Akinola Davies Jr.’s Lagos-set coming-of-age tale My Father’s Shadow and Harry Lighton’s kinky queer romance Pillion are among the frontrunners at the 2025 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), which revealed its nominations on Monday.
Unveiled by actors Ben Hardy and Saura Lightfoot-Leon at One Hundred Shoreditch in London, Davies’ directorial debut leads the BIFA nominations with 12 nods, closely followed by Lighton’s Pillion with 10. Both features premiered at this year’s Cannes Film Festival to rave reviews. Davies and Lighton also scored best debut director nominations, as well as best screenplay and best debut screenwriter noms, among others.
In the performance categories, big-name nominees include the likes of Jennifer Lawrence for Die, My Love (which received eight BIFA nods in total), Cillian Murphy for Steve, as well as David Jonsson and Tom Blyth for Wasteman.
Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard are nominated for best lead and best supporting performance, respectively, for Pillion, while Robert Aramayo will compete with fellow lead actors for his turn in Kirk Jones’ I Swear, which received nine BIFA nominations in total. He’ll go up against Frank Dillane, who is nominated for his turn in Harris Dickinson’s Urchin.
Elsewhere, Dickinson has netted best debut director and best British independent film nods for Urchin for a total of six. Tim Key and Tom Basden have been nominated for best joint lead performance in The Ballad of Wallis Island (five total), with Andrea Riseborough and Brenda Blethyn nominated in the same category for Paul Andrew Williams’ Dragonfly.
Ebada Hassan and Safiyya Ingar are, too, nominated in the best joint lead performance category for Nadia Fall’s debut feature Brides, and both have secured a breakthrough performance nomination. In this category, they’ll compete with Posy Sterling for Lollipop and Connor Tompkins for The Son and The Sea.
Alex Garfield’s boots-on-the-ground military drama Warfare has won best ensemble performance award, it was confirmed on Monday, with D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, and Charles Melton honored among the film’s six craft nominations.
In the best international feature category, Jafar Panahi’s It Was Just An Accident go up against Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value, Sirāt from Oliver Laxe, Eva Victor’s Sorry, Baby and Mascha Schilinski’s Sound of Falling.
Breakthrough producer nominations go to Wyn Baptiste for activism documentary Shoot the People, Charlotte Knowles for cross-border doc Palestine Comedy Club, Joann Kushner for screenlife heist movie LifeHack and Dhiraj Mahey for social-realist coming-of-age drama Ish.
Check out the full list of nominees for the 2025 BIFAs below.
Best British Independent Film
The Ballad of Wallis Island
I Swear
My Father’s Shadow
Pillion
Urchin
Best Director
Laura Carreira, On Falling
Akinola Davies Jr., My Father’s Shadow
Kirk Jones, I Swear
Harry Lighton, Pillion
Lynne Ramsay, Die, My Love
Best Screenplay
Tom Basden, Tim Key, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Laura Carreira, On Falling
Wale Davies, My Father’s Shadow
Kirk Jones, I Swear
Harry Lighton, Pillion
Best Lead Performance
Robert Aramayo, I Swear
Frank Dillane, Urchin
David Jonsson, Wasteman
Jennifer Lawrence, Die, My Love
Harry Melling, Pillion
Cillian Murphy, Steve
Best Supporting Performance
Tom Blyth, Wasteman
Scott Ellis Watson, I Swear
Jay Lycurgo, Steve
Peter Mullan, I Swear
Maxine Peake, I Swear
Alexander Skarsgard, Pillion
Best Joint Lead Performance
Ebada Hassan, Saffiya Ingar, Brides
Tim Key, Tom Basden, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn, Dragonfly
Best Ensemble Performance
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton, Warfare (WINNER)
The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)
Laura Carreira, On Falling
Akinola Davies Jr., My Father’s Shadow
Harris Dickinson, Urchin
Harry Lighton, Pillion
Cal McMau, Wasteman
Breakthrough Producer
Wyn Baptiste, Shoot the People
Charlotte Knowles, Palestine Comedy Club
Joann Kushner, LifeHack
Dhiraj Mahey, Ish
Archie Pearch, Urchin
Breakthrough Performance
Scott Ellis Watson, I Swear
Ebada Hassan, Brides
Safiyya Ingar, Brides
Posy Sterling, Lollipop
Connor Tompkins, The Son and The Sea
Best Debut Screenwriter
Hunter Andrews, Eoin Doran, Wasteman
Tom Basden, Tim Key, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Laura Carreira, On Falling
Wale Davies, My Father’s Shadow
Harry Lighton, Pillion
Best Debut Director — Feature Documentary
Myrid Carten, A Want in Her
Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson, Mother Vera
Victoria Mapplebeck, Motherboard
The Raindance Maverick Award
Foul Evil Deeds, Richard Hunter
Holloway, Sophie Compton, Daisy-May Hudson, Stella Heath Keir, Alice Hughes, Polly Creed
Mother Vera, Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson, Laura Shacham
Motherboard, Victoria Mapplebeck
A Want in Her, Myrid Carten
Best Feature Documentary
Antidote, James Jones, David Moulton
Mother Vera, Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson, Laura Shacham
Motherboard, Victoria Mapplebeck
The Shepherd and The Bear, Max Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss
A Want in Her, Myrid Carten, Tadgh O’Sullivan, Roisin Geraghty, Kat Mansoor
Best British Short Film
Flock, Max Nixon, Matt Ashwell, Daley Nixon
Magid/Zafar, Luis Hindman, Sufiyaan Salam, Aidan Robert Brooks
A Sisphyean Task, Gus Flind-Henry, George Malcher, George Telfer
Stomach Bug, Matty Crawford, Karima Sammout Kanellopoulou
Two Black Boys in Paradise, Ben Jackson, Baz Sells, Dean Atta
Best International Independent Film
It Was Just An Accident
Sentimental Value
Sirāt
Sorry, Baby
Sound of Falling
Best Casting
Shaheen Baig, Brides
Shaheen Baig, Urchin
Kharmel Cochrane, Warfare
Laura Evans, I Swear
Robert Sterne, Steve
Best Cinematography
Charlotte Bruus Christensen, H Is for Hawk
Jermains Edwards, My Father’s Shadow
Cecile Embleton, Mother Vera
Seamus McGarvey, Die, My Love
Piotr Niemyjski, A Pale View of Hills
Best Costume Design
Susie Coulthard, 100 Nights of Hero
Kirsty Halliday, Tornado
Grace Snell, Pillion
Sayaka Takahashi, Matthew Price, A Pale View of Hills
PC Williams, My Father’s Shadow
Best Editing
Ronan Corrigan, Aleksandr Kletsov, LifeHack
Omar Guzman Castro, My Father’s Shadow
Fin Oates, Warfare
Sam Rice-Edwards, One to One: John & Yoko
Gareth C. Scales, Pillion
Best Effects
Simon Stanley-Clamp, Ryan Conder, Warfare
Victor Tomi, Die, My Love
Hayley Williams, Conor O’Sullivan, Martin Malmqvist, The Thing With Feathers
Best Music Supervision
Phil Canning, Wasteman
Ian Neil, Raife Burchell, Die, My Love
Bridget Samuels, Urchin
Best Make-Up & Hair Design
Kehinde Are, Feyzo Oyebisi, My Father’s Shadow
Diandra Ferreira, Pillion
Paul Gooch, Tristan Versluis, Warfare
Coleen Labaff, Miho Suzuki, Die, My Love
Natasha Lawes, 100 Nights of Hero
Best Original Music
Tom Basden, Adem Ilhan, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Bobby Krlic, Anemone
Jed Kurzel, Tornado
CJ Mirra, My Father’s Shadow
Steven Price, Ocean With David Attenborough
Best Production Design
Jennifer Anti, Pablo Anti, My Father’s Shadow
Mark Digby, Warfare
Tim Grimes, Die, My Love
Nathan Parker, Harvest
Sofia Sacomani, 100 Nights of Hero
Best Sound
Steve Fanagan, Stevie Haywood, Anemone
Tim Burns, Paul Davies, Linda Forsen, Andrew Stirk, Ron Osiowy, Die, My Love
Nina Hartstone, Jake Whitelee, Jens Petersen, Mike Tehrani, Rob Davidson, Ish
CJ Mirra, James Ridgway, Joe Jackson, Adele Fletcher, Pius Fatoke, My Father’s Shadow
Sound Team, Warfare
The Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film
To be announced later
