The nominations for the 88th Academy Awards have been announced and we’re thrilled that two Ingenious films are continuing their stellar run this awards season with nine nominations.

Among the films with the highest nominations this year is Carol, backed by our Shelley Media fund, which received 6 nominations. Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara have been nominated for best actress and best supporting actress respectively and the film has also received nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Cinematography, Best Original Score and Best Costume Design.

Brooklyn, also backed by Shelley, is nominated for the highly coveted Best Picture award as well as Best Actress for Saiorse Ronan, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

The annual awards ceremony will take place on Sunday 28 February in Los Angeles.

The nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards in 2016 have been announced and we’re thrilled that a number of films supported by Ingenious have received such acclaim.

Carol, backed by our Shelley Media fund, leads this year’s BAFTA selection with a formidable nine nominations across a number of categories. An adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1950s novel, Carol is set in 1950s New York and tells the story of a department-store clerk, Therese (Rooney Mara) who falls for an older, married woman, Carol (Cate Blanchett). The film is nominated for Best Film, Director for Todd Haynes, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Costume Design and Make Up & Hair. Cate Blanchett has been nominated for Leading Actress and Rooney Mara for Supporting Actress.

Dilemma and decision sits at the heart of Brooklyn, a stunning adaptation of Colm Tóibín’s bestselling novel that follows young Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) as she emigrates from rural Ireland to New York. Also supported by our Shelley Media fund, the film follows with an impressive six nominations – for Outstanding British Film, Adapted Screenplay, Costume Design and Make Up & Hair, with two further accolades for Saoirse Ronan in Leading Actress and Julie Walters in Supporting Actress.

The annual awards ceremony will take place on Sunday 14 February at the Royal Opera House, London – two weeks before the Oscars.

The 27th Palm Springs International Film Festival took place in California this week with many of the expected main players in this year’s awards season attending. Eleven awards were given out during the annual event, with the winners announced beforehand.

Carol star Cate Blanchett received the Desert Palm achievement award while Saoirse Ronan won the coveted International Star award for her role in Brooklyn. Blanchett thanked the festival for giving its honourees ‘a moment of glory’ even if ‘we are not nominated for any other award’.

Both actresses have received nominations for this year’s Golden Globe awards for their performances. Carol is also in the running for best picture, best director and best score making it the most nominated film in this year’s awards.

Both films were backed by our Shelley Media Fund.

A United Kingdom will open the BFI London Film Festival on 5 October 2016, marking the second consecutive year that an Ingenious production has headlined the 60-year-old event.  Directed by Amma Asante, the drama stars David Oyelowo (Selma) and Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl) and will make its European premiere at the LFF.

Set in the late 1940s, A United Kingdom depicts the controversial marriage of Prince Seretse Khama of Botswana (Oyelowo) and British office worker Ruth Williams (Pike), in the face of fierce international opposition.

Other cast members include Jack Davenport (Pirates of the Caribbean), Terry Pheto (Mandela), Tom Felton (Harry Potter) and Laura Carmichael (Downton Abbey) with the screenplay written by Guy Hibbert (Eye in the Sky). 

The film is produced by Rick McCallum (Star Wars), David Oyelowo, Justin Moore-Lewy, Brunson Green (The Help) and Charlie Mason. Executive producers are Cameron McCracken (Pathé), Christine Langan (BBC Films), Ben Roberts (BFI), Eleanor Clark Windo (Ingenious Media) and Guy Hibbert.

Asante is the second consecutive female director to open the festival, following on from Ingenious’ Suffragette in 2015, directed by Sarah Gavron. 

The festival will run from October 5 – 16 and the full programme of events will be released on 1 September.