Spirit of Scotland Awards

This unique awards scheme gives you the opportunity to vote for the Scots who make us proud: the individuals who aim to exceed all expectations in their chosen fields and are pioneering new developments across Scotland’s rich cultural spectrum. This year you can vote for nominees in the fields of Food, Music, the Environment, Screen, Art, Business, Writing and Sport. The contenders in each category have been shortlisted by the awards judging panel but it is over to you to decide the winners.

Receiving a Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Award is now one of the country’s most sought-after tributes –made all the more important because the final winners are selected not by an elite few, but by you, the people of Scotland. Last year, readers cast their votes by the thousand for winners including singer/songwriter Paolo Nutini, artist Richard Demarco, author Andrew O’Hagan and record-breaking cyclist and serial adventurer, Mark Beaumont.

In the coming weeks The Scotsman will profile the four shortlisted individuals in each of the awards categories, all keen to receive your votes. In the final week, you can vote for the Top Scot Award, an open category where you can choose the Scot from any walk of life whom you believe has made the greatest impact in furthering Scotland’s reputation at home and abroad this year.

The consulting panel for the Glenfiddich Spirit of Scotland Awards® includes: John McLellan (Scotsman editor), Sally Gordon (Glenfiddich), Peter Irvine (Unique Events), Fiona Bradley (Fruitmarket Gallery), Stewart Harris (SportScotland), Claire Mundell

(BAFTA Scotland) and correspondents from The Scotsman newspaper.

• Click here to vote Click here to vote

WEEK THREE’S NOMINATIONS

SCREEN

Mark Cousins

Filmmaker

Mark Cousins is a passionate, Edinburgh-based documentary filmmaker, author and curator. His feature The First Movie, produced in Edinburgh, won the Prix Italia, and is currently playing in cinemas around the world. His latest project, completed in August, The Story of Film: An Odyssey was produced entirely in Scotland. It took six years to make. Brian Cox called it “a work of poetry”, the reviews called it “magisterial” and it is currently screening on Channel 4.

Christopher Young

Producer

Christopher Young trained as a film editor and in 1986 established Young Films – an independent film and television production company based in Skye. Feature films produced by Young Films include: Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Two Girls and BIFA and BAFTA award-winning Festival. Chris Young has produced all three series of award-winning comedy show The Inbetweeners, which won the Best Sitcom at the British Comedy Awards earlier this year.

Lynne Ramsay

Writer/Director

Lynne Ramsay graduated from the National Film & Television School in 1995. Her debut feature film Ratcatcher won critical acclaim and awards around the world. Her second, Morvern Callar (2002), was nominated for seven British Independent Film awards. Ramsay’s latest project is We Need To Talk About Kevin, which she wrote and directed, based on Lionel Shriver’s novel. The film, starring Tilda Swinton and John C Reilly, is tipped to be an Oscar contender.

Karen Gillan

Actress

Karen Gillan was born in Inverness in 1987 and studied at the Italia Conti Academy of Theatre Arts in London. She currently plays the much-coveted role of Amy Pond, companion to the 11th Doctor Who. Gillan has the part of Jean Shrimpton in yet-to-be released film We’ll Take Manhattan about the love affair between Shrimpton and David Bailey. She is currently making her first theatrical appearance in the John Osborne play Inadmissible Evidence in London.

ART

David Mach

Artist

Born in Fife, David Mach RA is one of the UK’s most respected artists. He is known for his dynamic and imaginative large-scale collages, sculptures and installations using diverse media. Mach completed his MA at the Royal College of Art and he became a Royal Academician in 1998. His largest solo exhibition to date, Precious Light, celebrates the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible 1611-2011 and contains 70 works of art, including 40 major pieces.

Martin Creed

Artist

Former Turner Prize winner Martin Creed was brought up in Glasgow. He has exhibited around the globe and in 2009 wrote and choreographed Work No.1020, a live performance of his own music, ballet, words and film. Originally produced by Sadler’s Wells, London and performed in the Lilian Baylis Studio, in 2010, Work No. 1020 was performed at the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, as part of the Fringe Festival. This year he unveiled Work 1059 (The Scotsman Steps).

John Byrne

Artist

John Byrne grew up on the Ferguslie Park housing scheme in Paisley. He escaped work in a carpet factory to study at the Glasgow School of Art, and has since carved out a successful dual career as an artist and a writer. Bryne’s recently released biography, Art and Life by Robert Hewison, explores his remarkable artistic journey in both the visual and literary fields, and celebrates his contribution to the contemporary Scottish cultural identity.

James Holloway

Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery

The re-opening of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery this year marks the fulfilment of a project that began in the winter of 1994 when the gallery was threatened with closure. James Holloway has been the director of the Portrait Gallery for most of that time and has driven its renaissance. He has latterly been the project director of Portrait of the Nation, the title given to the gallery’s £17.6m renovation project.

WEEK TWO’S NOMINATIONS

WRITING:

Alan Bissett

Novelist/Playwright

Falkirk-born Alan Bissett is a novelist, playwright and performer. His recently-published novel, Pack Men was described by Irvine Welsh as “a landmark in Scottish fiction”. His play Turbo Folk was also shortlisted for Best New Play at the Critics’ Awards for Theatre in Scotland 2010 and his acclaimed show, The Moira Monologues, which he wrote and performed, has been bought by the BBC to develop as a TV series.

Denise Mina

Writer

Denise Mina is the author of three graphic novels and nine prose novels, the last of which, The End of the Wasp Season, has been short listed for the 2011 Gold Dagger Book of the Year prize by the Crime Writers’ Association. Last year she was the International Guest of Honour at the Bouchercon crime festival in San Francisco, while her first Paddy Meehan novel, The Field of Blood, was filmed and recently screened on the BBC.

Jackie Kay

Writer

Jackie Kay was born in edinburgh. she is a poet, novelist and writer of short stories and has enjoyed great acclaim for her work for both adults and children. her novel trumpet won the guardian Fiction Prize, and she has previously published two collections of stories with Picador, Why Don’t you

stop talking and Wish i Was here. her most recent books are Fiere and her memoir, red Dust road which won the 2011 scottish Book of the year.

Julia Donaldson

Author

Glasgow-based Julia Donaldson has written over one hundred books and plays for children and teenagers, including the award-winning rhyming stories The Gruffalo, Room on the Broom, The Snail and the Whale, Stick Man and Zog (which won at the 2010 Galaxy National Book Awards) all illustrated by Axel Scheffler. In June 2011 Julia was announced as the new Waterstone’s Children’s Laureate for 2011-2013.

BUSINESS

Jim Walker CBE

Co-director, Walkers Shortbread

James (Jim) Walker CBE is the grandson of Joseph Walker, who founded Walkers Shortbread in 1898. Jim, approaching his 50th year with the company, has helped grow the business, which now employs more than 1500 people in five Speyside factories, to export to more than 80 overseas markets.

Simon Howie

Butcher/Entrepreneur

Simon Howie opened his first business as a butcher in 1986. The firm now supplies more than 200 hotels and restaurants and the UK’s four major supermarkets. During the last 25 years he has also started and grown a range of businesses, namely Shore Laminates Ltd, Calport Ltd, Shore Recycling Ltd, Shore Energy Ltd and Rossco Properties, employing more than 400 people and with a turnover in excess of £40m.

Bill Dobbie

Chief Executive and Co-founder of Cupid plc

Entrepreneur Bill Dobbie co-founded Cupid plc six years ago. Having captured a sizeable portion of the UK online dating market the company was floated on AIM in 2010. Cupid has used its new funding and listing to accelerate growth in 2011 and is now an internationally recognised global player in online dating, delivering over £4.5m per month of revenues.

Keith Neilson

Chief Executive Officer,

Craneware

Keith Neilson co-founded Craneware in 1999, which has grown to such an extent that a quarter of US hospitals now use the company’s financial software. Based in Edinburgh, the publicly traded company has four US offices and employs more than 200 staff. Under Keith’s leadership, it is one of the fastest growing software companies in the UK.

WEEK ON’S NOMINATIONS

FOOD

Martin Wishart

Chef/

Restaurateur

Originally from Shetland, Martin Wishart has become one of the best-known names on the Scottish food scene. Restaurant Martin Wishart in Leith, opened in 1999 and gained a Michelin star in 2001. Now Wishart’s food empire includes a cook school, a restaurant in Cameron House and a new brasserie, The Honours. Since opening in July 2011, it is already one of Edinburgh’s most talked about restaurants.

Norman MacDonald

Restaurateur

Norman MacDonald, proprietor of Café One in Inverness, is committed to offering customers the finest local Highland produce. Using beef and lamb reared on his own croft, Norman’s patrons are guaranteed a memorable meal. This year he has added his own pork to the menu. Famous recent diners include golfer, Lee Westwood and Prince Andrew, but it is his army of loyal locals who are testament to his food’s quality.

James Robb

Smokehouse Owner

James Robb, owner of the East Pier Smokehouse, has brought a new taste to an ancient craft in the East Neuk of Fife. Smoking ingredients such as beetroot, dark chocolate, local cheese, olive oil and oatmeal, he has added a modern twist to a traditional line. East Pier won Gold in the Great Taste Awards 2011 for smoked Scottish salmon and cold-smoked venison. James is working on the launch of a new café in 2012.

Heather Anderson & Pete Ritchie

Founders of Whitmuir the

Organic Place

In 2000 Heather Anderson and Pete Ritchie swapped city life to set up food and farming business Whitmuir the Organic Place in Lamancha. Now an award-winning enterprise, employing more than 20 people, this small upland farm is a beacon for those interested in sustainable local food.

ENVIRONMENT

Joe Frankel

Eco Entrepreneur

Joe Frankel, is a committed social entrepreneur. He uses commerce as a force for positive change through Vegware, the Edinburgh firm he founded in 2006. The UK’s first and only completely compostable food packaging company, it creates cups, plates and takeaway packaging from plants, not plastic. In 2011 alone, the fast-growing firm will reduce the catering sector’s carbon footprint by over 250 tonnes.

Alan Bowman

Scientist

Alan Bowman, based at the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Aberdeen since 1998, leads a team which recently found a revolutionary non-pesticide method for controlling varroa mites, a pest that kills honey bees and seriously threatens food production worldwide. Esquire included him in its 2011 list of “20 Men to Shape the Future” for the work to save the honey bee using his “gene-knockdown” approach.

Martin McAdam

Chief Executive Officer

Martin McAdam, CEO of renewable energy firm Aquamarine Power, leads the firm developing Oyster technology to produce electricity from wave energy. Last month, the company became the first UK marine energy project to secure a £3.4 million commercial bank loan to complete a 2.4 MW Oyster at the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC), Orkney. It will repay the debt from revenue generated by the project.

Tom Morton

Environmental Architect

Fife-based Tom Morton has built one of Scotland’s leading environmental design practices, Arc. Tom’s new buildings progress the agenda for affordable and healthy eco-homes. His work on the CaRB Project, a local energy saving initiative, is used as a best practice model by the Energy Saving Trust. His major report on using plants to protect buildings is to be published by Historic Scotland this month.