Netflix horror film tipped for glory at Scottish Baftas
● Three stars of thriller Calibre will compete for best actor honour
A Netflix horror thriller set in the Highlands and filmed in a country park in West Lothian is leading the running for Bafta Scotland honours.
Edinburgh-based filmmaker Matt Palmer is up for best writer and best director for Calibre, which charts the nightmarish events that unfold for two friends after a tragic accident on a weekend hunting trip.
The three male stars of the film – Jack Lowden, Martin Mccann and Tony Curran – will compete in the best movie actor category.
Calibre – which has been praised by horror writing legend Stephen King since being launched on Netflix in the summer – won the Michael Powell Award for best British film at the 2018 Edinburgh International Film Festival.
Palmer’s debut feature, Calibre follows Vaughn and Carter as they attempt to cover up a tragedy before being turned on by a group of increasingly suspicious villagers.
Palmer, who shot Calibre at Beecraigs Country Park, will compete for best writer and director with Armando Iannucci, nominated for political satire The Death of Stalin.
Ella Hunt and Shauna Macdonald have earned best actress nods for their respective roles in two other horror films, Anna and the Apocalypse and White Chamber.
The Party’s Just Beginning, Karen Gillan’s debut feature
0 Awards host Edith Bowman launched the Bafta Scotland shortlists
as a director, which she shot around her native Inverness and also starred in, is up for best movie.
It will be up against Anna and the Apocalypse, a zombie musical set during the festive season, and Nae Pasaran, a documentary about a group of Scottish factory workers who defied Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet’s military regime.
Previous best TV actor winner Douglas Henshall is in
contention again for crime series Shetland, against Chris Reilly for BBC drama The Last Post and Jonathan Watson for sitcom Two Doors Down.
The A Word star Morven Christie, Kiran Sonia Sawar, for Netflix sci-fi series Black Mirror and Elaine C Smith for Two Doors Down are up for best TV actress.
Awards host Edith Bowman defended the lack of women recognised in the main writer and director categories, with Gillan being the sole female nominee.
Bowman said: “It’s really down to production companies and commissioners to give more jobs to women. That’s the way to have a bigger pool. But you can’t just vote for a woman because they’re a woman. There has to be more women in the mix.”