BAFTA New Talent Scotland Awards – Shortlist announced

The shortlist for this year's BAFTA New Talent Scotland Awards has been announced today, with recognition given to some of Scotland's best emerging filmmakers across a range of disciplines, genres and styles. Giving burgeoning talent a chance to shwocase their work to the industry at large, this year's shortlist reflects the breadth and diversity of Scotland's filmmaking community, with 36 nominees selected across 12 categories.

This year's festival sees a new category – Production Design – added to the Awards, with all of the 12 winning nominees in each category going on to compete for the coveted Best New Work Award, won in 2013 by animated feature Hannah and the Moon. Also recognised in last year's awards was young actor Daniel Kerr, for his performance as Paul Ferris in The Wee Man, the youngest ever recipient of the award. 

"BAFTA Scotland is dedicated to nurturing emerging talent in Scotland and we’re very excited by the incredible quality of entrants to the Scotland New Talent Awards this year," says Jude MacLaverty, Director of BAFTA Scotland. "There’s no shortage of talent in Scotland today and we look forward to unveiling the winners later this month."

Many of the films and filmmakers nominated this year completed their entries while studying at one of Scotland's colleges and universities, including Edinburgh College of Art and The Royal Conservatoire. The winners of the 2014 BAFTA New Talent Scotland Awards will be unveiled in a ceremony on 25 March at The Arches in Glasgow, in a ceremony hosted by veteran broadcaster Muriel Gray. 

This year's nominees for best Acting Performance are Graeme McGeagh for A Practical Guide to Spectacular Suicide, Jasmine Main for Bear with Me, and Julie Speers for Wyld. In the Animation category, the nominations are Oana Nechifor for The House with No Doors, Alexandru Nechifor for In Sight, and Ross Hogg for Spectators. 

In the Comedy / Entertainment category, the nominees are Eric Romero for The Arsehole Gene, Marie-Cecile Murphy and Christopher Sneddon for Dolly's House, and Ruth Gallacher and Ally Lockhart for Fistpunch. The race for the award for best Director of Photography features Ian Forbes for Stovies, Ansgar Hoeckh for Judas Goat, and Laura Wadha for Hester.

The shortlist for best Editor features Jenny Crook for Situation Normal All Fucked Up, Sanja Marjanovic for BFF, and Conor Meechan for The Groundsman. The Factual category features Finding Family, from Carol Cooke, Garret Tankosic Kelly, Chris Leslie, and Oggi Tomic, Radio Silence from Duncan Cowles and Scott Willis, and Red Dust from Ilona Kacieja. The Groundsman's Jonny Blair and Kenny MacKay are also nominated in the best Fiction film category, alongside Eva Riley for Joyride, and Graham Hughes and Kirsty Hutton for A Practical Guide to Spectacular Suicide.

The category for best Game features 9.03M by Space Budgie, Attack of the Ghastly Grey Matter by Milksteak and the Jellybean, and Lub vs. Dub by Futuro. The category for best Original Music features Alec Cheer and Drew Wright's score for Sarah's Room, Tim Courtney for Sunsets & Silhouettes, and Jessica Jones for Hannah. The inagural award for Production Design is a competition between Sharon Kay for Loyal, Eve Murray for Black Night Broken, White Morning Woken, and Ailsa Williams for Hello From Earth.

The award for best Sound Design nominees are Will Cory for Sarah's Room, Paul Kowalik for Out of the Ash and Cliff Rossiter for Loyal. The best Writer category pits Jonny Blair for The Groundsman up against Michael Crumley for Hannah, and Gabriel Robertson for Bucket. We'll announce the winners here on The Skinny after the awards ceremony – keep your eyes on theskinny.co.uk/latest/news/film_news