Debut Director Long List

Sunday, November 1, 2015

Moët BIFA 2015 Debut Director Long List Revealed

20 new directors included on long list for The Douglas Hickox Award

London, Monday 2 November: Behind the scenes, before the nominations are announced on Tuesday, BIFA voters have watched thousands of hours of films to narrow down the field to just five. Over two rounds of voting and many hours of discussion, the Debut Director sub-group has slowly identified the best in the field of nearly 60 entries.

Before this year BIFA hasn’t revealed the long list of films, the stage just before the nominations. But this year BIFA and the Debut voters were so impressed with what they saw they wanted to share this list of twenty new voices.

Pippa Cross, chair of the sub-group, said that “There is so much potential and talent in this list, we had to share it. We want to congratulate all of these promising new filmmakers and let the future British film industry know that it is in safe hands. We will all be fascinated to see how these new directors develop and hone their crafts.”

The award is presented as The Douglas Hickox Award, in honour of the director of Entertaining Mr Sloane, Theatre of Blood and Zulu Dawn.

The directors on the long list are:

Steve Oram for Aaaaaaaah!

Chanya Button for Burn Burn Burn

William Fairman, Max Gogarty for Chemsex

Joe Stephenson for Chicken

Richard Raymond for Desert Dancer

Corin Hardy for The Hallow 

Jake Gavin for Hector

Paul Katis for Kajaki: The True Story

Robert Carlyle for The Legend of Barney Thomson

Howard Webster for Meet Pursuit Delange

Chris & Ben Blaine for Nina Forever

David Farr for The Ones Below

David Leon for Orthodox

Ben Sharrock for Pikadero

The Shammasian Brothers for The Pyramid Texts

Mark Burton, Richard Starzak for Shaun the Sheep: The Movie

John Maclean for Slow West

Stephen Fingleton for The Survivalist

Helen Walsh for The Violators

Heidi Greensmith for Winter

The final list of five nominees will be announced tomorrow morning, Tuesday 3 November.

More on the films is available at https://www.bifa.film/awards/news/debut-director-long-list

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