Visual artists Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard have won the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director category) at The 17th Annual British Independent Film Awards.
The first-time feature filmmakers were lauded for their cinematically staged 20,000 Days on Earth – a day-in-a-life of musician and songwriter Nick Cave. Inspired by a line in Cave’s songwriting notebook, in which he calculated being alive for this amount of time, the feature blends fiction and documentary to reveal previously unseen moments in his life and creative cycle.
Speaking about the film upon its release earlier this year, Cave said: “Iain and Jane have succeeded in getting what they wanted with very few compromises. That’s been one of the most heartening things for me. It has restored my faith in film!”
Forsyth added: “We wanted to portray the Nick that tells stories, that thinks, that weaves myths, the man who is constantly churning everything through the mill of the imagination. But the big secret, which we never told anyone, was that we were always prepared to fail. There’s a freeing up that happens when you accept failure as a very real option.”
Forsyth & Pollard were selected from the five-strong shortlist that also included Daniel Wolfe and Matthew Wolfe for Catch Me Daddy, Hong Khaou for Lilting, Morgan Matthews for X+Y and Yann Demange for ’71.
The 2014 jury, chaired by Academy Award winner Tom Hooper, was comprised of Stanley Tucci, Luke Treadaway, Thea Sharrock, Jonathan Romney, Tracy O’Riordan, Shira MacLeod, Tinge Krishnan, Sean Ellis, Jon S Baird and Zawe Ashton.
Visit the 20,000 Days on Earth website for details of forthcoming screenings
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Ursula Mayer wins 2014 Jarman Award
Steve McQueen reveals his next film will be about Paul Robeson
