The 2016 British Independent Film Awards have been announced, and Andrea Arnold’s “American Honey” and Rachel Tunnard’s “Adult Life Skills” each scored an impressive six nominations.
Arnold landed a nod for Best Director; her fourth nomination in this category. She won for “Fish Tank” in 2009. The writer-director is the only woman nominated for Best Director this year. “American Honey” is also the only woman-helmed feature competing for British Independent Film.
“American Honey” stars newcomer Sasha Lane as a young runaway who travels across the Midwest with a magazine crew composed of disenfranchised teens. “Adult Life Skills” follows a nearly-30-year-old woman (Jodie Whittaker, “Broadchurch”) who returns to her rural hometown and moves into a shed in her mother’s backyard. Both Lane and Whittaker are up for the Actress award.
Tunnard received a nomination for Debut Director, and is joined by one other female nominee: Alice Lowe for “Prevenge,” a horror film about a pregnant woman (Lowe) who goes on a killing spree.
Two female-directed films received nominations for International Independent Film: Deniz Gamze Ergüven’s “Mustang,” a coming-of-age story about sisters in a remote Turkish village, and Maren Ade’s “Toni Erdmann,” a comedy about a dysfunctional daughter and father.
Only one doc competing for the Documentary Award is directed by a woman: Louise Osmond’s “Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach.”
“More than 130 films were submitted for consideration, and 32 different feature films have been nominated across the awards,” Variety reports. The winners will be revealed at the December 4 awards ceremony in London.
Check out the female nominees below. List adapted from Variety.
BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
“American Honey” Andrea Arnold, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, Pouya Shahbazian, Alice Weinberg, Thomas Benski, Lucas Ochoa
INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM
“Mustang” Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocour, Charles Gillibert
“Toni Erdmann” Maren Ade, Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, Michel Merkt
DIRECTOR
ANDREA ARNOLD “American Honey”
SCREENPLAY
ANDREA ARNOLD “American Honey”
RACHEL TUNNARD “Adult Life Skills”
ACTRESS
HAYLEY SQUIRES “I, Daniel Blake”
JODIE WHITTAKER “Adult Life Skills”
KATE DICKIE “Couple in a Hole”
NARGES RASHIDI “Under the Shadow”
SASHA LANE “American Honey”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AVIN MANSHADI “Under the Shadow”
GEMMA ARTERTON “The Girl With All the Gifts”
NAOMIE HARRIS “Our Kind of Traitor”
SHANA SWASH “My Feral Heart”
TERRY PHETO “A United Kingdom”
DOCUMENTARY
“Versus: The Life and FIlms of Ken Loach” Louise Osmond, Rebecca O’Brien
OUTSTANDING ACHIEVEMENT IN CRAFT
SHAHEEN BAIG Casting,“Free Fire”
THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD (DEBUT DIRECTOR)
ALICE LOWE “Prevenge”
RACHEL TUNNARD “Adult Life Skills”
DEBUT SCREENWRITER
HOPE DICKSON LEACH “The Levelling”
RACHEL TUNNARD “Adult Life Skills”
BREAKTHROUGH PRODUCER
CAMILLE GATIN “The Girl With All the Gifts”
DIONNE WALKER “The Hard Stop”
MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
HAYLEY SQUIRES “I, Daniel Blake”
LETITIA WRIGHT “Urban Hymn”
SENNIA NANUA “The Girl With All the Gifts”
THE DISCOVERY AWARD
“GOZO” Miranda Bowen, Leo Scott
BRITISH SHORT
“The Wrong End of the Stick” Terri Matthews, Chris Cornwell, Sam Bank
