Film - British Independent Film Award Nominations

The BIFA 2016 nominations were announced yesterday...

I, Daniel Blake topped the list of nominations for the 2016 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) announced yesterday by British actors Ophelia Lovibond and Douglas Booth at The London EDITION. The film is nominated for Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay. Its stars Hayley Squires and Dave Johns are each nominated twice – for Best Actress and Best Actor, and competing against each other for Most Promising Newcomer.

2016 is also a particularly strong year for new talent in the performance categories with Most Promising Newcomer nominees Dave Johns and Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake) and Steven Brandon (My Feral Heart) also nominated in the Best Actor and Best Actress categories.

In the Best Actress category, Jodie Whitaker (Adult Life Skills) and Kate Dickie (Couple in a Hole) receive their second BIFA nominations, other nominees Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake), Narges Rashidi (Under the Shadow) and Sasha Lane (American Honey) are all nominated for the first time.

For Best Actor, Dave Johns (I, Daniel Blake), Max Records (I Am Not a Serial Killer), Shia LaBeouf (American Honey) and Steve Brandon (My Feral Heart) are all first-time nominees. Michael Fassbender (Trespass Against Us) rounds off the Best Actor category, nominated for the third consecutive year with his sixth nomination, having previously won Best Actor for Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011). 

In the Best Director category American Honey Director Andrea Arnold receives her fourth BIFA nomination having won in the same category for Fish Tank in 2009. Ken Loach is nominated for I, Daniel Blake, his fifth BIFA nomination. Loach won in this category for My Name Is Joe in 1998 when he was also awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award. Loach has also previously been recognised with a Special Jury Prize in 2006 when The Wind That Shakes the Barley was nominated for four awards and shared in the Special Jury Prize for Sixteen Films/Team Loach in 2013. Ben Wheatley is nominated for Free Fire, his fifth BIFA nomination: Wheatley won the Raindance Award for his feature film debut Down Terrace in 2009. Babak Anvari is nominated for the first time for Under The Shadow for which he is also nominated for The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. Directing partners Peter Middleton and James Spinney also receive their first BIFA nominations for both Best Director and The Douglas Hickox Award for their debut Notes on Blindness, going up against Alice Lowe's directorial debut of Prevenge.

The Best British Independent Film nominees for 2016 are American Honey (six nominations), Couple in a Hole (two nominations), I, Daniel Blake (seven nominations), Notes on Blindness (six nominations) and Under The Shadow (six nominations). Over 130 British films were submitted for consideration and 32 different British feature films have been nominated across the awards.

For us, it was great to see The Ghoul and Gozo both get a nomination for The Discovery Award and A Patch of Fog garner a Best Screen-writer nomination for John Cairns and Michael McCartney, as well as Best Supporting awards for Jamie Dornan in Anthropoid and Terry Pheto in A United Kingdom.

Winners will be announced at the British Independent Film Award Ceremony on Sunday 4 December at Old Billingsgate.

The full nominations list is below.

Best British Independent Film
AMERICAN HONEY Andrea Arnold, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, Pouya Shahbazian, Alice Weinberg, Thomas Benski, Lucas Ochoa
COUPLE IN A HOLE Tom Geens, Zorana Piggott
I, DANIEL BLAKE Ken Loach, Paul Laverty, Rebecca O’Brien
NOTES ON BLINDNESS Peter Middleton, James Spinney, Mike Brett, Jo-Jo Ellison, Steve Jamison, Alex Usborne
UNDER THE SHADOW Babak Anvari, Emily Leo, Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh

Best International Independent Film
HUNT FOR THE WILDERPEOPLE Taika Waititi, Carthew Neal, Matt Noonan, Leanne Saunders
MANCHESTER BY THE SEA Kenneth Lonergan, Kimberly Steward, Matt Damon, Chris Moore, Lauren Beck, Kevin J. Walsh
MOONLIGHT Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
MUSTANG Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Alice Winocour, Charles Gillibert
TONI ERDMANN Maren Ade, Janine Jackowski, Jonas Dornbach, Michel Merkt

Best DirectorANDREA ARNOLD American Honey
BABAK ANVARI Under the Shadow
BEN WHEATLEY Free Fire
KEN LOACH I, Daniel Blake
PETER MIDDLETON, JAMES SPINNEY, Notes on Blindness

Best Screenplay
ANDREA ARNOLD American Honey
BABAK ANVARI Under the Shadow
BILLY O’BRIEN, CHRISTOPHER HYDE I Am Not a Serial Killer
PAUL LAVERTY I, Daniel Blake
RACHEL TUNNARD Adult Life Skills

Best Actress
HAYLEY SQUIRES I, Daniel Blake
JODIE WHITTAKER Adult Life Skills
KATE DICKIE Couple in a Hole
NARGES RASHIDI Under the Shadow
SASHA LANE American Honey

Best Actor
DAVE JOHNS I, Daniel Blake
MAX RECORDS I Am Not a Serial Killer
MICHAEL FASSBENDER Trespass Against Us
SHIA LABEOUF American Honey
STEVE BRANDON My Feral Heart

Best Supporting Actress
AVIN MANSHADI Under the Shadow
GEMMA ARTERTON The Girl With All the Gifts
NAOMIE HARRIS Our Kind of Traitor
SHANA SWASH My Feral Heart
TERRY PHETO A United Kingdom

Best Supporting Actor
ARINZÉ KENE The Pass
BRETT GOLDSTEIN Adult Life Skills
CHRISTOPHER LLOYD I Am Not a Serial Killer
JAMIE DORNAN Anthropoid
SEAN HARRIS Trespass Against Us

Best Documentary
THE CONFESSION: LIVING THE WAR ON TERROR Ashish Ghadiali, James Rogan
DANCER Steven Cantor, Gabrielle Tana
THE HARD STOP George Amponsah, Dionne Walker
NOTES ON BLINDNESS Peter Middleton, James Spinney, Mike Brett, Jo-Jo Ellison, Steve Jamison, Alex Usborne
VERSUS: THE LIFE AND FILMS OF KEN LOACH Louise Osmond, Rebecca O’Brien

Outstanding Achievement in Craft
JOAKIM SUNDSTRÖM Sound – Notes on Blindness
PAUL MONAGHAN, MAT WHITECROSS Editing – Supersonic
ROBBIE RYAN Cinematography – American Honey
SEB BARKER Visual Effects – The Girl With All the Gifts
SHAHEEN BAIG Casting – Free Fire

The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director)
ADAM SMITH Trespass Against Us
ALICE LOWE Prevenge
BABAK ANVARI Under the Shadow
PETER MIDDLETON, JAMES SPINNEY Notes on Blindness
RACHEL TUNNARD Adult Life Skills

Debut Screenwriter – new for 2016
ED TALFAN The Passing (Yr Ymadawiad)
HOPE DICKSON LEACH The Levelling
JOHN CAIRNS, MICHAEL McCARTNEY A Patch of Fog
RACHEL TUNNARD Adult Life Skills
SIMON FARNABY, JULIAN BARRATT Mindhorn

Breakthrough Producer – new for 2016
CAMILLE GATIN The Girl With All the Gifts
DIONNE WALKER The Hard Stop
MICHAEL BERLINER Adult Life Skills
MIKE BRETT, JO-JO ELLISON, STEVE JAMISON Notes on Blindness
PAUL FEGAN Where You’re Meant to Be

Most Promising Newcomer
DAVE JOHNS I, Daniel Blake
HAYLEY SQUIRES I, Daniel Blake
LETITIA WRIGHT Urban Hymn
SENNIA NANUA The Girl With All the Gifts
STEVE BRANDON My Feral Heart

The Discovery Award
BLACK MOUNTAIN POETS Jamie Adams, Jon Rennie
THE DARKEST UNIVERSE Tom Kingsley, Will Sharpe, Tiani Ghosh, Jo-Jo Ellison
THE GHOUL Gareth Tunley, Jack Healy Guttmann, Tom Meeten
GOZO Miranda Bowen, Leo Scott
THE GREASY STRANGLER Jim Hosking, Toby Harvard, Daniel Noah, Andrew Starke, Ant Timpson, Josh C Waller, Elijah Wood

Best British Short
JACKED Rene Pannevis, Ashish Ghadiali, Jennifer Eriksson
MOTHER Leo Leigh, Scott O’Donnell
OVER Jörn Threlfall, Jeremy Bannister
RATE ME Fyzal Boulifa, Taina Galis
THE WRONG END OF THE STICK Terri Matthews, Chris Cornwell, Sam Bank

Image - BIFA