Ashley Walters' directorial debut Animol earned seven nominations from the British Independent Film Awards on Tuesday, placing the Top Boy star's first feature among the most-recognized films in this year's race. Simon Stone's Elsinore led the field with 12 nominations, including best British independent film, according to the full nominations list published at BIFA
Clio Barnard's I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning came in second with eight nominations.
A breakout morning for the 'Animol' cast
Walters is up for the Douglas Hickox Award, which honors the best debut director. Two of his young actors scored double recognition: Tut Nyuot is nominated for best lead performance and Sekou Diaby for best supporting performance, and both also landed in the breakthrough performance category. Rounding out the film's haul are nominations for casting director Heather Basten and breakthrough producer Tom Hawkins.
Jonathan Jules also picked up two nods, for lead and breakthrough performance, in Billy Lumby's Florid. He joins Nyuot, Andrew Scott (Elsinore), Juliette Binoche (Queen at Sea), Erin Doherty (Faith) and Leisa Gwenllian (Effi O Blaenau) in the lead performance race. In the editing category, Otto Burnham was recognized for Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story.
The best British independent film nominees are Effi O Blaenau, Elsinore, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, Queen at Sea and Mike Leigh's Tender Loving Care. Barnard, Leigh and Stone are nominated for best director alongside Andrew Haigh (A Long Winter) and Mark Jenkin (Rose of Nevada).
The best international independent film category features several titles already moving through the American awards circuit: Ryusuke Hamaguchi's All of a Sudden, Club Kid, La Bola Negra, La Gradiva and Lee Chang-dong's Possible Love. Several of those films also appear on this year's Gotham Awards ballot, and La Bola Negra recently won top honors at the Hamptons International Film Festival alongside Elsinore. Read our full coverage of La Bola Negra.
For Walters, the recognition caps a busy stretch that also includes his casting in HBO's Dune: Prophecy season 2. BIFA will announce its craft winners Nov. 24, with the remaining categories presented Dec. 6.
