Irish Talent and Films Included in the BAFTA Longlist
The Longlist for the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2012 has been released today and includes the Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board-funded films THE GUARD and AS IF I AM NOT THERE and Irish talent Brendan Gleeson and Michael Fassbender.
The Longlist is the result of Round One voting by members of the Academy. With 285 films entered this year, the first round of voting reduced the list of eligible films to 15 in each category. Round Two voting, which opens today, will reduce these 15 contenders down to the five nominations in each category.
The John Michael McDonagh-written and directed THE GUARD has been included in the Longlist for Outstanding British Film and Best Original Screenplay while Brendan Gleeson, who plays Sgt Boyle in the film, has been included in the Longlist for Best Leading Actor.
Following on from it being Ireland's submission for the Best Foreign Language category for this year's Academy Awards, AS IF I AM NOT THERE is now included in the BAFTA Longlist for Best Film Not in the English Language. AS IF I AM NOT THERE is the feature debut from Irish writer/director Wilson. Set in the Balkans, developed and produced by Octagon Films in Bray and shot primarily in the Serbo-Croatian language, the creative control and talent behind the film is Irish (including writer/director Juanita Wilson, producer James Flynn, DP Tim Fleming and editor Nathan Nugent to name a few).
Irish actor Michael Fassbender has been included in the Longlist for Best Leading Actor alongside Brendan Gleeson for his role in Shame.
Nominations in all categories will be announced on Tuesday 17 January. The winners will be announced at the Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 12 February.
More About THE GUARD
THE GUARD, directed by John Michael McDonagh is a comedy-thriller starring Brendan Gleeson as an unorthodox Irish policeman who joins forces with a straitlaced FBI agent, played by Don Cheadle, to take on an international drug-smuggling gang.
THE GUARD is an Irish/UK co-production, backed by Bord Scannán na hÉireann/the Irish Film Board and Section 481 as well as international financiers. It's produced by Chris Clark and Flora Fernandez Marengo for Reprisal Films and Ed Guiney (Garage) and Andrew Lowe (The Wind that Shakes the Barley) for Element Pictures. It is the most successful independent Irish film in Irish box office history.
More About AS IF I AM NOT THERE
Starring Natasa Petrovic and Miraj Grbic, the As If I Am Not There is hard hitting true story from the Balkan War of the 1990's, based on Croatian journalist Slavenka Drakulic's book of the same name.
The story follows a young woman from Sarajevo whose life is shattered the day a young soldier walks into her apartment and tells her to pack her things. Rounded up with the other women from the village and imprisoned in a warehouse in a remote region of Bosnia, she quickly learns the rules of camp life. The day she is picked out to ‘entertain' the soldiers, the real nightmare begins.
Stripped of everything she ever had and facing the constant threat of death, she struggles against all the hatred she sees around her. In a final act of courage or madness, she decides to make one last stand: to dare to be herself. And this simple act saves her life.
The film is an official Irish/Macedonian/Swedish co-production from Octagon Films, Wide Eye Films, Sektor Film Skopje and Stella Nova Films with financial contribution from the Irish Film Board, the Swedish Film Institute/Film I Vast, Macedonian Film Fund, Section 481 investment and Eurimages.
More About the Longlist, Nominations and Winners
Over 6300 members of the Academy vote in three rounds to decide the Longlist, Nominations and Winners. All members vote in the first two rounds for all categories barring Documentary, Film Not in the English Language and Outstanding British Film, which are voted for by Chapters. In the final round, winners are voted for by specialist Chapters in all categories except for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Documentary and Film Not in the English Language and the four performance categories, which are voted for by all members.