in San Francisco. The film was nominated for the “Discovery Award” at the 2018 British Independent Film Awards.

Mäkelä’s sophomore feature, “Sebastian,” premiered in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance 2024 and was embraced by critics. The film will be distributed by Kino Lorber and will be released on Aug. 2, 2024.

Mäkelä was named by IndieWire as an “LGBTQ Filmmaker on the Rise.” In its review out of Sundance, the site went on to praise “Sebastian” as a “provocative, explicit, and ultimately tender drama.

Exclusive: Mike Goodridge’s growing UK production company Good Chaos, which is in Cannes with Un Certain Regard title Santosh, has had a minority equity investment from Cameron Lamb’s Paris-based audio platform Alexander.

The investment will give Alexander an opportunity to develop its growing non-fiction IP library, across film and TV formats, while Good Chaos has been able to grow its headcount, operations and production reach.

The companies’ first joint film project is Wife, Witch, Poisoner, Whore, a period thriller based on the Alexander audiobook by Katherine Rundell, and narrated by Helena Bonham Carter.

The official synopsis reads: “Beautiful, rich, clever, and determined English noblewoman Frances Howard was a dazzling celebrity at the court of James I. But when the unhappy teenage bride rebelled against the patriarchy of her day, she was put on trial for witchcraft, infidelity and murder – very nearly at the expense of her life.”

Good Chaos is on a roll.

In an exclusive uInterview, Ruaridh Mollica and Mikko Makela open up about their new Sundance film, Sebastian.

Sebastian follows the secret double life of Mollica’s character, Max, who assumes an alias and begins a career as a sex worker to inspire his first novel.

Makela, who directed the film, said that he wanted to create something that did not “problematize sex.”

“Sex was such an important part of the story, the power of sexuality and the empowering potential of self-discovery through sexuality,” Makela told uInterview founder Erik Meers. “I think we’ve seen so many sex worker films and portraits; some are really amazing, inspiring films. But sex work is still problematized and seen as a result or cause of trauma. I wanted to make a film with a character for whom sex work was a conscious choice rather than something done for lack of choices or economic prerogative.

The Sundance Film Festival 2024, beloved by independent film enthusiasts, opens the film festival circuit with a bustling calendar of parties, thought-provoking panels, and red-carpet premieres.

Celebrating its 40th milestone, the lineup boasts diversity across various categories, featuring 53 short films, 35 documentary features, and 83 feature films. The award-winning films for the 2024 Sundance Film Festival were announced today at The Ray Theatre in Park City during a ceremony.

The jury and audience-awarded prizes include Grand Jury Prizes awarded to In The Summers (U.S. Dramatic Competition), Porcelain War (U.S. Documentary Competition), Sujo (World Cinema Dramatic Competition), and A New Kind of Wilderness (World Cinema Documentary Competition). The Next Innovator Award presented by Adobe was awarded to Little Death.

Related: Sundance Film Festival Awards: ‘In The Summers’, ‘Didi’, ‘Daughters’ Top Winners List

Audiences came together in person over the weekend in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Sundance Resort with talent that included June Squibb,...

Exclusive: Ruaridh Mollica says he had a year to prepare for his “role of a lifetime — so far” in Finnish filmmaker Mikko Makela’s powerful new film Sebastian, which premieres at Sundance on Sunday.

The film follows a culture journalist who goes undercover and leads a double life as a sex worker to research a debut novel. The 24-year-old Mollica, born to a Scottish mother and an Italian father, gives a superlative performance in his first feature film lead role, as he assumes the split personalities of Max, a young wannabe literary sensation, and Sebastian, who hires himself out to desirous older male clients.

The intimate moments, though at times full-on, actually serve the narrative to reflect Max/Sebastian’s state of mind.

Between his initial self-tape, first audition and screen tests, Mollica had 12 months to enter into full character research mode before officially being handed the part, and the...

Finnish-British director Mikko Mäkelä isn’t shying away from sexual content in “Sebastian,” which has its world premiere on Sunday at Sundance Film Festival.

“As was already the case with ‘A Moment in the Reeds,’ I wanted to provide a very frank and honest portrayal of queer sexuality,” he tells Variety, referencing his 2017 debut.

“For so long, queer sexuality has been shied away from and censored. It has been such a balancing act for queer filmmakers and a very unfair one, because we want to provide representation for ourselves, but we also don’t want to alienate audiences and people who finance our films. Luckily, things have improved a great deal.”

In Mäkelä’s sophomore film – competing in Sundance’s World Cinema Dramatic Competition – aspiring writer Max (Ruaridh Mollica) leads a double life as sex worker Sebastian, hoping to use his experiences in a novel. But while Max tries to...

The queer drama is directed by UK-Finnish director Mikko Makela.

LevelK has boarded international sales rights to UK feature Sebastian ahead of its world premiere in the World Cinema Dramatic Competition at Sundance Film Festival this month.

The film is the second feature from UK-Finnish director Mikko Makela. It follows a freelance writer rising through London’s cultural world who finds exhilaration at night as a sex worker under the pseudonym Sebastian.

Ruaridh Mollica leads the cast, alongside Screen Rising Stars Scotland talent Hiftu Quasem and Jonathan Hyde.

September Films will distribute the film in the Netherlands, with Aurora handling distribution for Finland.

Forum aims to match 2Slgbtq+ feature projects with backers and distributors.

Exclusive: Projects from Canada, the UK, New Zealand, Finland and the US have been set to participate in this year’s Inside Out Finance Forum, taking place June 2-4 in Toronto.

The forum is staged by Inside Out, the Canadian 2Slgbtq+ film festival and content distributor, and designed to provide queer-led creative teams with 2Slgbtq+ content an opportunity to pitch their projects directly to decision makers.

Among the eight feature projects to be presented at the sixth annual forum are Curses!, a US-produced satire set in Colonial America, with...

20 producers/producer teams will receive £2m across two years.

The BFI has selected twenty producers and producer teams to receive £2m of funding across the next two years in the first edition of the revamped Vision Awards.

The selection comes as part of a £2.5m total investment in UK producers, with 12 emerging producers also selected for the new BFI Network Insight professional development programme.

Among those chosen are Manon Ardisson and Chiara Ventura of Ardimages UK. Ardisson won the Bifa for best British independent film in 2017 for God’s Own Country, one of four prizes for the film at the ceremony.

The BFI has revealed this year’s Vision Awards, its funding awards for UK production companies. Scroll down for the list of recipients.

Those selected this year include the producers of BAFTA winner Bait, Sundance title God’s Own Country, Tiff feature Saint Maud and upcoming Kate Winslet starrer Ammonite.

More from DeadlineBritish Film Institute Outlines $5.7M Covid-19 Support MeasuresUK's Covid-19 Film & TV Emergency Relief Fund Swells To $3M, Now Open For Cash-Strapped WorkersBBC Joins Netflix In Making $600,000 Donation To Coronavirus Emergency Relief Fund

The BFI will invest up to £2M in the producers over two years. The organization has also revealed the 12 newcomers (yet to make their first feature) selected for its new professional development program BFI Network Insight.

The BFI said today that recipients of the two programs are 35% from outside London and the South East, more than 70% are female or part of a female producing duos, and more than 35% identify as underrepresented ethnicities.

The Favourite leads the way with 13 nominations.

The 2018 British Independent Film Awards are taking place now in London.

Scroll down to see all the winners revealed so far.

Yorgos Lanthimos’ period comedy The Favourite leads the field with 13 nominations. Bart Layton’s American Animals has 11 nominations, while Michael Pearce’s Beast has 10.

At the previously announced craft awards, The Favourite won five prizes.

Judi Dench and Felicity Jones will both receive honorary prizes during tonight’s ceremony, which will be hosted by actor Russell Tovey.

Refresh this page to reveal the latest winners.

Winners list:

Winners in bold

Best Actor...

The awards shows will continue until morale improves. That’s good news for Yorgos Lanthimos’ “The Favourite,” which got off to a great start by winning both Best Actress for Olivia Colman and a Special Grand Jury Prize at the Venice Film Festival and now leads all movies with 13 nominations at the British Independent Film Awards. Following it are “American Animals” (11), “Beast” (10), and “You Were Never Really Here” (8); all are nominated for the top prize, as is “Disobedience.”

Also well represented is Rachel Weisz, whose roles in “Disobedience” and “The Favourite” have her up for both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively; her co-stars in both films — Olivia Colman and Emma Stone in “The Favourite,” Rachel McAdams in “Disobedience” — are all nominated as well.

This year’s Bifa ceremony takes place on Sunday, December 2 in London. Here’s the full list of nominees:

Best British Independent Film

American Animals Bart Layton,...

Yorgos Lanthimos’ Venice Special Grand Jury Prize winner The Favourite leads nominations for this year’s British Independent Film Awards with 13 in its court. The twisted take on the British monarchy and period cinema, which Fox Searchlight releases November 23 in North America, has nods for Venice Best Actress laureate Olivia Colman as well as for Best Film, Director, Screenplay and for its supporting cast Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz. The latter is also up for Best Actress in Oscar winner Sebastian Lelio’s Disobedience, which likewise scored a Best Film nom and put Rachel McAdams in the Supporting Actress category.

Following The Favourite is Bart Layton’s heist pic American Animals with 11 nominations, Michael Pearce’s Beast with 10 and Lynne Ramsay’s You Were Never Really Here scooping eight. Each is also competing in the Best British Independent Film race.

Bifa noted today that the nominations list demonstrates a record year for female representation, with over 40% of the individual nominations recognizing women in the industry across directing, writing, producing, performance and craft. Female nominees make up over 50% of the talent nominated in Best British Independent Film and dominate both Most Promising Newcomer and Breakthrough Producer.

Ramsay notably continues her long association with Bifa, scoring her third nomination for Best Screenplay and her second for Best Director. With her You Were Never Really Here, Joaquin Phoenix scores his second Bifa Best Actor nomination for his role as a tortured hitman in the psychological noir thriller.

Joe Cole (A Prayer Before Dawn), Rupert Everett (The Happy Prince), Charlie Plummer (Lean On Pete) and Steve Coogan (Stan & Ollie) round out Best Actor. The Best Actress category also features Gemma Arterton (The Escape), Maxine Peake (Funny Cow) and Jessie Buckley (Beast).

The Bifa ceremony will be held on Sunday December 2 at London’s Old Billingsgate. Below is the full list of nominations.

Bifa Nominations 2018

Best British Independent Film

American Animals Bart Layton, Katherine Butler, Dimitri Doganis, Derrin Schlesinger, Mary Jane Skalski

Beast Michael Pearce, Kristian Brodie, Lauren Dark, Ivana MacKinnon

Disobedience Sebastián Lelio, Rebecca Lenkiewicz, Ed Guiney, Frida Torresblanco, Rachel Weisz

The Favourite Yorgos Lanthimos, Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara, Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday

You Were Never Really Here Lynne Ramsay, Pascal Caucheteux, Rosa Attab, James Wilson, Rebecca O’Brien

Best Director sponsored by Broadsword Event House

Andrew Haigh Lean on Pete

Yorgos Lanthimos The Favourite

Bart Layton American Animals

Michael Pearce Beast

Lynne Ramsay You Were Never Really Here

Best Screenplay sponsored by BBC Films

Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara The Favourite

Bart Layton American Animals

SEBASTIÁN Lelio, Rebecca Lenkiewicz Disobedience

Michael Pearce Beast

Lynne Ramsay You Were Never Really Here

Best Actress sponsored by Mac

Gemma Arterton The Escape

Jessie Buckley Beast

Olivia Colman The Favourite

Maxine Peake Funny Cow

Rachel Weisz Disobedience

Best Supporting Actress

Nina Arianda Stan & Ollie

Rachel McAdams Disobedience

Emma Stone The Favourite

Rachel Weisz The Favourite

Molly Wright Apostasy

Best Actor

Joe Cole A Prayer Before Dawn

Steve Coogan Stan & Ollie

Rupert Everett The Happy Prince

Joaquin Phoenix You Were Never Really Here

Charlie Plummer Lean on Pete

Best Supporting Actor

Steve Buscemi Lean on Pete

Barry Keoghan American Animals

Alessandro Nivola Disobedience E

Van Peters American Animals

Dominic West Colette

Most Promising Newcomer

Jessie Buckley Beast

Michaela Coel Been So Long

Liv Hill Jellyfish

Marcus Rutherford Obey

Molly Wright Apostasy

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by Kodak & Pinewood

Richard Billingham Ray & Liz

Daniel Kokotajlo Apostasy

Matt Palmer Calibre

Michael Pearce Beast

Leanne Welham Pili

Debut Screenwriter

Karen Gillan The Party’s Just Beginning

Daniel Kokotajlo Apostasy

Bart Layton American Animals

Matt Palmer Calibre

Michael Pearce Beast

Breakthrough Producer supported by Creativity Media

Kristian Brodie Beast

Jacqui Davies Ray & Liz

Anna Griffin Calibre

Marcie MacLellan Apostasy

Faye Ward Stan & Ollie

The Discovery Award sponsored by Raindance

The Dig Andy Tohill, Ryan Tohill, Stuart Drennan, Brian J. Falconer

Irene’S Ghost Iain Cunningham, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, David Arthur, Ellie Land

A Moment In The Reeds Mikko Makela, James Watson

Super November Douglas King, Josie Long

Voyageuse May Miles Thomas

Best Documentary

Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story Steve Sullivan

Evelyn Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Island Steven Eastwood, Elhum Shakerifar

Nae Pasaran Felipe Bustos Sierra

Under The Wire Christopher Martin, Tom Brisley

Best British Short Film supported by BFI Network

The Big Day Dawn Shadforth, Kellie Smith, Michelle Stein

Bitter Sea Fateme Ahmadi, Emma Parsons

The Field Sandhya Suri, Balthazar de Ganay, Thomas Bidegain

Pommel Paris Zarcilla, Sebastian Brown, Ivan Kelava

To Know Him Ted Evans, Kellie Smith, Jennifer Monks, Michelle Stein

Best International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger

Capernaum Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwani, Khaled Mouzanar, Michel Merkt

Cold War Pawel Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki, Ewa Puszczynska, Tanya Seghatchian

The Rider Chloé Zhao, Mollye Asher, Sacha Ben Harroche, Bert Hamelinck

Roma Alfonso Cuarón, Nicolás Celis, Gabriela Rodriguez

Shoplifters Hirokazu Koreeda

Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society of America & Spotlight

Dixie Chassay The Favourite

Julie Harkin Beast

Avy Kaufman American Animals

Andy Pryor Stan & Ollie

Michelle Smith Apostasy

Best Cinematography supported by Blackmagic Design

Ole Bratt Birkeland American Animals

Magnus Nordenhof JØNK Lean on Pete

Robbie Ryan The Favourite

Tom Townend You Were Never Really Here

David Ungaro A Prayer Before Dawn

Best Costume Design

Jacqueline Durran Peterloo

Andrea Flesch Colette

Sandy Powell The Favourite

Guy Sperenza Stan & Ollie

Alyssa Tull An Evening With Beverly Luff Lin

Best Editing sponsored by Intermission Film

Joe Bini You Were Never Really Here

Marc Boucrot A Prayer Before Dawn

Nick Fenton, Julian Hart, Chris Gill American Animals

Yorgos Mavropsaridis The Favourite

Ben Wheatley Happy New Year, Colin Burstead

Best Effects

Howard Jones Early Man

Matthew Strange, Mark Wellband Dead in a Week (Or Your Money Back)

George Zwier, Paul Driver Peterloo...

Yorgos Lanthimos comedy to compete against American Animals, Beast, Disobedience and You Were Never Really Here.

The nominations for the 2018 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were revealed today (October 31), with Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite leading the field with 13 nominations.

The historical comedy is up for best British independent film, best director and best screenplay. Olivia Colman is nominated for best actress, and her co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz have both been nominated for best supporting actress.

The Favourite will compete for best film against Bart Layton’s American Animals (11 nominations), Michael Pearce’s Beast (10 nominations), Sebastián Lelio...

NewFest, the New York-set Lgbtq film festival that is celebrating its 30th year, has unveiled its full linuep of movies ahead of its run October 24-30. As previously announced, the fest opens with Yen Tan’s AIDS drama 1985 starring Gotham‘s Corey Michael Smith, The Gifted‘s Jamie Chung, Aidan Langford, Virginia Madsen and Michael Chiklis.

This year’s slate includes the New York Centerpiece screening of the Matt Smith-starring Mapplethorpe; the Telluride-bowing Boy Erased starring Nicole Kidman, Russell Crowe and Lucas Hedges as the U.S. Centerpiece; and the International Centerpiece Rafiki, Wanuri Kahiu’s pic that has been banned in its native Keyna for centering on a relationship between two women.

Also on tap is the Documentary Centerpiece film Dykes, Camera, Action. The fest will close with Robert Clift and Hillary Demmon’s Making Montgomery Clift.

This year’s lineup features programming from 32 countries, with 46 feature films,...

There’s an admirable quiet intensity to “A Moment in the Reeds,” a first feature by London-based Mikko Mäkelä set in his native Finland. Superficially similar to “God’s Own Country,”. It’s sold to a few territories already while touring primarily gay fests.

Thin, blond Leevi (Janne Puustinen) has reluctantly returned home to help father Juoko (Mika Melender) fix up the family summer cottage before it’s put on the market. Though they’re doing their best to be civil, it’s a strained reunion: Leevi clearly still blames his taciturn dad for murky circumstances around his now-deceased mother’s departure long ago, while Juoko can find scant common ground with a gay son who’s run off to Paris to study literature.

Leevi isn’t the handy type, so his father has grudgingly hired a laborer through an agency to help with the renovation. To his intense annoyance and his son’s amusement,...