The Michael Powell Award for Best New British Feature Film is one of the most highly-regarded honours on the festival circuit and since 1993 the prize has been awarded to groundbreaking films by directors such as Derek Jarman, Michael Winterbottom and Shane Meadows.

Other previous winners include Anton Corbijn's Control in 2007 and there’s no shortage of biopics this year.

Nick Moran’s The Kid charts the rise of crime writer Kevin Lewis from tough London council estate to bestselling author (played by Rupert Friend), while in the much-anticipated Mr. Nice, Bernard Rose casts Rhys Ifans as the infamous Howard Marks, one-time Oxford physics graduate turned drug-dealer, spy and eventual author.

Love and relationships in more or less benign forms are present as ever. brilliantlove is centred on the heady young love of a photographer and his taxidermist girlfriend whose relationship is threatened by his sudden success. Can a summer fling survive the media frenzy?

Karl Golden’s Pelican Blood gives us the equally odd couple of a birdwatcher and an environmental activist-come-temptress who pushes the ornithologist to break the law.

Old friend of the Festival, Paul Andrew Williams (London to Brighton, EIFF 2006) exploits domestic tensions in his thriller Cherry Tree Lane, featuring a professional couple whose mutual indifference is disturbed when an angry gang come in search of their son.

Hidden pasts are unearthed in Skeletons with Nick Whitfield’s answer to Ghostbusters in the form of emotional exorcists Davis and Bennett, whose personal feelings conflict with their professional lives in this dark comedy. Humour is the antidote in Ollie Kepler’s Expanding Purple World where science buff Edward Hogg’s sanity is tested by the death of a loved one, and comedian Ben Miller takes a swipe at the male-dominated British comedy circuit in the star-studded Huge.

SoulBoy looks to the Northern Soul scene of seventies Wigan, Shimmy Marcus’s take on the coming-of-age film is steeped in the fashion, culture and tensions that shaped young lives during the decade.

Last, but very much not least, is the Brit animation Jackboots on Whitehall. Edward and Rory McHenry reanimate and rewrite WWII history; Hitler has invaded London and Churchill is hiding in Scotland. With voiceovers from famous Brits such as Ewan McGregor and Alan Cumming, this loose satirical treatment of the past is bound to attract attention.

So who will be picking up the Michael Powell Award in 2010? With such a great range of films, it’s set to be the fiercest competition for some years.

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