In Bruges, Hunger and Slumdog lead 2008 BAFTA noms

Steve McQueen’s directorial debut has rocked the film festival circuit and will, as I had predicted minutes after living through the filmic experience that is known as Hunger back in Cannes, have swept up not only a slew of nominations at this year’s British Independent Film Awards, but walk away as 2008’s big winner. Variety, an official media partner for the award night set for the 30th of next month announced today that the film has been nominated in 7 categories and will easily claim the Best Picture, Director, Actor and Best Technical Achievements categories.

While the complete list hasn’t yet been made available (look for the update soon), another likely shoe-in win will probably be Sally Hawkins in the Best Actress category for her part in Mike Leigh’s dram rom com. Strangely enough, a film that I’ve completely forgotten about tied with Hunger with an equal number of nominations with seven is Martin McDonagh’s comedy noir In Bruges. Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire received 6 nominations and looks poised to walk away with at least the Best Screenplay award while James Marsh’s Man on Wire will most likely walk with the Best Documentary.