British Independent Film Awards 2025 nominations revealed: Surprise drama leads the way with 12 nods

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The nominations for the 2025 British Independent Film Awards are out, and a surprising drama has received the most nominations.

On Monday, stars like Ben Hardy and Saura Lightfoot-Leon announced the nominees at One Hundred Shoreditch, honoring the best in British film and the talented people who make it.

Akinola Davies Jr.’s film, My Father’s Shadow, received the most nominations with a total of 12. The romantic comedy Pillion came in second with 10 nominations, and I Swear followed closely behind with nine.

I was so thrilled to see both Robert Pattison and Jennifer Lawrence recognized for their work in ‘Die My Love’! It led the nominations with six, beating out ‘Urchin’. ‘The Ballad Of Wallis Island’ and ‘Wasteman’ also did incredibly well, each receiving five nominations – a fantastic showing for all the films, honestly.

Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland earned six nominations for their war film, Warfare, notably including one for Best Ensemble Performance.

The winners of this year’s independent awards will be announced at a ceremony on November 30th at the Roundhouse in London.

The film My Father’s Shadow, which tells the story of two brothers discovering a new understanding of their father against the backdrop of a significant moment in Nigerian history, won several awards. These included Best British Independent Film, Best Director, the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Debut Screenwriter.

The film was also nominated for seven technical awards, such as Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design (recognizing PC Williams, a 2023 nominee), Best Original Music, Best Editing, Best Make-Up and Hair, Best Production Design, and Best Sound.

Harry Lighton’s first film, ‘Pillion,’ which beautifully portrays the complexities of a developing romance between two men with contrasting personalities, has earned him four nominations: Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Debut Director, and Best Debut Screenwriter.

The film also received acting awards for both its lead, Harry Melling, and supporting actor, Alexander Skarsgård. In addition, it was nominated for three technical achievements – costume design (winning a BIFA award in 2021 for Grace Snell), editing, and make-up & hair – and was recognized as Best British Independent Film.

Kirk Jones’ heartwarming film about Tourette’s advocate John Davison, titled ‘I Swear,’ has received nine nominations, including one for Best British Independent Film.

Director Jones has been nominated for both Best Director and Best Screenplay. Robert Aramayo is nominated for Best Lead Performance, while Maxine Peake, Peter Mullan, and newcomer Scott Ellis Watson have been nominated for Best Supporting Performance. Ellis Watson is also a contender for the Breakthrough Performance award, sponsored by Netflix.

Lauren Evans, a casting director, has been nominated for Best Casting, with support from Casting Society & Spotlight.

Lynne Ramsay’s film, Die My Love, a tense and unsettling look at a woman pushed to her limits, has received eight nominations. Ramsay previously won the Best Director award in 2011 for her film We Need to Talk about Kevin.

 

Jennifer Lawrence received a nomination for Best Lead Performance, and the film Die My Love earned six nominations in technical categories: Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, Best Music Supervision, Best Makeup and Hair, Best Production Design, and Best Sound.

The cast of Alex Garland’s intense Navy SEAL drama, Warfare, will receive this year’s Best Ensemble Performance award, it was announced today.

The cast features D’Pharoah Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, and Charles Melton. The film ‘Warfare’ also earned six nominations recognizing its technical achievements, including a fourth Best Casting nod for Kharmel Cochrane, as well as nominations for Editing, Visual Effects, Make-Up & Hair, Production Design, and Sound.

Harris Dickinson is back at the British Independent Film Awards with his film Urchin, a gritty story about life in London’s underbelly. The film has earned him a nomination for the Douglas Hickox Award, recognizing his debut as a director, as well as a nomination for Best British Independent Film.

Frank Dillane has been nominated for Best Lead Performance, and Archie Pearch is up for Breakthrough Producer.

The movie has also received nominations for Best Music Supervision and Best Casting, with Shaheen Baig, a thirteen-time BIFA nominee, recognized for her work.

The film The Ballad of Wallis Island, about a former folk duo reconnecting for an unusual fan, has earned several nominations. It’s up for Best British Independent Film, and Tim Key and Tom Basden are nominated for Best Screenplay, Best Debut Screenwriter, and Best Joint Lead Performance. Additionally, Tom Basden and Adem Ilhan received a nomination for Best Original Music for their work on the film.

Following his nominations for Rye Lane at the 2023 British Independent Film Awards, David Jonsson has again been nominated for Best Lead Performance, this time for Wasteman. The film explores the complicated relationship between two men who meet while incarcerated.

Tom Blyth is up for Best Supporting Performance, while Cal McMau is nominated for the Douglas Hickox Award, recognizing debut directors. The writing team of Hunter Andrews and Eoin Doran have earned a Best Debut Screenwriter nomination, and Phil Canning is nominated for Best Music Supervision – his second BIFA nomination overall.

Cillian Murphy is also nominated for Best Lead Performance for his role in the intense school drama Steve, set in the 1990s. The film also received nominations for Jay Lycurgo in a supporting role and for its casting.

The final nominees for Best Joint Lead Performance are Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn, who starred in the horror film Dragonfly, and Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar for their roles in Brides, Nadia Fall’s first feature film about two friends escaping the UK for Syria. Both Hassan and Ingar have also been nominated for Breakthrough Performance.

The nominees for Breakthrough Performance are Posy Sterling, who played a mother battling for custody in the film Lollipop, and Connor Tompkins, who starred as a man dealing with the consequences of his brother’s actions in The Son and The Sea.

Laura Carreira has earned four nominations for her film On Falling, which offers a critical look at the challenges of today’s workforce. She’s been nominated for Best Director, Best Screenplay, the Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director, and Best Debut Screenwriter.

The Breakthrough Producer nominations recognize Wyn Baptiste (for the activist documentary Shoot the People), Charlotte Knowles (for the international documentary Palestine Comedy Club), Joann Kushner (for the screenlife heist movie LifeHack, which is also nominated for Best Editing), and Dhiraj Mahey (for the realistic coming-of-age drama Ish, also nominated for Best Sound).

The nominees for Best Feature Documentary, sponsored by Intermission Film, include Antidote, a film about three people who risked everything to reveal wrongdoing within Putin’s government, and The Shepherd and the Bear, which tells the story of an elderly shepherd trying to find someone to take over his work while protecting his sheep from bears.

Several documentaries are in contention for Best Feature Documentary, including Myrid Carten and Victoria Mapplebeck’s films about motherhood – ‘A Want In Her’ and ‘Motherboard’ – as well as ‘Mother Vera’ by Cécile Embleton and Alys Tomlinson. The Raindance Maverick Award and Best Debut Director in the documentary category are also up for grabs.

As a lifestyle expert, I’m always excited to see compelling stories recognized! This year, the Raindance Maverick Award nominations are looking fantastic, including Sophie Compton and Daisy-May Hudson, who’ve both been BIFA nominees before, for their powerful work on the women’s prison testimonial, Holloway. And Richard Hunter’s anthology, Foul Evil Deeds, which explores the darker side of human behavior, is also in the running. It’s a really strong lineup of storytelling!

As a lifestyle expert, I’m always keeping an eye on the details – and that includes the artistry behind film! Beyond the big headline nominations, several films really stood out to me for their incredible craft work. ‘100 Nights of Hero’ is a strong contender with nods for Costume Design, Make-Up & Hair, and Production Design. ‘Anemone’ impressed with its Original Music and Sound. Then there’s ‘Tornado,’ which excelled in Costume Design and Original Music, and ‘A Pale View of Hills,’ recognized for both Cinematography and Costume Design. It’s so exciting to see these talented artists get the recognition they deserve!

The documentaries John & Yoko and Ocean With David Attenborough have received nominations for their editing and original music, respectively.

Harvest has been nominated for an award recognizing its production design, H is For Hawk for its cinematography, and The Thing With Feathers for its visual effects.

This year’s nominees for Best British Short Film include a diverse range of stories – from animated tales and dramatic narratives to one featuring, surprisingly, sheep! The films nominated are Flock, Magid / Zafar, A Sisyphean Task, Stomach Bug, and Two Black Boys in Paradise.

The nominees for Best International Independent Film, sponsored by Champagne Taittinger, are Jafar Pahani’s It Was Just An Accident, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value (a BIFA winner), Sirāt by Oliver Laxe, Sorry, Baby, the first feature film from Eva Victor, and Sound of Falling directed by Mascha Schilinski.

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2025-11-03 23:35