Stars Mia McKenna-Bruce and Vivian Oparah announced the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) 2024 nominees this morning at One Hundred Shoreditch, London. Celebrating remarkable films and outstanding talent from the British film industry and beyond, this year’s list highlights the UK’s brightest new talent alongside BIFA heroes such as Andrea Arnold, Rose Glass, Rungano Nyoni, Saoirse Ronan, Jack O’Connell, Barry Keoghan and Hayley Squires.
Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt’s comedy following the west Belfast hip-hop trio and their mission to save their mother tongue leads the nominations with an impressive 14, including Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema, Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films, The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Peppiatt. The Kneecap trio Liam Óg Ó Hannaidh, Naoise Ó Cairealláin, JJ Ó Dochartaigh are nominated for Best Joint Lead Performance. The film is also nominated for Best British Independent Film plus eight craft categories: Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight, Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak & Molinare, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Music Supervision, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group, Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword and Best Sound.
Rose Glass was a BIFA winner in 2020 for Saint Maud; her sophomore feature, the blistering noir Love Lies Bleeding, is a potent blend of romance, murder and drug enhanced bodybuilding free, which scores 12 nominations. Alongside Best British Independent Film are nominations for Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema for Glass, Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films for Glass and Weronika Toilska, Best Joint Lead Performance for stars Katy O’Brian and Kristen Stewart, and eight craft nominations. These are Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight, Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak & Molinare for Ben Fordesman, who won this award in 2020, Best Costume Design, Best Effects, Best Make-Up & Hair Design, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group for three-time nominated Clint Mansell, Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword and Best Sound.
Based on Amy Liptrot’s best-selling novel of self-discovery and sobriety in the wilds of Orkney, The Outrun garners nine nominations, including Best British Independent Film, Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema for Nora Fingsheidt, Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films for Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot and Best Lead Performance for BIFA veteran Soairse Ronan, who won Best Actress in 2015 for her role in Brooklyn. Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak & Molinare, Best Editing, Best Make-Up & Hair Design, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group and Best Sound round out the film’s nominations.
Andrea Arnold’s fifth feature Bird follows a teenager with a difficult homelife searching for a way to fly free. The film picks up seven nominations, including a Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema nomination for Arnold, who won this award for Fish Tank in 2009, alongside Best Supporting Performance nominations for Barry Keoghan and Franz Rogowski, Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix for star Nykiya Adams, and Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight, Best Editing and Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group.
On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, BIFA winner Rungano Nyoni’s powerful exploration of buried secrets and grief within a middle-class Zambian family also scores seven nominations: Best British Independent Film, Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema and Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films, Best Lead Performance and Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix nods for newcomer Susan Chardy, Best Supporting Performance for Elizabeth Chisela, and Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight for last year’s winner Isabella Odoffin.
Forbidden love, prejudice and the power of being true to yourself garners James Krishna Floyd nominations for the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Unicorns. Stars Ben Hardy and Jason Patel net Best Joint Lead Performance nominations, with Jason Patel also nominated for Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix. With craft nominations Best Costume Design, Best Make-Up and Hair Design and Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group, Unicorns has a total of seven nominations.
First features continue to shine, with Luna Carmoon netting a Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film nomination for Hoard, a visceral and intense tale of unconventional love, childhood trauma, longing and redemption. Amongst its six nominations are Best Joint Lead Performance for Joseph Quinn and Saura Lightfoot-Leon, Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix for Lightfoot-Leon, Best Supporting Performance for 2016 BIFA winner Hayley Squires and two craft nominations.
A Hindu widow given a chance at a new life is forced to face corruption both systemic and personal in gripping cop thriller Santosh, which has nominations for Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Sandyha Suri as well as Best British Independent Film and Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios for Balthazar De Ganay and James Bowsher.
A surreal and darkly comedic tale of a newly-wed’s journey of discovery in Mumbai’s nocturnal world sees Karen Khandhari’s debut Sister Midnightearn her nominations for the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4, plus Best Lead Performance for Radhika Apte and Best Music Supervision.
Two families war with each other amid the harsh landscape of rural west Ireland in Christopher Andrews’ gripping thriller Bring Them Down which earns him a nomination for Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film and also grabs a Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios nod for Jacob Swan Hyam. The Assessment, a future-set tale of a couple’s spiral into psychological nightmare as they fight for the right to have a child takes nominations for Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for writer duo Mrs & Mr Thomas, Best Lead Performance for three-time BIFA nominee Alicia Vikander and Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword.
Completing the performance category nominations, Marianne Jean-Baptiste receives a Best Lead Performance nomination, with co-star Michele Austin taking a Best Supporting Performance nod for their roles in Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Elliot Page has a Best Lead Performance nomination for homecoming drama Close to You, Ruaridh Mollica nets Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix nod for his role as a budding writer leading a double life in Sebastian and Jack O’Connell has a Best Supporting Performance nod for 2009 BIFA nominee Sam Taylor Johnson’s Back to Black, which also received craft nominations for Best Make-Up and Hair and Best Music Supervision for Iain Cooke and Giles Martin, marking Cooke’s second BIFA nomination.
The discovery of a dead body and the question of how to dispose of it leads two migrant workers into a bitter struggle for power, freedom and their sanity in The Ceremony, which receives nominations for The Raindance Maverick Award and Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton for Hollie Bryan and Lucy Meer. Also nominated in that category is Ben Toye for Treading Water, which sees a recently paroled young man search for a way to start again whilst battling an obsession with the past that might not let him move forward.
Grand Theft Hamlet features a performance of Shakespeare’s classic tale of murder and madness enacted entirely within the confines of gamer favourite Grand Theft Auto. The film is nominated for Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission Film and The Raindance Maverick Award, as well as Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary for creators Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane and Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios for Rebecca Wolff.
Married life is in crisis in Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other, which scores nominations for Best Feature Documentary and Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary for Manon Ouimet and Jacob Perlmutter. The Contestant, which captures the remarkable experience of a game show participant also takes nominations for Best Feature Documentary and Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary for Clair Titley. Witches, an illuminating exploration of the unexpected connections between perinatal mental health and the history of witches in western society, nets nominations for Best Feature Documentary and The Raindance Maverick Award. Rachel Ramsey scores a nomination for Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary for her debut COPA 71, which unearths the story of the pioneering 1971 unofficial Women’s World Cup and Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, an inspiring look at the late actor and advocate’s life takes a Best Feature Documentary spot.
Resolve and sanity is tested when a relentless party animal moves in next door in Restless and a Loatian photojournalist and a Buddhist orphan search for answers and peace far from the city in Satu – Year of The Rabbit. Both films are nominated for The Raindance Maverick Award.
Alex Garland’s Civil War has six craft award nominations, including Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak & Molinare nomination for Rob Hardy (his second BIFA nomination in this category) and another Best Effects nod for 2022 winner David Simpson. The film also has nominations for Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword, and a third BIFA nomination for Glen Freemantle for Best Sound. Lee, the biopic of acclaimed war photographer Lee Miller, takes three craft nominations, Firebrand, the tense drama of Henry VIII’s 6th wife Katherine Parr’s fight for survival in blood-soaked Tudor England, has two, including a fourth Best Costume Design nomination for Michael O’Connor. Documentary Made in England, The Films of Powell and Pressburger is recognised in Best Editing.
Introduced in 2002 in honour of Richard Harris, The Richard Harris Award recognises outstanding contribution to British Film by an actor. Previous winners include Daniel Day Lewis, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Judi Dench, Kristin Scott Thomas, Glenda Jackson, Riz Ahmed, Samantha Morton and Stephen Graham in 2023. This year’s award recipient will be announced in the coming weeks, as will the winner of the 2024 BIFA for Best Ensemble Performance, the ceremony host and this year’s juries.
