

The British Independent Film Awards, or the BIFA Awards, have now been completed. This year, Harry Lighton’s Pillion took home four awards. The film, which stars Alexander Skarsgård and Harry Melling, follows a mellow, suburban man who becomes the submissive of a motorcyclist. It won awards for costume design and makeup and hair, one for best debut screenwriter and one for best film. During Lighton’s acceptance speech, he recalled the moment when his short film was nominated for a BIFA in 2017. He said, “I didn’t win, and I got incredibly drunk and spent the rest of the evening kind of burning industry bridges. I’m going to start by saying thank you to BIFA for not blacklisting me.”
Alex Garland and Ray Mendoza’s Warfare walked away with a handful of wins in technical categories. These included best editing, best effects, best ensemble performance and best sound. Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value earned the award for best international film. Eskil Vogt, who co-wrote the film and accepted the award on Trier’s behalf, said, “Well, we have to soak it up now, and that’s what Joachim is doing — going from one place to another and talking about the film. And that’s the one disadvantage of attention around the film…is that we can’t really start working on the next one.”
You can view the whole list of BIFA winners below.
Best British Independent Film
Pillion
Best British Short Film
Magid / Zafar
Best Casting
Lauren Evans, I Swear
Best Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey, Die My Love
Best Costume Design
Grace Snell, Pillion
Best Debut Screenwriter
Harry Lighton, Pillion
Best Debut Director
Cal McMau, Wasteman
Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
Myrid Carten, A Want in Her
Best Director
Akinola Davies Jr., My Father’s Shadow
Best Editing
Fin Oates, Warfare
Best Effects
Simon Stanley-Clamp and Ryan Conder, Warfare
Best Ensemble Performance
Joseph Quinn, D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Finn Bennett, Charles Melton, and Kit Connor, Warfare
Best Feature Documentary
A Want in Her
Best International Independent Film
Sentimental Value
Best Joint Lead
Tom Basden and Tim Key, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Best Lead Performance
Robert Aramayo, I Swear
Best Breakthrough Performance
Posy Sterling, Lollipop
Best Breakthrough Producer
Dhiraj Mahey, Ish
Best Makeup and Hair Design
Diandra Ferreira, Pillion
Best Music Supervision
Raife Burchell and Ian Neil, Die My Love
Best Original Music
Tom Basden and Adem Ilhan, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Best Production Design
Nathan Parker, Harvest
Best Screenplay
Tom Basden and Tim Key, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Best Sound
Glenn Freemantle, Mitch Low, Howard Bargroff, Ben Barker and Richard Spooner, Warfare
Best Supporting Performance
Jay Lycurgo, Steve
The Raindance Maverick Award
Myrid Carten, A Want in Her
Special Jury Prize
Warp Films
BIFA Cinema of the Year Award
The Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn
Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by an Actor to British Film
Emily Watson
