The British Independent Film Awards once again celebrated excellent movies as their yearly awards were held in Camden. Here are the BIFA 2025 winners. The awards season has arrived and the British Independent Film Awards were the first big awards ceremony held on UK ground on 30th November. The nominations were announced earlier in the ... BIFA 2025 | Pillion named Best British Independent Film of the year
The British Independent Film Awards once again celebrated excellent movies as their yearly awards were held in Camden. Here are the BIFA 2025 winners.
The awards season has arrived and the British Independent Film Awards were the first big awards ceremony held on UK ground on 30th November. The nominations were announced earlier in the month with My Father’s Shadow, I Swear and Pillion all receiving a decent amount of nominations.
At the ceremony, held at Camden’s The Roundhouse, Harry Lighton’s excellent BDSM rom-com Pillion was named the Best British Independent Film of 2025. The film, starring Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgard, has been garnering critical acclaim ever since its debut at Cannes Film Festival earlier this year.
Lighton also picked up the award for Best Debut Screenplay while the Douglas Huckox award for Best Debut Director went to Cal McMau for his intense prison drama Wasteman. Best Director went to Akinola Davies Jr. for My Father’s Shadow which is also the UK’s entry into the Oscars’ International Film category.
Film Stories cover star Robert Aramayo picked up Best Performance for I Swear and Steve’s Jay Lycurgo was recognized for his supporting performance.
The awards received some criticism for the lack of female nominees. The BIFAs switched to gender-neutral acting categories in 2022 and this year, only two of the 12 acting nominations went to women.
Deena Wallace and Amy Gustin, the co-heads of the BIFAs, said such a situation was “an anomaly” after years of women dominating the awards. They’re not exactly wrong either; in the last three years has seen 15 women and just five men.
“So actually this year is a bit correction,” Wallace told Variety. “It gets us to closer to 50/50 over the three years. But it’s still not there yet.”
Well, here’s hoping there’ll be a healthy balance in nominees in the years to come!
Here’s the full list of BIFA 2025 winners:
Best British Independent Film
Suggested product
Issue #60 Magazine Bundle (3x Covers: A Scanner Darkly Magazine + 1991 + Roger Deakins)
£14.99
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 Make-Up 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
