Andrea Arnold’s middle America roadtrip odyssey American Honey is the big winner at the 2016 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), nabbing the awards for best British independent film, best director, best actress for Sasha Lane and the prize for outstanding craft for cinematographer Robbie Ryan.
...and it's Andrea Arnold who has won the Best Director #BIFA for her work on #BFIBacked #LotteryFunded @honeymovie! 🎉” pic.twitter.com/caiPhfSvEv
— BFI (@BFI) December 4, 2016
It was also a good night for the Tehran-set horror film Under the Shadow, which picked up awards for best supporting actress for Anvin Manshadi and two awards for writer-director Babak Anvari: best screenplay and the Douglas Hickox award for debut director.
The acting pair at the heart of Ken Loach’s celebrated welfare state drama I, Daniel Blake were also recognised, with Dave Johns winning best actor and most promising newcomer going to Hayley Squires.
The prize for best international indie film went to Barry Jenkins’ poetic coming-of-age drama Moonlight.
American Honey and I, Daniel Blake were backed with lottery funding from the BFI Film Fund. Other BFI backed winners include Notes on Blindness (best documentary), The Greasy Strangler (winner of the Discovery Award) and The Girl with All the Gifts, which won the new breakthrough producer prize for Camille Gatin.
Best British independent film
AMERICAN HONEY Andrea Arnold, Lars Knudsen, Jay Van Hoy, Pouya Shahbazian, Alice Weinberg, Thomas Benski, Lucas Ochoa
Best international independent film
MOONLIGHT Barry Jenkins, Adele Romanski, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner
Best director
ANDREA ARNOLD American Honey
Best screenplay
BABAK ANVARI Under the Shadow
Best actress
SASHA LANE American Honey
Best actor
DAVE JOHNS I, Daniel Blake
Best supporting actress
AVIN MANSHADI Under the Shadow
Best supporting actor
BRETT GOLDSTEIN Adult Life Skills
Best documentary
NOTES ON BLINDNESS Peter Middleton, James Spinney, Mike Brett, Jo-Jo Ellison, Steve Jamison, Alex Usborne
Outstanding achievement in craft
ROBBIE RYAN Cinematography – American Honey
The Douglas Hickox Award (debut director)
BABAK ANVARI Under the Shadow
Debut screenwriter
RACHEL TUNNARD Adult Life Skills
Breakthrough producer – new for 2016
CAMILLE GATIN The Girl with All the Gifts
Most promising newcomer
HAYLEY SQUIRES I, Daniel Blake
The Discovery Award
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
The Variety Award
Naomie Harris
The Richard Harris Award
Alison Steadman
The Special Jury Prize
Claire Binns
Under the Shadow: the films that influenced this creepy Iranian horror
From J-horror to Rosemary’s Baby, debut director Babak Anvari talks us through the movies that were on his mind when making his utterly terrifying Tehran-set horror film Under the Shadow.
By Sam Wigley
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