UK indie films to be honoured

Sexy Beast, starring Ray Winstone, is set in Spain

Gangster movie with a twist Sexy Beast leads the field in the running for Wednesday's British Independent Film Awards (Bifa).

The film has been nominated for best film, best director, best screenplay and twice in the best actor category for Ray Winstone and Ben Kingsley.

Also in the running for best film is South West Nine, a high octane romp through Brixton, London from the makers of the hit Human Traffic.

There are very few British products with originality and you do need vision

Alan Niblo, producer, South West Nine

Such films are the cream of UK film-making, but a quarter of British movies made in the past two years have not been released.

Alan Niblo, producer of South West Nine, attributes this to the lack of creativity in a lot of films.

'Vision'

"Lots of British films are genre pieces, because The Full Monty did well they made 25 its-funny-up-north comedies or Lock Stock did well and there were loads of gangster films," he says.

"There are very few British products with originality and you do need vision."

Letheren: Best newcomer nominee

South West Nine has already been hailed as "trainspotting south" and both its innovative soundtrack and star, Mark Letheren, have received nominations.

Letheren is up for the most promising newcomer award, for his role as drug-dealer sidekick Mitch.

The awards honour the best home-grown film-making talent, including trophies for best film, actor, actress, newcomer and director.

Other nominees for the annual awards, now in their fourth year, include Samantha Morton for Pandaemonium, Timothy Spall for Lucky Break and Kate Winslet for Enigma.

World War II drama Enigma, about the intricate work of codebreakers, also received a nomination for director Michael Apted.

Competitive

It was made independently but its production and publicity budgeting was far bigger than most independent films.

Kate Winslet starred in code-breaking drama Enigma

This gave it a high public profile which can give it the edge in what director Hugh Whitworth says is a notoriously competitive market.

"Its the toughest cinema distribution market in the world," say Whitworth, co-director of When in London.

"Being an English speaking country we have huge competition from an enormous amount of American product of all qualities."

But independent films can still do well; Sexy Beast for example has been a hit at the US box office.

The film tells the story of a retired gangster (played by Winstone) pressed into service by various dubious figures from his past, played by Kingsley and Ian McShane.

Bread and Roses is a typically hard-hitting drama from Loach

Other movies on the best film shortlist include Ken Loach's Bread and Roses and Jump Tomorrow from first-time director Joel Hopkins.

The shortlist was drawn up by a jury of 10, made up of key industry players including Primary Colours actor Adrian Lester, High Fidelity director Stephen Frears and the director of the BBC film Last Resort, Pawel Pawilowski.

To be eligible for consideration, films must not be solely funded by a single studio.

They must also be produced, or majority co-produced by a British company, or in receipt of at least 51% of their budget from a British source.

The 2001 award ceremony will be held at the Park Lane Hotel, London.