The DIY movie boom

Amid all the backslapping and self-important speeches, awards ceremonies are always a good place to take stock. In little under a month, the British Independent Film Awards (the Bifas) will take place in London. Last year, Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire was announced as the Best British Independent Film there, prefacing its clean sweep at the Golden Globes, Baftas and Oscars. If that was a first for the Bifas – none of the other winners in its 11-year history had ever claimed a Best Picture Oscar before – it certainly showed one thing: that British independent film has the ability to compete with Hollywood.

This year is no different. There may be no Slumdog-sized global hit here, but a swift glance at the five Best Film nominees shows that British independent film is as healthy as it's been in years. Be it Armando Iannucci's political satire In the Loop, Duncan Jones's cerebral sci-fi Moon, Andrea Arnold's Cannes Jury Prize-winning Fish Tank, Sam Taylor-Wood's forthcoming John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy, or Lone Scherfig's delightful coming-of-age drama An Education, each would be a worthy winner. And that's not taking into account the more out-there films up for other awards – from the prison drama Bronson to this month's Mighty Boosh-inspired Bunny and the Bull.

"The big story for us this year is that we had more than 200 films submitted," says Bifa's director, Johanna von Fischer. "That does include foreign films or shorts, but the amount of British independent feature films that were submitted to Bifa this year was beyond any other year ever." While she points out that many won't get distribution, there are plenty that do.

"As somebody said to me, 'look at the list of films that haven't been included in Bifa, then you start to realise how good this year has been'. There are a lot of films missing that probably should be there. Or there are films that have only achieved one nomination."

Indeed, when you consider such one-nominee films as Dominic Murphy's White Lightnin', Tom Hooper's The Damned United and even entries from stalwarts, such as Ken Loach's Looking for Eric and Terry Gilliam's The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus, it's beginning to seem like a vintage year. And that's before you take into account something like Marc Price's recently released zombie movie Colin. Said to have been made for a staggeringly low £45, it's up for the Raindance Award – a remarkable achievement for such a shoestring production. Then there's Peter Strickland's Romanian-set revenge drama Katalin Varga – perhaps the only film that can truly lay claim to the words "British independent film", given it was made entirely outside the clutches of the British film industry.

But therein lies the problem: trying to figure out the current state of the British independent film scene is a bit like chasing shadows. What with overseas financing, international co-productions, foreign directors and so on, what makes a film British is hard enough to define. Then add in what makes it independent, and you open up a whole new can of film. Unlike so-called US indie cinema – which boasts a strong identity thanks to the success of the Sundance Film Festival – the British scene is much harder to characterise.

Take Mike Leigh's latest, as-yet untitled project, currently in production. Can it claim to be independent when it is receiving its money from Film4, the UK Film Council and Focus Features (a subsidiary of the Hollywood studio Universal Pictures)? What's more, does it really matter? With the exception of those made by Working Title – the British outfit behind the likes of Notting Hill and The Boat That Rocked that also has strong ties with Universal – surely the majority of British films are independent, given that they're often instigated by a producer who is forced to seek out finances from all over the globe?

Yet according to Paul Andrew Williams, the director of the critically acclaimed London to Brighton, using the phrase "independent" when talking about a British film is rather moot. "You don't ring up an agent and say, 'we've got this independent film we're making'. You're more likely to hear, 'we're doing a low-budget film'. In America, you have an independent film community and independent film is taken a little bit more seriously than in this country – because [here] they're not independent films, they're low-budget films."

Williams may have a point – "low budget" does carry a negative connotation compared to the more freewheeling "independent". After all, consider all the aforementioned directors – as well as the likes of Michael Winterbottom and Shane Meadows – and the current British film-making scene seems every bit as vibrant as what's happening in the US right now. "There is always a community of film-makers here who want to make films," shrugs Williams, "and people who are in the process of making or developing or doing something with regards to independent film or low-budget film-making, or whatever you want to call it. But getting that sort of film to the screens is becoming more and more difficult."

Indeed, home-grown films still struggle to find a place in our local cinemas, primarily because the predominant multiplexes (understandably) clog up screens with the latest lucrative blockbusters. "It boils down to what the public is given as an option to go and watch," adds Williams, who has just completed shooting his third film, Cherry Tree Lane. "I think something needs to be done. There are independent chains of cinemas which do a really brilliant job in getting the smaller films seen by people. But you still have to search them out."

If getting the films out there is tough, it doesn't help matters that some major funding bodies are facing uncertainty. Notably, Film4 may well see its annual £14m budget cut back in an attempt to help reduce the financial woe of its recession-hit parent company, Channel 4. As von Fischer points out: "I do wonder if next year is going to be different, as a lot of the films in this year's awards were greenlit before the [economic] craziness." Perhaps so. But there will always be directors such as Williams willing to have a go.

"It's all about the job and making it," he says. "I think that's why people make these smaller British films. Anyone doing it for money is probably directing Hollyoaks."

The Bifas will take place on 6 December

MAKE YOUR OWN MOVIE FOR £5,000

To celebrate the launch of Sky Movies Indie HD channel, Sky Movies, in association with "The Independent" and Skillset, is offering one independent film-maker the unique opportunity to have their HD film financed and broadcast by Sky. To take part, send a one-page treatment for a ten-minute HD short film to hdshortmovie@bskyb.com or by post to: Sky Movies Indie HD – Short Film Competition, BSkyB Ltd, Grant Way, Isleworth, Middlesex, TW7 5QD. The winner will be awarded £5,000 for equipment hire to shoot and edit their film in High Definition, with the film to be shown on Sky Movies Indie HD in the new year. A panel of industry experts will consider these treatments including Sky Movies’ Movie Geek presenter Josh Howie and the winner will receive tailored advice from Skillset to help them make their film. The competition closes at midday on Friday 4 December. For further information on the competition go to www.skymovies.com/independentfilmcompetition