We study properties of the functionalF loc ( u,Ω ) : = inf ( u j ) lim inf j → ∞ ∫ Ω f ( ∇ u j ) d x , whereu ∈ BV(Ω;RN), and f:RN × n → R is continuous and satisfies 0 ≤ f(ξ) ≤ L(1 + | ξ | r). For r ∈ [1,2), assuming f has linear growth in certain rank-one directions, we combine a result of [A. Braides and A. Coscia, Proc. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh Sect. A 124 (1994) 737–756] with a new technique involving mollification to prove an upper bound for Floc. Then, for r ∈ [ 1 , n n − 1 ) , we prove that...