Nominations (and some winners) for BIFA 2025 are here!
An excited buzz of filmmakers, press, and industry leaders gathered on the rooftop of one hundred shoreditch yesterday morning for what might be the most exciting pre-1pm awards show in the film calendar. Hosted by Ben Hardy and Saura Lightfoot-Leon, this year’s nominees celebrate outstanding filmmaking and extraordinary talent from the British film industry and beyond, and include Jennifer Lawrence, Cillian Murphy, Andrea Riseborough, David Jonsson, Peter Mullan, Brenda Blethyn and Lynne Ramsay.
Leading the pack is My Father’s Shadow, Akinola Davies Jr’s fable of two brothers who come to understand their father at a pivotal moment in Nigerian history, which scored 12 nominations including Best British Independent Film, Director, Screenplay and Debut Director. Pillion, Harry Lighton’s tender love story between two men from opposite worlds, rides in with ten nominations, while I Swear, Kirk Jones’ ode to Tourette’s campaigner John Davison, follows close behind with nine. Actor-turned-director Harris Dickinson swaps the screen for the streets in Urchin, a portrait of life on London’s margins, garnerning six nominations, and The Ballad of Wallis Island strikes a chord with five.
And… we have our first winner! We’re delighted to share that Warfare, Alex Garland’s visceral boots-on-the-ground Navy SEAL drama, has won the Best Ensemble award, for the efforts of its cast including D’Pharoah Woon-A- Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn and Charles Melton.
Among the non-fiction nominees are Antidote, charting three whistleblowers’ fight to expose Putin’s regime, and The Shepherd and the Bear, following an ageing shepherd as he searches for a successor, while fending off predators both animal and human. Motherboard, A Want In Her and Mother Vera round out a strong field of personal, intimate stories, with Mother Vera also picking up a cinematography nod.
