Mark Jenkin's Masterpiece 'Bait' now Twice BAFTA Nominated

Mark Jenkin’s masterpiece ‘Bait’ continues to gather widespread critical acclaim, most recently two BAFTA nominations including ‘Outstanding British Film’ and ‘Outstanding Debut but a British Writer, Director or Producer’. 

This latest accolade follows numerous other award nominations including the British Independent Film Awards (Best Director, Best Independent Film, Breakthrough Producer (winner), Best Editing), Edinburgh International Film Festival (Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film), Screen Awards (best British Film (winner)), London Critics Circle Film Awards (Best British / Irish Film, Breakthrough Film Maker), Galway Film Fleadh (Best International Film), IndiLisboa International Independent Film Festival (Audience Award for Best Feature Film (winner),International Competition - Grand Prize City of Lisbon) , Istanbul International Film Festival (Golden Tulip Award), Montreal Festival of New Cinema (Prix de l’expérimentation), Stockholm International Film Festival (Best Director (winner), Best Film) and New Horizons Film Festival (Audience Award for Best Film (winner), Grand Prix (winner))

Mark Kermode gave a glowing review of the film, describing it as "a genuine modern masterpiece, which establishes Jenkin as one of the most arresting and intriguing British film-makers of his generation". He later named Bait his favourite film of 2019 crediting it as "One of the defining British films of the decade". Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian called the film "intriguing and unexpectedly watchable", in a four-star review that remarked on the experimental nature of the film. In addition ‘Bait holds a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and a score of 84 on Metacritic. 

Starring Edward Rowe as a struggling fisherman, the film deals with the tensions that arise between locals and tourists in a Cornish fishing village against a back drop of second homes, short-term lets and gentrification.

Shot with a single lens for a consistency of aesthetic. A total of 130 rolls or 13,000 ft of film was hand-processed by Jenkin himself using an antique Bakelite rewind tank and vitamin powder. No two rolls come out the same. Two Bolex H16s cameras were used on the shoot. The second camera (used for the slow motion sequences running at 54fps) was given to Jenkin by retired DP Peter Smithson who had used it to shoot sequences for David Attenborough documentaries during the 80s and 90s. This 'B' camera dates from the 60s, whilst the 'A' camera was built in 1976, the year Jenkin was born. Since the film was shot on a wind up bolex, sound couldn't be recorded on set. All the dialogue was then dubbed in post production. 

'Bronco’s House’ was Jenkin's first foray into hand-processed celluloid narrative filmmaking and featured in Anima Mundi’s recent exhibition ‘Protected by Alarms’. This followed his solo exhibition at Anima Mundi consisting of still images and his handmade short film work ‘An Air that Kills’.