British Independent Film Awards 2025: the winners in full

Harry Lighton’s BDSM drama Pillion was given the top prize at this year’s British Independent Film Awards. Winning Best British Independent Film, the film – which stars Harry Melling and Alexander Skarsgård and was funded by the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund, also won Best Debut Screenwriter for Lighton and two craft categories: Best Costume Design and Best Makeup and Hair Design.

A Want in Her, Myrid Carten’s documentary about her search for her missing mother, won three awards: Best Feature Documentary, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary, and The Raindance Maverick Award. A Want in Her was funded by the BFI Doc Society Fund.

Best Director went to Akinola Davies Jr for My Father’s Shadow, his tale of two brothers exploring 1990s Lagos with their father. My Father’s Shadow was also supported by the BFI National Lottery Filmmaking Fund.

Other winning films supported by the BFI are Ish, for which Dhiraj Mahey was named Best Breakthrough Producer; Lollipop, which won Best Breakthrough Performance for Posy Sterling, and Magid / Zafar, which won Best British Short Film.

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

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

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

Depot Cinema

Winner: The Magic Lantern Cinema

Montrose Playhouse

Queen’s Film Theatre

Watershed

Laura Carreira — On Falling

Winner: Akinola Davies Jr — My Father’s Shadow

Kirk Jones — I Swear

Harry Lighton - Pillion

Lynne Ramsay — Die My Love

Winner: 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

Winner: 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

Winner: Jay Lycurgo - Steve

Peter Mullan — I Swear

Maxine Peake — I Swear

Alexander Skarsgard - Pillion

Ebada Hassan, Saffiya Ingar - Brides

Winner: Tim Key, Tom Basden — The Ballad of Wallis Island

Andrea Riseborough, Brenda Blethyn - Dragonfly 

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

Winner: Cal McMau - Wasteman

Wyn Baptiste — Shoot the People

Charlotte Knowles — Palestine Comedy Club

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

Winner: 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

Winner: 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

Winner: Harry Lighton - Pillion

Winner: 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

Winner: 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

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

Flock — Mac Nixon, Matt Ashwell, Daley Nixon

Winner: 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

Winner: 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

Winner: Lauren Evans — I Swear

Robert Sterne - Steve

Charlotte Bruus Christensen — H Is for Hawk

Jermaine Edwards — My Father’s Shadow

Cecile Embleton — Mother Vera

Winner: Seamus McGarvey — Die My Love

Piotr Niemyjski -  A Pale View of Hills

Susie Coulthard — 100 Nights of Hero

Kirsty Halliday - Tornado

Winner: 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

Winner: Fin Oates - Warfare

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

Gareth C. Scales - Pillion 

Winner: 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

Winner: Ian Neil, Raife Burchell — Die My Love

Bridget Samuels - Urchin

Kehinde Are, Feyzo Oyebisi — My Father’s Shadow

Winner: Diandra Ferreira - Pillion

Paul Gooch, Tristan Versluis - Warfare

Colleen Labaff, Miho Suzuki — Die My Love

Natasha Lawes — 100 Nights of Hero

Winner: 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

Winner: 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

Winner: Glenn Freemantle, Mitch Low, Howard Bargroff, Ben Barker, Richard Spooner - Warfare