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BIFAs Largely Bypass Unknowns for Mainstream

by Zoe Strimpel
Thu, 29 Nov 2007 at 7:31 PM
updated Thu, 29 Nov 2007 at 7:34 PM

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Anton Corbijn's biopic of Joy Division's Ian Curtis, "Control," scooped five awards at last night's British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) at the trendy Roundhouse in Camden, North London. The black-and-white — and none too cheerful — movie won Best Film, Best Director, Best Debut Director, Best Supporting Actor/Actress (Toby Kebbell), and Most Promising Newcomer (Sam Riley).

However, apart from "Control," nothing very revolutionary, or even particularly indie-seeming, won major prizes. Richard Eyre's "Notes on a Scandal" did well, with Judi Dench (hardly an indie new talent) winning Best Actress and Patrick Marber winning Best Screenplay. The long-established Viggo Mortensen won Best Actor for "Eastern Promises," a mainstream success. Best Foreign Independent Film went to "The Lives of Others," which certainly deserved it, in the way that Shakespeare deserves the Best Playwright Award. The win was hardly an original choice.

Elsewhere, among the less mainstream films that won were Julien Temple's "Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten," for Best Documentary, and "Dog Altogether," Paddy Considine's film about a man ravaged with rage and searching for redemption, for Best British Short. It's a shame the panel didn't think along these lesser-known lines a little more. If the recent London Film Festival was anything to go on, there is a wealth of emerging, or struggling-to-emerge, British talent that deserves recognition, and could sure use it.

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