The nominations for the Bowmore Scottish Screen Awards exclusively offer readers of The Sunday Times the chance to vote in Scotland’s democratic version of the Oscars. Be sure to cast your vote – and win the opportunity to attend this year’s glittering award ceremony
This has been an impressive past year for the Scottish film industry. Brian Cox cavorted around as King Agamemnon in the sword-and-sandals epic, Troy; the former lawyer Gerard Butler took on not one but two enigmatic leads in Phantom of the Opera and Dear Frankie; Atta Yaqub broke onto the big screen playing a lovelorn Glasgow boy in Ae Fond Kiss; and Mary Riggans took a break from her role as a smiley sweet shop owner in television’s Balamory to slot in a show-stopping performance as a chain-smoking grump in Dear Frankie.
The subject material for films in 2004 also fluctuated wildly — from forbidden love to absent fathers, Down’s syndrome, alcoholism, kidnapping and opera singers. Never has Scottish cinema seemed so diverse or exciting.
Such breadth of choice and stiff competition makes your job, deciding who to choose in the Bowmore Scottish Screen awards, all the more difficult. Readers of The Sunday Times Scotland have a little less than two weeks left to vote for the awards, presented for outstanding achievements in Scottish film.
Cast your vote by filling in and posting the coupon below. The first 1,000 entries will receive a free miniature of Bowmore single malt whisky.
Alternatively, you can vote online here until Saturday, February 5, at 5pm.
Who knows, you might just be one of the two lucky readers who will be picked to attend the awards ceremony in person when it takes place in the spring. The award nominations are:
Best film: AfterLife, Blind Flight, Dear Frankie, Ae Fond Kiss, Sixteen Years of Alcohol
Best film-maker: Andrea Gibb, Richard Jobson, Paul McGuigan, Alison Peebles, Michael Radford
Best actor: Ewen Bremner, Gerard Butler, Brian Cox, Kevin McKidd, Atta Yaqub
Best actress: Shamshad Akhtar, Lindsay Duncan, Mary Riggans, Paula Sage, Sharon Small