The 16th British Independent Film Awards , held on 8 December 2013 in London, were hosted by James Nesbitt. [1] The awards honoured the best British independent films of 2013.
Given to a British director on their debut feature.
Stephen John Coogan is an English actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. He is best known for creating and portraying Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which he developed while working with Armando Iannucci and Chris Morris on On the Hour and The Day Today. Partridge has featured in several television series such as I'm Alan Partridge (1997–2002) and the film Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa (2013). Coogan has earned accolades such as four BAFTA Awards and three British Comedy Awards, and nominations for two Academy Awards and a Golden Globe Award.
Martin Sixsmith is a British author and radio/television presenter, primarily working for the BBC. He has also worked as an adviser to the Labour government and to the BBC television comedy series The Thick of It. Sixsmith's book about Philomena Lee, The Lost Child of Philomena Lee, was the basis for the 2013 film Philomena, in which Sixsmith is played by Steve Coogan.
Sir Stephen Arthur Frears is a British director and producer of film and television, often depicting real life stories as well as projects that explore social class through sharply-drawn characters. He has received numerous accolades including three BAFTA Awards, and a Primetime Emmy Award as well as nominations for two Academy Awards. In 2008, The Daily Telegraph named Frears among the 100 most influential people in British culture. In 2009, he received the Commandeur de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. He received a knighthood in 2023 for his contributions to the film and television industries.
Baby Cow Productions Limited is a British comedy television production company based in London and Manchester, founded by Steve Coogan and Henry Normal. Since its establishment it has diversified into radio, animation and film. According to their website, Baby Cow "produces bold, high-quality scripted entertainment across all genres for television, film and radio." The company's name is a reference to Coogan's early characters Paul and Pauline Calf.
Joseph Wright is an English film director. His motion pictures include adaptations of Pride & Prejudice (2005), Atonement (2007), Anna Karenina (2012), and Cyrano (2021), the action thriller Hanna (2011), the Peter Pan origin story Pan (2015) and Darkest Hour (2017).
Timothy Key is an English poet, comedian, actor and screenwriter. He has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, both as a solo act and as part of the comedy group Cowards, and plays Alan Partridge's sidekick Simon in film and television. In 2009, he won the Edinburgh Comedy Award and was nominated for the Malcolm Hardee Award for Comic Originality.
Stephen John Oram is an English actor, comedian, writer, and filmmaker. He is known for his role in the multi-award winning 2012 film Sightseers, which he also co-wrote. His other credits include People Like Us (2001), It's All Gone Pete Tong (2004), Tittybangbang (2006–2007), Suburban Shootout (2006), The Mighty Boosh (2007), Connections (2008), The World's End (2013), Wipers Times (2013), The Secrets (2014), The Canal (2014), Altar (2014), Paddington (2014), Glue (2014), Aaaaaaaah! (2015), The Living and the Dead (2016), A Dark Song (2016), The End of the F***ing World (2017–2019), Ghosts (2019), Doctor Who (2021), Killing Eve (2022), and D.I Ray (2022–2023).
BBC Film is the feature film-making arm of the BBC. It was founded on 18 June 1990, and has produced or co-produced some of the most successful British films of recent years, including Truly, Madly, Deeply, Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa, Quartet, Salmon Fishing in the Yemen, Saving Mr. Banks, My Week with Marilyn, Eastern Promises, Match Point, Jane Eyre, In the Loop, An Education, StreetDance 3D, Fish Tank, The History Boys, Nativity!, Iris, Notes on a Scandal, Philomena, Stan & Ollie, Man Up, Billy Elliot and Brooklyn.
Life's Too Short is a British mockumentary sitcom created and written by Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant, and starring Warwick Davis, about "the life of a showbiz dwarf." Davis plays a fictionalised version of himself, and both Gervais and Merchant appear in supporting roles as themselves. The show began airing on BBC Two on 10 November 2011. Premium cable channel HBO, which co-produced the series with the BBC, has the US rights and aired the series from 19 February 2012.
Resurrected is a 1989 British drama film directed by Paul Greengrass in his directorial debut. Written by Martin Allen, and starring David Thewlis, it is based on the story of the British soldier Philip Williams.
Harry Escott is a British composer living in London. He has composed the scores to several films, including Shame (2011), Hard Candy (2005), A Mighty Heart (2007), and Ali & Ava (2021), for which he won a British Independent Film Award for best music. He is a frequent collaborator with Michael Winterbottom,, Paddy Considine (Journeyman), Steve McQueen (director) and Clio Barnard. His score for Dark River included a song co-written with PJ Harvey, "An Acre of Land", released on Cognitive Shift Recordings.
Aneurin Barnard is a Welsh actor. He is known for playing Davey in Hunky Dory, Claude in The Truth About Emanuel, Bobby Willis in Cilla, Tim in Thirteen, King Richard III in The White Queen, William in Dead in a Week or Your Money Back, Gibson in Dunkirk, and Boris Pavlikovsky in The Goldfinch.
Warp X is a British film production company, sister to Warp Films based in Sheffield, UK with further offices in Nottingham and London. The company was founded in 2005 and produces feature films.
The Selfish Giant is a 2013 British coming-of-age drama film written and directed by Clio Barnard. Inspired by Oscar Wilde's short story of the same name, it stars Conner Chapman and Shaun Thomas as two teenage boys who get caught up in the world of copper theft. Sean Gilder, Lorraine Ashbourne, Ian Burfield, Steve Evets, Siobhan Finneran, Ralph Ineson, Rebecca Manley, Rhys McCoy, and Elliott Tittensor appear in supporting roles.
The 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) took place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada between September 5 and 15, 2013. The Fifth Estate was selected as the opening film and Life of Crime was the closing film. 75 films were added to the festival line-up in August. A total of 366 films from 70 countries were screened, including 146 world premieres.
Philomena is a 2013 drama film directed by Stephen Frears, based on the 2009 book The Lost Child of Philomena Lee by journalist Martin Sixsmith. The film stars Judi Dench as Philomena Lee, an elderly woman who has been searching for her son for 50 years, and Sixsmith's efforts to help her find him.
Clio Barnard is a British director of documentary and feature films. She won widespread critical acclaim and multiple awards for her debut, The Arbor, an experimental documentary about Bradford playwright Andrea Dunbar. In 2013 she was hailed as a significant new voice in British cinema for her film The Selfish Giant, which premiered in the Director's Fortnight section of the Cannes Film Festival.
The 34th London Film Critics' Circle Awards, honouring the best in film for 2013, were announced by the London Film Critics' Circle on 2 February 2014.