The Arbor’s Clio Barnard took the prize for Best Debut Director, while The King’s Speech held court with 4 wins and 8 nominations at yesterday’s British Independent Film Awards.

It’s been a big year for Ms. Barnard. Along with The Arbor’s 5 other nominations at last night’s BIFAs, the director was awarded the title of Best New Documentary Filmmaker at TFF 2010. Soon after this win, The Arbor was picked up by Strand Releasing and is scheduled to screen at Film Forum this April.



Barnard’s innovative hybrid-doc feature, tells the tragic story of Andrea Dunbar, a British playwright who found fame in her teens during the '80's with works such as Rita Sue and Bob Too (also now a film), before her death at age 29. Tribeca wishes this little engine more of the same in 2011.

Also victorious was a recent Gucci Tribeca Documentary Fund recipient, Enemies of the People. The film beat out The Arbor and Lucy Walker’s Waste Land to claim the BIFA for Best Documentary. Rob Lemkin’s film exposes the chilling truth about genocide in Cambodia at the hands of the Khmer Rouge.



Enemies of the People had its U.S. premiere at Sundance 2010, where it received the World Cinema Special Jury Prize: Documentary. It was also named the 2010 True Life Fund Film at the True/False Film Fest and more recently, won the Annie Dellinger Grand Jury Prize and the Charles Guggenheim Emerging Artist Award at the Full Frame Documentary Film Festival.

Crowned head of the night was The King’s Speech, which received eight nominations and four wins for Best Film, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush). No doubt we can expect more gold for this magnate come March.

Possible Oscar competitor Never Let Me Go reaped six noms and one win with Carey Mulligan for Best Actress. Mulligan beat out her Never Let Me Go co-star Sally Hawkins, nominated for her role in Made in Dagenham, a critic favorite that received four noms but no love from its Brit natives.



Best Director went to Gareth Edwards for his monsters/road trip romance film Monsters, also awarded Best Acheivement in Production and Best Technical Acheivement. Oscar-nommed A Prophet beat out hot ticket Winter’s Bone for Best Foreign Film, and controversial jihad spoof Four Lions was shut out despite its four nominations. Perhaps a reminder of comedy’s most essential aspect: timing.

Watch the trailer for The Arbor and catch it at Film Forum this April: