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Jessie Buckley, the lead actress in Jersey-born director Michael Pearce' debut movie 'Beast,' has been named the 'Most Promising Newcomer' at the 21st British Independent Film Awards.
Beast was up for four BIFAs, which recognise promising newcomers in directing, writing, production and performance, including Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Debut Director and Best Actress.
While most of those were lost to 'The Favourite,' Jessie took home the award for 'Most Promising Newcomer.'
In 'Beast,' she portrayed Moll, the heroine of the movie, who feels trapped in her own family, a troubled heroine in an uneasy atmosphere. Oscillating between a happy young girl falling in love with Pascal – a charismatic Johnny Flynn - and darker sentiments, Jessie showed a palette of emotions, including some very unnerving ones, brilliantly.
Filmed in Jersey, where Pearce grew up, ‘Beast’ was only loosely inspired by Beast of Jersey’s crimes and focused on the feelings the crimes inspired.
It premiered at Toronto Film Festival in September 2017 and was highly praised nationally and internationally - it received a nomination for a European Film Academy Award and making it onto The Guardian’s ‘Best films of 2018 so far’ list.
Pictured: 'Beast' was Jersey-born director Michael Pearce's debut movie.
News of the BIFA nominations, which are some of the most sought-after awards in the industry, came in the same week as Pearce was selected to direct 'Invasion', a Film 4 production based on a screenplay by the writer of Channel 4 series 'Humans.'
Speaking to Screen Daily, Katherine Butler, who runs the TV and Drama team for Raw, a production company that will work with Film4, said: "We loved Michael’s short film Rite, and when we saw the hugely accomplished Beast we felt Michael had surpassed all our expectations – the brilliantly unnerving genre-warping tension that Michael found, coupled with the incredible performances he drew out of his leads made it crystal clear to us that he would do something extraordinary with Joe’s riveting script.”
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