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The British Independent Film Awards nominations announced

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) announced the 2022 nominees this morning, with hosts Sam Claflin and BIFA winner Kosar Ali revealing the list of exceptional contenders at the Everyman Broadgate event. Once again, this year’s nominees highlight the wealth of talent within the British film industry, with 2022’s list featuring acclaimed debuts alongside previous BIFA recipients such as Emma Thompson, Jessie Buckley, Florence Pugh and Alice Birch, in a strong year for women filmmakers and performers. Brand new performance categories and the addition of a category for first-time documentary feature directors means even more to celebrate in BIFA’s 25th anniversary year.

Leading the nominations, Aftersun, Charlotte Wells’ poignant portrait of a father and daughter’s complex relationship receives nominations for Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema, Best Screenplay, the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Wells, a Best Joint Lead Performance nomination for stars Paul Mescal and newcomer Frankie Corio, who also received a Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix nomination, alongside a Best British Independent Film nod. A further nine craft nominations – Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight, Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Make-up & Hair Design, Best Production Design, Best Sound supported by Halo, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing and a nomination in the new Best Music Supervision category make a total of 16.

Set in late 80s Britain against the backdrop of Thatcher’s anti-gay Section 28 ruling, Georgia Oakley’s debut film Blue Jean follows a young school teacher forced to lead a double life. Blue Jean’s 13 nominations include Best British Independent Film and Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema, Best Screenplay, Best Debut Director sponsored by BBC Film and Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for Oakley, Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios for Hélène Sifre, Best Lead Performance and Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix nominations for Rosy McEwen, Best Supporting Performance nominations for Kerrie Hayes and Lucy Halliday and a Best Ensemble Performance nomination for the film. For craft, a Best Editing nomination sits alongside Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight for Shaheen Baig, a constant in the BIFA spotlight for her work.

Nominated for a BIFA Best Screenplay award in 2018 for Disobedience, Sebastián Lelio picks up the same nomination for The Wonder, a 19th-century thriller focussing on a young Irish girl whose fasting is hailed as miraculous, but may be something more ominous…. The nomination is shared with BIFA winners Alice Birch and Emma Donoghue, on whose book the screenplay is based. Lelio also adds a Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema nod. 2017 Best Actress winner Florence Pugh is nominated for Best Lead Performance, Kíla Lord Cassidy is nominated for Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix, additional cast members including Tom Burke, Toby Jones, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Ciarán Hinds, Brían F. O’Byrne and Josie Walker join them in a Best Ensemble Performance nomination and craft nominations include Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak, Best Costume Design, Best Make-Up & Hair Design, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing, Best Production Design and Best Sound supported by Halo for Hugh Fox and BIFA winner Ben Baird, who earned this award in 2020 for his work on The Reason I Jump. The Wonder is also up for Best British Independent Film.

An adaptation of Kurosawa’s Ikiru, perfectly transposed to 1950s London, Living gets a Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema nomination for Oliver Hermanus, previously nominated for this award in 2019 for Moffie and a Best Screenplay nomination for acclaimed writer Kazuo Ishiguro. Bill Nighy scores a Best Lead Performance nomination and Aimee Lou Wood Best Supporting Performance. Living is also nominated in four craft categories, Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight, Best Costume Design, Best Music Supervision and Best Production Design, as well as Best British Independent Film, making nine nominations in total.

A deliciously entertaining tale of art, lust, ego and sonic catering, 2012 Best Director BIFA winner Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet received seven nominations including Best Supporting Performance for Fatma Mohamed, Best Ensemble Performance for its cast including Makis Papadimitriou, Gwendoline Christie, Asa Butterfield, Fatma Mohamed, Ariane Labed and Richard Bremmer and a further five craft nominations – Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Make-Up and Hair Design, Best Production Design and Best Sound supported by Halo.

Emily Watson is nominated in Lead Performance for her role in God’s Creatures, which also sees Paul Mescal pick up a second BIFA nomination – Best Supporting Performance – along with Aisling Franciosi. Shane Crowley is nominated for Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4 for this tense, emotional film in which a mother’s love for her son threatens to tear their small community apart. A nomination for Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing makes five.

BIFA winner Jessie Buckley and co-star Rory Kinnear are nominated for Best Joint Lead Performance for Alex Garland’s smart horror-thriller Men in which a young woman’s retreat to the country becomes a waking nightmare of her darkest fears. Further nominations are Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak, Best Effects, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing and Best Sound supported by Halo.

It’s the end of the Middle Paleolithic period in The Origin, and a dying tribe struggling in a hostile environment face an even greater threat when night falls… First time director Andrew Cumming nabs a nomination for Best Debut Director sponsored by BBC Film and writer Ruth Greenberg is nominated for Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4. Safia Oakley-Green is nominated for Breakthrough

Performance sponsored by Netflix with nominations for Best Make-up & Hair Design and Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing also featuring.

Acclaimed actress Frances O’Connor moves behind the camera and picks up a nomination for Best Debut Director sponsored by BBC Film for her first feature Emily, an exploration of the young life and loves of the rebel and misfit who went on to write Wuthering Heights. Starring as the titular Brontë, Emma Mackey picks up a Best Lead Performance nomination, Fionn Whitehead gets a Best Supporting Performance nod and further cast members including Amelia Gething, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Alexandra Dowling, Gemma Jones and Adrian Dunbar join them in a Best Ensemble Performance nomination.

Sex positivity abounds in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, nominated for Best British Independent Film, Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema for Sophie Hyde, Best Screenplay for Katy Brand and Best Joint Lead Performance for stars Daryl McCormack and BIFA winner Emma Thompson.

Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance are the final nominees in the new Best Joint Lead Performance category with The Silent Twins, which also received a Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight nomination for Kharmel Cochrane.

Elsewhere in the performance categories, 2020 contender Cosmo Jarvis is nominated for his role in Antonia Campbell-Hughes’s debut feature It Is in Us All, with Sally Hawkins for The Lost King and Hala Zein for Nezouh completing the Best Lead Performance nominations. Nezouh also receives a Best Effects nomination. Rounding out the Best Supporting Performance nominations are Zoey Deutch for The Outfit and Zainab Joda for Our River…Our Sky, which is also nominated in the new Best Ensemble Performance category and for Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight. Leo Long is nominated for Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix for his role as an autistic drummer with an incredible gift in I Used to Be Famous.

Thomas Hardiman earns a nomination for Best Debut Director sponsored by BBC Film for his inspired murder-mystery Medusa Deluxe, set in the extravagant and obsessive world of competitive hair dressing, which also gets Best Make-Up & Hair Design and Best Production Design nominations.

David Earl and Chris Hayward create touching comedy gold with Brian and Charles, their documentary-style tale of friendship and freedom and earn a joint nomination for Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4, Rupert Majendie is nominated for Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios for the film, joined by Aleksandra Bilić and Jennifer Corcoran (Nascondino [Hide & Seek]), Paul Kennedy (Nightride) and Nadira Murray (Winners) in that category. Winners also receives a Raindance Discovery Award nomination.

The new Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary category sees Victoria Fiore nominated for Nascondino [Hide & Seek], Jono McLeod for My Old School, Kathryn Ferguson for Nothing Compares, Becky Hutner for Fashion Reimagined and Leah Gordon and Eddie Hutton Mills for Kanaval. Further nominations for this year’s crop of debut documentary features include Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak for Nascondino [Hide & Seek] and Kanaval and Best Editing for Nothing Compares.

Three of the five Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary nominees also land Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission nominations – Nascondino [Hide & Seek], Nothing Compares and My Old School.

The Richard Harris Award, introduced in 2002 in honour of Richard Harris, recognises outstanding contribution to British Film by an actor. Previous winners have been Daniel Day Lewis, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Judi Dench, Kristin Scott Thomas, Glenda Jackson and Riz Ahmed in 2021. This year’s award recipient will be announced in the coming weeks, as will the ceremony host and this year’s juries.

BIFA NOMINATIONS 2022

The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film
To be announced

Best British Independent Film

AFTERSUN Charlotte Wells, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak, Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson
BLUE JEAN Georgia Oakley, Hélène Sifre
GOOD LUCK TO YOU, LEO GRANDE Sophie Hyde, Katy Brand, Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski
LIVING Oliver Hermanus, Kazuo Ishiguro, Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen
THE WONDER Sebastián Lelio, Emma Donoghue, Alice Birch, Juliette Howell, Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross, Ed Guiney

Best International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger
ALL THE BEAUTY AND THE BLOODSHED Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov,
CLOSE Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens, Michiel Dhont, Dirk Impens
DECISION TO LEAVE Park Chan-Wook, Chung Seo-Kyung
EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Thomas Robsahm

Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema
OLIVER HERMANUS Living
SOPHIE HYDE Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
SEBASTIÁN LELIO The Wonder
GEORGIA OAKLEY Blue Jean
CHARLOTTE WELLS Aftersun

Best Lead Performance
SALLY HAWKINS The Lost King
COSMO JARVIS It Is in Us All
EMMA MACKEY Emily
ROSY McEWEN Blue Jean
BILL NIGHY Living
FLORENCE PUGH The Wonder
EMILY WATSON God’s Creatures
HALA ZEIN Nezouh

Best Screenplay
KATY BRAND Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
KAZUO ISHIGURO Living
SEBASTIÁN LELIO, ALICE BIRCH, EMMA DONOGHUE The Wonder
GEORGIA OAKLEY Blue Jean
CHARLOTTE WELLS Aftersun

Best Supporting Performance
ZOEY DEUTCH The Outfit
AISLING FRANCIOSI God’s Creatures
LUCY HALLIDAY Blue Jean
KERRIE HAYES Blue Jean
ZAINAB JODA Our River… Our Sky
FATMA MOHAMED Flux Gourmet
PAUL MESCAL God’s Creatures
FIONN WHITEHEAD Emily
AIMEE LOU WOOD Living

Best Joint Lead Performance
FRANKIE CORIO, PAUL MESCAL Aftersun
DARYL McCORMACK, EMMA THOMPSON Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
JESSIE BUCKLEY, RORY KINNEAR Men
TAMARA LAWRANCE, LETITIA WRIGHT The Silent Twins

Best Ensemble Performance
BLUE JEAN Ensemble including Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday, Lydia Page, Stacy Abalogun, Farrah Cave, Amy Booth-Steel
EMILY Ensemble including Amelia Gething, Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead, Alexandra Dowling, Gemma Jones, Adrian Dunbar
FLUX GOURMET Ensemble including Makis Papadimitriou, Gwendoline Christie, Asa Butterfield, Fatma Mohamed, Ariane Labed, Richard Bremmer
OUR RIVER… OUR SKY Ensemble including Zainab Joda, Darina Al Joundi, Amed Hashimi, Mahmoud Abo Al Abbas, Basim Hajar, Labwa Arab, Meriam Abbas, Siham Mustafa
THE WONDER Ensemble including Kíla Lord Cassidy, Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Toby Jones, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Ciarán Hinds, Brían F. O’Byrne, Josie Walker

The Douglas Hickox Award
(Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film
ANDREW CUMMING The Origin
THOMAS HARDIMAN Medusa Deluxe
FRANCES O’CONNOR Emily
GEORGIA OAKLEY Blue Jean
CHARLOTTE WELLS Aftersun

Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix
FRANKIE CORIO Aftersun
LEO LONG I Used to Be Famous
KÍLA LORD CASSIDY The Wonder
ROSY McEWEN Blue Jean
SAFIA OAKLEY-GREEN The Origin

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
KATHRYN FERGUSON Nothing Compares
VICTORIA FIORE Nascondino [Hide & Seek]
LEAH GORDON, EDDIE HUTTON MILLS Kanaval
JONO McLEOD My Old School
BECKY HUTNER Fashion Reimagined

Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios
ALEKSANDRA BILIĆ, JENNIFER CORCORAN Nascondino [Hide & Seek]
PAUL KENNEDY Nightride [also produced by Jon Silk]
RUPERT MAJENDIE Brian and Charles
NADIRA MURRAY Winners [also produced by Paul Welsh]
HÉLÈNE SIFRE Blue Jean

Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4
SHANE CROWLEY God’s Creatures
DAVID EARL, CHRIS HAYWARD Brian and Charles
RUTH GREENBERG The Origin
GEORGIA OAKLEY Blue Jean
CHARLOTTE WELLS Aftersun

The Raindance Discovery Award
ELECTRIC MALADY Marie Lidén, Aimara Reques
FADIA’S TREE Sarah Beddington, Susan Simnett
OFF THE RAILS Peter Day, Grant Keir, Rob Alexander
REBELLION Elena Sánchez Bellot, Maia Kenworthy, Kat Mansoor
WINNERS Hassan Nazer, Nadira Murray, Paul Welsh

Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission
MY CHILDHOOD, MY COUNTRY – 20 YEARS IN AFGHANISTAN Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi, Amanda Wilkie
MY OLD SCHOOL Jono McLeod, John Archer, Olivia Lichtenstein
NASCONDINO [HIDE & SEEK] Victoria Fiore, Jennifer Corcoran, Aleksandra Bilić
NOTHING COMPARES Kathryn Ferguson, Eleanor Emptage, Michael Mallie
YOUNG PLATO Neasa Ní Chianáin, Declan McGrath, David Rane

Best British Short Film supported by BFI Network
A FOX IN THE NIGHT Keeran Anwar Blessie, Benjamin Jacob Smith
HONESTY Roxy Rezvany, Emily Renée, Elly Camisa
SANDSTORM Seemab Gul, Abid Aziz Merchant
SCALE Joseph Pierce, Hélène Mitjavile
TOO ROUGH Sean Lìonadh, Ross McKenzie, Alfredo Covelli

Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight
SHAHEEN BAIG Blue Jean
LEILA BERTRAND Our River… Our Sky
KHARMEL COCHRANE The Silent Twins
KAHLEEN CRAWFORD Living
LUCY PARDEE Aftersun

Best Cinematography sponsored by Dirty Looks & Kodak
ALFREDO DE JUAN Nascondino [Hide & Seek]
ROB HARDY Men
JOEL HONEYWELL Kanaval
GREGORY OKE Aftersun
ARI WEGNER The Wonder

Best Costume Design
JENNY BEAVAN Mrs Harris Goes to Paris
SAFFRON CULLANE Flux Gourmet
ODILE DICKS-MIREAUX The Wonder
FRANK GALLACHER Aftersun
SANDY POWELL Living

Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing
DANNY BENSI, SAUNDER JURRIAANS
God’s Creatures
OLIVER COATES Aftersun
MATTHEW HERBERT The Wonder
ADAM JANOTA BZOWSKI The Origin
BEN SALISBURY, GEOFF BARROW Men

Best Effects
CHRIS MARSHALL The Feast
DAVID SIMPSON Men
AHMED YOUSRY Nezouh

Best Sound supported by Halo
TIM HARRISON, RAOUL BRAND, CASSANDRA RUTLEDGE Flux Gourmet
GLENN FREEMANTLE, BEN BARKER, GILLIAN DODDERS, HOWARD BARGOFF, MITCH LOW Men
JOVAN AJDER Aftersun
HUGH FOX, BEN BAIRD The Wonder
DOM CORBISIERO, DAI SHELL The Feast

Best Editing
JOANNA CRICKMAY Elizabeth: A Portrait in Parts
IZABELLA CURRY Blue Jean
MÁTYÁS FEKETE Flux Gourmet
MICK MAHON Nothing Compares
BLAIR McCLENDON Aftersun

Best Make-Up & Hair Design
OYA AYGÖR, MURAT ÇAĞIN Aftersun
MORNA FERGUSON, LORRI ANN KING
The Wonder
SIOBHAN HARPER-RYAN Flux Gourmet
NIAMH MORRISON The Origin
EUGENE SOULEIMAN, SCARLETT O’CONNELL Medusa Deluxe

Best Music Supervision
LUCY BRIGHT Aftersun
PHIL CANNING The Phantom of the Open
RUPERT HOLLIER Living

Best Production Design
FLETCHER JARVIS Flux Gourmet
GRANT MONTGOMERY The Wonder
HELEN SCOTT Living
BILLUR TURAN Aftersun
GARY WILLIAMSON Medusa Deluxe