Five of the best

One of the most prestigious BAFTA awards used to be called The Carl Foreman Award, named after the late, great American writer/producer/director who after tangling with the Hollywood anti-Red 'witchhunts' of the early 1950s decided to make his home in the UK.

His screenplays ranged from High Noon and Young Winston to The Guns of Navarone and Bridge on the River Kwai.

The BAFTA category is now called 'Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer' and this year contains nominees that all in their own way contain elements of daring that made Foreman, who died in 1984, such a major player.

Three of the titles - Coriolanus, Submarine and Tyrannosaur - cite actors who've turned feature director for the first time: respectively, Ralph Fiennes, Richard Ayoade and Paddy Considine, while a fourth, Attack the Block, recognises experienced TV and radio performer, Joe Cornish of Adam & Joe fame.

However, tucked in there, too, is recognition of the whole team - former Casualty actor Will Sharpe, Tom Kingsley and Sarah Brocklehurst - behind an altogether lower-profile title, the microbudgeted Black Pond (below), an offbeat comedy-drama.

Foreman, who despite his prolific producing and writing credits, only ever actually directed one movie, anti-war drama The Victors, would, you suspect, have admired this eclectic quintet of British films and filmmakers.