Last year's British circuit was just dire, with "The King's Speech" blinding the market from the choices of logical thinking. This year brought us back to the class and quality we expect of the British cinema industry. But if there's anything that the British Independent Film Awards are commendable for, it's for putting Chris O'Dowd in the glorious hosting seat. Getting consistently more drunk with every second going by, the man was able to keep things at such a hilarious clip so as to not get sidetracked. He really stole the focus from the wonderful films being represented, which isn't at all a bad thing. He did what a good host should do. He took focus away from whatever disappointments there might have been.
But to be perfectly honest, there was nary a single disappointment in the pot this year. It was absolutely fantastic to see those deserving get appreciated, between "Tyrannosaur", "Shame", "Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy", "Senna", and more. If nothing else, I'm beating myself up even more now for not having the chance to see "Weekend" yet. Along with "Tyrannosaur", it's placed towards the top of my hit list for the rest of the year. I was getting worried that "We Need to Talk About Kevin" would go on unnoticed for the evening, until Lynne Ramsay thankfully took Best Director. With all the focus on Tilda Swinton, it's easy to overlook Ramsay's absolutely brilliant work. Ultimately, the big winner ended up being "Tyrannosaur", with three wins before the evening was out, including the top prize. You can see the full list of winners after the jump!
