Director Greengrass to be honoured at film awards

Greengrass was up for an Oscar for United 93

Bourne Supremacy director Paul Greengrass is to be honoured at the Moet British Independent Film Awards.

He will receive the Variety award at the London ceremony on 8 December for helping "focus the international spotlight on the UK".

Greengrass was Oscar-nominated in 2007 for United 93, about the flight that was hijacked during the 11 September attacks. The film also won two Baftas.

His 2002 film Bloody Sunday won the Golden Bear at Berlin Film Festival.

It was also given the world cinema audience award at the Sundance Film Festival.

Bloody Sunday, which starred James Nesbitt, was a dramatisation of the shooting dead of 13 people by soldiers in Londonderry on Bloody Sunday in 1972.

Political films

Greengrass, who also directed Matt Damon thriller The Bourne Ultimatum, also directed the 2013 film Captain Philips, starring Tom Hanks, about a merchant mariner taken hostage by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean in 2009.

The director has also written and directed TV films on social and political issues, including 2000's Bafta-winning The Murder of Stephen Lawrence and 2004's Omagh.

Last year, the Variety award was given to actor Jude Law, while other recipients include Sir Kenneth Branagh, Liam Neeson, Sir Michael Caine, Daniel Craig, Dame Helen Mirren and Richard Curtis.

This year's awards, hosted by Nesbitt, will see Steve Coogan and Judi Dench up for best actor and actress for their roles in Philomena.

The pair are up against Jim Broadbent and Lindsay Duncan for Le Week-End, about a married couple's trip to Paris.

The most nominated film is prison drama Starred Up, with eight nominations - including best film.

The contenders for best film are:

• Metro Manila

• Philomena

• The Selfish Giant

• Starred Up

• Le Week-end

The awards ceremony will be streamed exclusively live on www.film3sixty.com/moetbifa from 2000 GMT.