The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Announces Its 2026 Nominations

The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) announced its 2026 nominations, with Elsinore leading the way with 12 nominations and 39 British films in the running for awards.

BIFA-winning stars Jay Lycurgo and Posy Sterling announced the 2026 British Independent Film Awards nominations today at One Hundred Shoreditch, London. The nominations highlight this year’s outstanding British films and extraordinary talent from the UK industry and beyond. This year’s nominees include Mike Leigh, Clio Barnard, Mark Jenkin. Ashley Walters, Andrew Scott, Claire Foy, Billie Piper, Bella Ramsey. Joe Cole, Juliette Binoche and Bill Pullman.

BIFA’s Cinema of the Year, supported by Kia, returns, voted for by cinemagoers nationwide. The five nominated cinemas are: Abbeygate Cinema in Bury St Edmunds. Campus West in Welwyn Garden City, The Hippodrome Cinema in Bo’ness. The Kinema in the Woods in Woodhall Spa and The Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford.

ELSINORE

Elsinore, the heart-wrenching story of actor Ian Charleson’s final performance of Hamlet, leads the field with 12 nominations, including Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Simon Stone, Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films for Simon Beresford, Best Lead Performance for previous winner Andrew Scott and Best Supporting Performance for Billie Piper. The film also received seven craft nominations, including Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak & Molinare. Best Casting, Best Costume Design, Best Editing, Best Make-Up & Hair Design for previous winner Nadia Stacey. Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group, and Best Production Design sponsored by ATC for previous winner Helen Scott.

I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING AND ANIMOL

Five lifelong friends feel the wheels come off as they turn 30 in I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, from BIFA winner Clio Barnard. Its eight nominations include Best British Independent Film and Best Director. Best Screenplay for previous nominee Enda Walsh, and Best Ensemble Performance for stars including BIFA winners Jay Lycurgo and Joe Cole and previous nominee Daryl McCormack. Craft nominees for the film include past BIFA winners and nominees Shaheen Baig (Casting), Connie Farr (Music Supervision) and Maya Maffioli (Editing). The film’s Cinematography is also recognized.

Ashley Walters’ debut feature Animol, which throws a teenager into the perilous pecking order of a young offender’s institution, scores seven nominations. Including Best Debut Director sponsored by BBC Film for Ashley and Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios for Tom Hawkins. Tut Nyuot and Sekou Diaby have two nominations each: in Best Lead and Best Supporting Performance respectively. Plus Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix. Previous BIFA nominee Heather Basten is nominated for Best Casting.

EFFI O BLAENAU AND QUEEN AT SEA

Leisa Gwenllian’s Effi parties hard until life hits back harder in Effi O Blaenau. The film has six nominations, including Best British Independent Film and Best Screenplay. Breakthrough Producer and Best Original Music. Star Leisa Gwenllian has two nominations: Breakthrough Performance and Best Lead Performance.

Lance Hammer’s Queen at Sea, about a long marriage tested by dementia, also has six nominations. Including Best British Independent Film and Best Screenplay. Juliette Binoche is nominated for Best Lead Performance, and her co-stars Tom Courtenay and Anna Calder-Marshall are nominated for Best Supporting Performance. Connie Farr receives her second Best Music Supervision nod this year for her work on the film.

EXTRA GEOGRAPHY AND TENDER LOVING CARE

Two boarding-school best friends make falling in love their summer project in Molly Manners’ Extra Geography, which earns her a nomination for Best Debut Director. The film also receives nominations for Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4. Best Joint Lead Performance for breakout stars Marni Duggan and Galaxie Clear, who also score a Breakthrough Performance nomination, and BIFA winner Lucy Pardee is recognized in Best Casting.

Mike Leigh’s purported swansong Tender Loving Care is nominated for Best British Independent Film, as well as Best Director and Best Screenplay for Mike Leigh and Best Ensemble Performance for Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Kate O’Flynn and Alice Bailey Johnson.

FAITH, EVERYBODY DIGS BILL EVANS, AND SUNNY DANCER

Erin Doherty receives a Best Lead Performance nod for her role in Faith, Paul Andrew Williams’ kitchen-sink drama with a supernatural twist. Danny Boyle’s tabloid origin story Ink has three craft nominations – Best Editing for BIFA winner Fin Oates. Best Production Design and Best Sound, sponsored by Bleat, as well as Best Supporting Performance for Claire Foy. Bill Pullman has a Supporting Performance nomination for grief-stricken jazz biopic Everybody Digs Bill Evans, which also has nominations in Best Cinematography, Best Original Music and Best Sound.

The cast of the chemo-camp comedy Sunny Dancer, including Bella Ramsey, Daniel Quinn-Toye, James Norton and Ruby Stokes, are nominated for Best Ensemble Performance. The film also receives a Best Music Supervision nomination.

FLORID, THE INCOMER, SURVIVING EARTH, BAD APPLES, AND BLACK CHURCH BAY

Billy Lumby earns a Best Debut Director nomination for Florid, which follows a young man struggling to fulfill his dreams while battling his inner voices. The film’s star Jonathan Jules is up for Best Lead Performance and Breakthrough Performance, and the film is also recognized for its Casting and Sound.

Louis Paxton earns Best Debut Director and Best Debut Screenwriter nominations for his offbeat Scottish comedy The Incomer, which is also nominated for Best Costume Design and Best Effects.

Best Debut Screenwriter nominations also go to Thea Gajić for the loose adaptation of her father’s life story Surviving Earth, Jess O’Kane for teacher-kidnaps-pupil black comedy Bad Apples and Rhys Marc Jones for his queer coastal thriller Black Church Bay. The latter two films are also nominated for Breakthrough Producer.

A LONG WINTER, ROSE OF NEVADA, CALIFORNIA SCHEMIN’, THE EDUCATION OF JANE CUMMING, AND SMALL GODS

BIFA winner Andrew Haigh receives a Best Director nomination for snowbound Colm Tóibín adaptation A Long Winter, as well as Best Cinematography, Best Costume Design and Best Sound for the film. Mark Jenkin is nominated for Best Director, Best Sound and Best Original Music for Rose of Nevada, his ghostly tale of a fishing trawler that comes home 30 years too early. Mark won the Best Sound category in 2023.

Best Joint Lead Performance nominees this year are Séamus McLean Ross and Samuel Bottomley for James McAvoy’s imitation-American rap caper California Schemin’, Flora Nicholson, Clare Dunne and Mia Tharia for the true-life scandal of The Education of Jane Cumming, and Chimpaye Florence Mariserena and Bizimana Hussain for the Ugandan love story Small Gods.

BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY AND BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR

Amongst the nominees for Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission Film are Jeanie Finlay’s All Rivers Spill their Stories to the Sea, following the David and Goliath fight for the north-east coast, Everybody to Kenmure Street, in which protestors prevail against a Home Office immigration raid, and We, The Hated, where Just Stop Oil take the heat. One in a Million, which follows a Syrian refugee from the age of 11 into adulthood, also picks up a Breakthrough Producer nomination.

Also in the Best Feature Documentary category, Rachel Taparjan’s family secrets doc Something Familiar nets her Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary and Raindance Maverick Award nominations.

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary nominations also go to Ed Sayers for Super Nature, which captures the natural world across 25 countries on Super 8, and to Janay Boulos and Abd Alkader Habak for a portrait of their own love story across warzones, Birds of War.

RAINDANCE MAVERICK AWARD

Something Familiar is joined in the Raindance Maverick Award nominations by Christine Molloy and Joe Lawlor’s Act 3, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan’s time-crossed queer romance Chatlines, The Peril at Pincer Point, Noah Stratton-Twine and Jake Kuhn’s lo-fi seafaring horror-comedy, and Bertil Nilsson’s role-hopping comedy-drama Masc, which also sees him net a Best Debut Director nod.

MULTIPLE CRAFT NOMINATIONS

Films with multiple craft nominations include Straight Circle with five (Cinematography, Costume Design, Editing, Make-Up & Hair Design and Production Design), Savage House with four (Costume Design, Make-Up & Hair Design, Production Design) and The Magic Faraway Tree with three (Effects, Make-Up & Hair Design, Production Design). Final craft nominations include Best Original Music for Underland, Best Effects for Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom, Best Editing for Black is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story, and Nadia Stacey’s second Best Make-Up & Hair Design nomination this year for Madfabulous.

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM

This year’s nominees for Best International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger are Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s La Bola Negra and two debuts — Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid, and Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva.

BEST BRITISH SHORT FILM

An astronaut, an asylum hotel and a parliamentary hopeful make it onto the Best British Short Film list this year, with Allies in Exile, Coyotes, Forgotten Spaceman, Untitled Woman and Vote Gavin Lyle nominated.

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD

The Richard Harris Award recognizes an actor’s outstanding contribution to British film. Previous winners include Daniel Day-Lewis, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Riz Ahmed, Samantha Morton, Stephen Graham, Sophie Okonedo and Emily Watson in 2025. The announcement of this year’s award recipient will take place in the coming weeks, along with the reveal of the ceremony host and this year’s juries.

BIFA NOMINATIONS 2026

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

TBA

Best British Independent Film

EFFI O BLAENAU Marc Evans, Gary Owen, Branwen Cennard

ELSINORE Simon Stone, Stephen Beresford, Andrea Occhipinti, Gabrielle Tana, Pete Shilaimon, Mickey Liddell, Stefano Massenzi, Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Andrew Scott

I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING Clio Barnard, Enda Walsh, Tracy O’Riordan

QUEEN AT SEA Lance Hammer, Tristan Goligher

TENDER LOVING CARE Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe

Cinema of the Year supported by Kia

ABBEYGATE CINEMA

CAMPUS WEST

HIPPODROME CINEMA

THE KINEMA IN THE WOODS

THE ULTIMATE PICTURE PALACE

Best Director

CLIO BARNARD I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

ANDREW HAIGH A Long Winter

MARK JENKIN Rose of Nevada

MIKE LEIGH Tender Loving Care

SIMON STONE Elsinore

Best Screenplay-sponsored by Apple Original Films

STEPHEN BERESFORD Elsinore

LANCE HAMMER Queen at Sea

MIKE LEIGH Tender Loving Care

GARY OWEN Effi O Blaenau

ENDA WALSH I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

Lead Performance

JULIETTE BINOCHE Queen at Sea

ERIN DOHERTY Faith

LEISA GWENLLIAN Effi o Blaenau

JONATHAN JULES Florid

TUT NYUOT Animol

ANDREW SCOTT Elsinore

Best Supporting Performance

ANNA CALDER-MARSHALL Queen at Sea

TOM COURTENAY Queen at Sea

SEKOU DIABY Animol

CLAIRE FOY Ink

BILLIE PIPER Elsinore

BILL PULLMAN Everybody Digs Bill Evans

Best Joint Lead Performance

SÉAMUS MCLEAN ROSS, SAMUEL BOTTOMLEY California Schemin’

FLORA NICHOLSON, CLARE DUNNE, MIA THARIA The Education of Jane Cumming

MARNI DUGGAN, GALAXIE CLEAR Extra Geography

CHIMPAYE FLORENCE MARISERENA, BIZIMANA HUSSAIN Small Gods

Ensemble Performance

I SEE BUILDINGS FALL LIKE LIGHTNING Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack, Lola Petticrew

SUNNY DANCER Bella Ramsey, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Conrad Khan, Jasmine Elcock, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Louis Gaunt, Josie Walker, Jessica Gunning, James Norton, Neil Patrick Harris, James Blunt

TENDER LOVING CARE Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Kate O’Flynn, Alice Bailey Johnson

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film

BILLY LUMBY Florid

MOLLY MANNERS Extra Geography

BERTIL NILSSON Masc

LOUIS PAXTON The Incomer

ASHLEY WALTERS Animol

Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios

ITAB AZZAM, JACK MACINNES, WILL ANDERSON, JAMES BLUEMEL, ANDREW PALMER One in a Million [also produced Raney Aronson-Rath]

BRANWEN CENNARD Effi O Blaenau

TOM HAWKINS Animol [also produced by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Nick Love, Ashley Walters]

OSKAR PIMLOTT Bad Apples

ALEX POLUNIN Black Church Bay [also produced by Tristan Goligher]

Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix

GALAXIE CLEAR Extra Geography

SEKOU DIABY Animol

LEISA GWENLLIAN Effi O Blaenau

JONATHAN JULES Florid

TUT NYUOT Animol

Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4

MIRIAM BATTYE Extra Geography

THEA GAJIĆ Surviving Earth

RHYS MARC JONES Black Church Bay

JESS O’KANE Bad Apples

LOUIS PAXTON The Incomer

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary

JANAY BOULOS, ABD ALKADER HABAK Birds of War

ED SAYERS Super Nature

RACHEL TAPARJAN Something Familiar

The Raindance Maverick Award

ACT 3 Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor, Alex Thiele, Hannah Patterson

CHATLINES Neil Ely, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Paul Mortlock

MASC Bertil Nilsson

THE PERIL AT PINCER POINT Jake Kuhn, Noah Stratton-Twine

SOMETHING FAMILIAR Rachel Taparjan, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin, Aleksandra Bilic

Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission Film

ALL RIVERS SPILL THEIR STORIES TO THE SEA Jeanie Finlay, Charlie Phillips

EVERYBODY TO KENMURE STREET Felipe Bustos Sierra, Ciara Barry

ONE IN A MILLION Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Will Anderson, Andrew Palmer, James Bluemel, Raney Aronson-Rath

SOMETHING FAMILIAR Rachel Taparjan, Aleksandra Bilic, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan

WE, THE HATED Rich Felgate, David Allen

Best British Short Film

ALLIES IN EXILE Hasan Kattan, Orlando von Einsiedel

COYOTES Said Zagha, Myriam Sassine, Laura Jumel

FORGOTTEN SPACEMAN Elham Ehsas, Lorraine Bhattachary

UNTITLED WOMAN Camille Summers-Valli, Rosmarie Vind, Sorcha Bacon, Martha McGuirk, David Zander

VOTE GAVIN LYLE Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell, Tom Gardner

International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger

ALL OF A SUDDEN Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Léa Le Dimna, David Gauquié, Julien Deris, Kôsuke Oshida, Yûji Sadai, Jean-Luc Ormières, Renan Artukmaç, Hiroko Matsuda

CLUB KID Jordan Firstman, Galen Core, Alex Coco

LA BOLA NEGRA Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo

LA GRADIVA Marine Atlan, Anne Brouilet, Inès Daïen Dasi

POSSIBLE LOVE Lee Chang-dong, Oh Jung-mi

Best Casting

SHAHEEN BAIG I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

HEATHER BASTEN Animol

LARA MANWARING Florid

LUCY PARDEE Extra Geography

JESSICA RONANE Elsinore

Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak & Molinare

MIKE ELEY Elsinore

PIERS McGRAIL Everybody Digs Bill Evans

CHRISTOPHER RIPLEY Straight Circle

SIMON TINDALL I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

ANDRÉ TURPIN A Long Winter

Costume Design

SARAH BLENKINSOP The Incomer

ALEX BOVAIRD Savage House

CAROL CASE A Long Winter

DARION HING Straight Circle

MEL PAGE Elsinore

Best Editing

VALERIO BONELLI Elsinore

OTTO BURNHAM Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story

FOUAD GABER Straight Circle

MAYA MAFFIOLI I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

FIN OATES Ink

Best Effects

JON BIGGINS, JEFF DILLON Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

RUSLAN BORYSOV, RICHARD CHEAL, TIM LEDBURY The Magic Faraway Tree

DANIEL MORRIS The Incomer

Music Supervision

CONNIE FARR I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

CONNIE FARR Queen at Sea

PHIL CANNING Sunny Dancer

Best Make-Up & Hair Design

JACQUETTA LEVON Savage House

NADIA STACEY Elsinore

NADIA STACEY Madfabulous

KAREN HARTLEY THOMAS The Magic Faraway Tree

TRISTAN VERSLUIS Straight Circle

Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group

ROGER GOULA Everybody Digs Bill Evans

STEFAN GREGORY Elsinore

MARK JENKIN Rose of Nevada

HANNAH PEEL Underland

SIÔN TREFOR, IOANA SELARU Effi o Blaenau

Best Production Design sponsored by ATC

LUKE MORAN-MORRIS Straight Circle

GARETH PUGH, CARSON McCOLL Ink

HELEN SCOTT Elsinore

ALEXANDRA WALKER The Magic Faraway Tree

GARY WILLIAMSON Savage House

Best Sound sponsored by Bleat

ANDY COLES, JOHN BRENNAN Everybody Digs Bill Evans

PAUL COTTERELL, RON OSIOWY, JOAKIM SUNDSTRÖM A Long Winter

SIMON HAYES, JOHNNIE BURN Ink

MARK JENKIN, IAN WILSON Rose of Nevada

DARIO SWADE, GEORGE ELLIOTT, TOM HARBURT Florid

BIFA will announce the craft winners on November 24 via its social media channels. The ceremony on Sunday, December 6, at Roundhouse will showcase winners in all other categories.