That wasn’t the only award taken by the “The Selfish Giant”: Barnard also won a special award for direction from the critics’ jury. Clearly, American viewers are feeling it too. It’s been a good week for this starkly powerful coming-of-age tale, which has launched Barnard (who debuted two years ago with the much-lauded hybrid doc “The Arbor”) into the ranks of Andrea Arnold and Shane Meadows: on Monday, the film received seven nominations for the British Independent Film Awards, and is widely tipped to win top honors there. (I reviewed it for Variety back at Cannes.) This year, however, I can heartily endorse at least a couple of the selections, beginning with the Audience Award in the New Auteurs section for Clio Barnard’s “The Selfish Giant,” one of the year’s standout British films - and a very strong candidate for my own year-end Top 10. Often, the AFI winners are under-the-radar films that have escaped my notice elsewhere on the festival circuit. All that Hollywood-focused talk, however, tends to obscure what a fine selection of world and art house cinema the festival also showcases - and it’s this lower-profile part of the programme that comes to the fore when it’s time for the jury and audience awards to be handed out. Banks,” the surprise package of “Lone Survivor” and so on. In terms of media coverage, the AFI Fest in Los Angeles is generally portrayed as yet another launchpad for big-name Oscar contenders in this crowded season - headlines were dominated by the US premiere of “Saving Mr.