British Independent Film Awards 2025: the nominations in full

Akinola Davies Jr’s debut feature My Father’s Shadow leads the pack after the announcement of the nominations for this year’s British Independent Film Awards. Davies Jr’s drama about two young brothers and their father roaming Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis picked up 12 nominations, including for Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Debut Director.

Following with 10 nominations is Harry Lighton’s Pillion, the adaptation of Adam Mars-Jones’s 2020 novel Box Hill about the BDSM relationship between a biker and an introverted gay man. 

I Swear, Kirk Jones’s biographical drama based on the life story of John Davidson, a Scottish man with Tourette’s syndrome, took 9 nominations, while Lynne Ramsay’s latest film Die My Love got 8.

Other films picking up multiple nominations include Harris Dickinson’s Urchin, James Griffiths’ The Ballad of Wallis Island and Laura Carreira’s On Falling.

Nominated films supported by the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund include My Father’s Shadow, Pillion, Urchin, On Falling, Brides, Ish, Lollipop and The Thing with Feathers. Nominated documentaries A Want in Her and Holloway were supported by the BFI Doc Society Fund, while three of the nominated short films were backed by BFI National Lottery funding: Flock and Magid/Zafar via Future Takes and Two Black Boys in Paradise via BFI Short Form Animation Fund. In total, BFI-backed films picked up 47 nominations.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 30 November.

The Ballad of Wallis Island — James Griffiths, Tom Basden, Tim Key, Rupert Majendie

I Swear — Kirk Jones, Georgia Bayliff, Piers Tempest

My Father’s Shadow — Akinola Davies Jr, Wale Davies, Rachel Dargavel, Funmbi Ogunbanwo

Pillion — Harry Lighton, Lee Groombridge, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Emma Norton

Urchin — Harris Dickinson, Archie Pearch, Scott O’Donnell

Depot Cinema

The Magic Lantern Cinema

Montrose Playhouse

Queen’s Film Theatre

Watershed

Laura Carreira — On Falling

Akinola Davies Jr — My Father’s Shadow

Kirk Jones — I Swear

Harry Lighton - Pillion

Lynne Ramsay — Die My Love

Tom Basden, Tim Key — The Ballad of Wallis Island

Laura Carreira — On Falling

Wale Davies — My Father’s Shadow

Kirk Jones — I Swear

Harry Lighton - Pillion

Robert Aramayo — I Swear

Frank Dillane - Urchin

David Jonsson - Wasteman

Jennifer Lawrence — Die My Love

Harry Melling - Pillion

Cillian Murphy - Steve

Tom Blyth - Wasteman

Scott Ellis Watson — I Swear

Jay Lycurgo - Steve

Peter Mullan — I Swear

Maxine Peake — I Swear

Alexander Skarsgard - Pillion

Ebada Hassan, Saffiya Ingar - Brides

Tim Key, Tom Basden — The Ballad Of Wallis Island

Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn - Dragonfly 

Best Ensemble Performance - Winner

Warfare — D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton

Laura Carreira — On Falling

Akinola Davies Jr — My Father’s Shadow

Harris Dickinson - Urchin

Harry Lighton - Pillion

Cal McMau - Wasteman

Wyn Baptiste — Shoot the People

Charlotte Knowles — Palestine Comedy Club

Joann Kushner — LifeHack [also produced by Timur Bekmambetov, Aleksandr Kletzov]

Dhiraj Mahey — Ish [also produced by Bennett McGhee]

Archie Pearch — Urchin [also produced by Scott O’Donnell]

Scott Ellis Watson — I Swear

Ebada Hassan - Brides

Safiyya Ingar - Brides

Posy Sterling - Lollipop

Connor Tompkins — The Son and the Sea

Hunter Andrews, Eoin Doran - Wasteman

Tom Basden, Tim Key — The Ballad of Wallis Island

Laura Carreira — On Falling

Wale Davies — My Father’s Shadow

Harry Lighton - Pillion

Myrid Carten — A Want In Her

Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson — Mother Vera

Victoria Mapplebeck - Motherboard

Foul Evil Deeds — Richard Hunter

Holloway — Sophie Compton, Daisy-May Hudson, Stella Heath Keir, Alice Hughes, Polly Creed

Mother Vera — Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson, Laura Shacham

Motherboard — Victoria Mapplebeck

A Want in Her — Myrid Carten

Antidote — James Jones, David Moulton

Mother Vera — Cecile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson, Laura Shacham

Motherboard — Victoria Mapplebeck

The Shepherd and the Bear — Max Keegan, Elizabeth Woodward, Amanda McBaine, Jesse Moss

A Want in Her — Myrid Carten, Tadhg O’Sullivan, Roisin Geraghty, Kat Mansoor

Flock — Mac Nixon, Matt Ashwell, Daley Nixon

Magid / Zafar — Luis Hindman, Sufiyaan Salam, Aidan Robert Brooks

A Sisyphean Task — Gus Flind-Henry, George Malcher, George Telfer

Stomach Bug — Matty Crawford, Karima Sammout Kanellopoulou

Two Black Boys in Paradise — Ben Jackson, Baz Sells, Dean Atta

It Was Just an Accident — Jafar Panahi, Phillippe Martin

Sentimental Value — Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar

Sirāt — Oliver Laxe, Santiago Fillol, Domingo Corral, Oriol Maymo, Andrea Queralt, Mani Mortazavi, Xavi Font, Pedro Almodovar, Agustin Almodovar, Esther García

Sorry, Baby — Eva Victor, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins

Sound of Falling — Mascha Schilinski, Louise Pete, Maren Schmitt, Lucas Schmidt

Shaheen Baig - Brides

Shaheen Baig - Urchin

Kharmel Cochrane - Warfare

Lauren Evans — I Swear

Robert Sterne - Steve

Charlotte Bruus Christensen — H Is for Hawk

Jermaine Edwards — My Father’s Shadow

Cecile Embleton — Mother Vera

Seamus McGarvey — Die My Love

Piotr Niemyjski -  A Pale View of Hills

Susie Coulthard — 100 Nights of Hero

Kirsty Halliday - Tornado

Grace Snell - Pillion

Sayaka Takahashi, Matthew Price -  A Pale View of Hills

PC Williams — My Father’s Shadow

Ronan Corrigan, Aleksandr Kletsov - LifeHack

Omar Guzman Castro — My Father’s Shadow

Fin Oates - Warfare

Sam Rice-Edwards — One To One: John & Yoko

Gareth C. Scales - Pillion 

Simon Stanley-Clamp, Ryan Conder - Warfare

Victor Tomi — Die My Love

Hayley Williams, Conor O’Sullivan, Martin Malmqvist — The Thing with Feathers

Phil Canning - Wasteman

Ian Neil, Raife Burchell — Die My Love

Bridget Samuels - Urchin

Kehinde Are, Feyzo Oyebisi — My Father’s Shadow

Diandra Ferreira - Pillion

Paul Gooch, Tristan Versluis - Warfare

Colleen Labaff, Miho Suzuki — Die My Love

Natasha Lawes — 100 Nights of Hero

Tom Basden, Adem Ilhan — The Ballad of Wallis Island

Bobby Krlic - Anemone

Jed Kurzel - Tornado

CJ Mirra — My Father’s Shadow

Steven Price — Ocean with David Attenborough

Jennifer Anti, Pablo Anti — My Father’s Shadow

Mark Digby - Warfare

Tim Grimes — Die My Love

Nathan Parker - Harvest

Sofia Sacomani — 100 Nights Of Hero

Steve Fanagan, Stevie Haywood - Anemone

Tim Burns, Paul Davies, Linda Forsen, Andrew Stirk, Ron Osiowy — Die My Love

Nina Hartstone, Jake Whitelee, Jens Petersen, Mike Tehrani, Rob Davidson - Ish

Cj Mirra, James Ridgway, Joe Jackson, Adele Fletcher, Pius Fatoke — My Father’s Shadow

Sound Team - Warfare