British Independent Film Awards, or BIFA for short, have announced their nominations for the 2019 film year. Like the Gothams and Spirits they are juried which means a small group of people decide various categories before the entire membership votes on the winners. Strangely, despite that they focused on a small pool of films (the leaders, Wild Rose and The Personal History of David Copperfield have a staggering 21 nominations between them. Yikes!
Our friend and sometimes Smackdown guest Guy Lodge was on the panel this year and here are their choices.
Best British Independent Film
Bait, Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
For Sama, Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
The Personal History Of David Copperfield, Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell, Kevin Loader The Souvenir Joanna Hogg, Luke Schiller
The Souvenir, Joanna Hogg, Luke Schiller
Wild Rose, Tom Harper, Nicole Taylor, Faye Ward
Bait and David Copperfield have not yet arrived stateside. The latter is coming in 2020 and with lots of name actors it will get some attention (plus it's quite funny) but we had to look up Bait to see what it was. We must keep an eye out due to the BIFA love...
Best Director
Oliver Hermanus, Moffie
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir [REVIEW]
Mark Jenkin, Bait
Asif Kapadia, Diego Maradona [REVIEW]
Diego Maradona is currently on HBO here in the US.
Best Actress
Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose [SOUNDTRACKING]
Holliday Grainger, Animals
Sally Hawkins, Eternal Beauty
Vicky Knight, Dirty God
Renee Zellweger, Judy [PODCAST]
Vicky Knight was recently chosen as one of the “Breakthrough Brits” by BAFTA, which is an initiative honoring people in the arts from crafstpeople to gaming designers to actors. Renee’s Judy was a given but this is a nice honor for Buckley who really was strong in Wild Rose. This is the first we’re hearing of a new Sally Hawkins movie. Give it to our eyeballs NOW.
We haven't yet seen Animals but we've loved Holliday Grainger in a few things now and we know our own contributor Abe will be happy about this since he raved about her at Sundance.
Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Barden, Scarborough
Ruthxjiah Bellenea, The Last Tree
Elizabeth Debicki, Vita & Virginia [REVIEW]
Tilda Swinton, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Julie Walters, Wild Rose
Hmmmm. Not sure how Debicki is supporting in a drama about the romance between Vita and Virginia (since she plays Virginia). It's true she takes a little bit of the running time to show up but she's so dominant once she does that this feels like egregious category fraud. Tilda is hilarious in David Copperfield with a powerhouse entrance scene.
Best Screenplay
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir
Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Paul Laverty, Sorry We Missed You
Peter Strickland, In Fabric [REVIEW]
Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose
Lots of love for The Souvenir and David Copperfield with this awards group. We feel like we’ve been hearing about In Fabric for two years now but it still hasn’t had US release.
Best Actor
Sam Adewunmi, The Last Tree
Tom Burke, The Souvenir
Kris Hitchen, Sorry We Missed You
Josh O’Connor, Only You
Dev Patel, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
We're becoming real fans of O'Connor who has been strong in everything we've seen him in to date. Only You is a romantic drama about a young couple.
Best Supporting Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Hugh Laurie, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Edlison Manuel Olbera Núñez, Yuli – The Carlos Acosta Story
Peter Mullan, The Vanishing
Bluey Robinson, Dirty God
The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind is on Netflix and is also submitted for the International Feature Oscar race this year.
The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director)
Will Becher, Richard Phelan, A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Fyzal Boulifa, Lynn + Lucy
Ninian Doff, Boyz In The Wood
Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Harry Wootliff, Only You
One mystery of the Oscar season: Why is A Shaun the Sheep sequel not in the longlist the Academy released for Best Animated Feature this year. Why would its company not submit it when the original went all the way to a nomination in that category?
Debut Screenwriter
Kieran Hurley, Beats
Lisa Owens, Days Of The Bagnold Summer
Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose
Emma Jane Unsworth, Animals
Harry Wootliff, Only You
Best Documentary
Coup 53, Taghi Amirani, Walter Murch, Paul Zaentz
Diego Maradona, Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Paul Martin
For Sama, Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts
Seahorse, Jeanie Finlay, Andrea Cornwell
Tell Me Who I Am, Ed Perkins, Simon Chinn
I saw Seahorse at the Austin gay and lesbian film festival earlier this year. That doc is about a pregnant trans man’s journey to fatherhood. It was my second choice for the top prize in the doc jury I served on for the festival. (The award went, unanimously, to a drama about trans athletes in high school sports called Changing the Game, but keep an eye out for both titles)
Breakthrough Producer
Finn Bruce, Tucked
Kate Byers, Linn Waite, Bait
Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Blue Story [Also Produced By Damian Jones]
Becky Read, Three Identical Strangers [Also Produced By Grace Hughes-Hallett]
Jack Sidey, Moffie [Also Produced By Eric Abraham]
Apparently Three Identical Strangers took a bit to cross the Ocean as its nominated for 2019.
Most Promising Newcomer
Sam Adewumni, The Last Tree
Vicky Knight, Dirty God
Lorn Macdonald, Beats
Roxanne Scrimshaw, Lynn + Lucy
Honor Swinton Byrne, The Souvenir
The Discovery Award
A Bump Along The Way, Shelly Love
Children Of The Snow Land, Zara Balfour, Marcus Stephenson, Mark Hakansson
Here For Life, Andrea Luka Zimmerman, Adrian Jackson, James Lingwood, Michael Morris, Cressida Day
Muscle, Gerard Johnson, Matthew James Wilkinson, Richard Wylie, Ed Barratt
The Street, Zed Nelson
Best British Short Film
Anna, Dekel Berenson, Merlin Merton, Olga Beskhmelnitsyna
Boiling Point, Philip Barantini, Bart Ruspoli, James Cummings, Gabriella Callea, Grace Nelder
The Devil’s Harmony, Dylan Holmes Williams, Jess O’kane, Nathan Craig
Goldfish, Hector Dockrill, Laura Dockrill, Benedict Turnbull, Harri Kamalanathan
Serious Tingz, Abdou Cissé, Kieran Kenlock, Matt Ellingham
I’ll be interesting to see if any of these compete at the Oscars this year -- now that Oscar has stopped releasing the long list of qualified shorts (sigh) we can only guess as to whether or not they’re in the running.
Best International Independent Film
Ash Is Purest White - China [INTERVIEW]
Marriage Story - US [REVIEW]
Monos - Colombia [LFF WINNER]
Parasite - South Korea [PODCAST]
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire - France [BEST OF TIFF]
WOWZA. WHAT A CATEGORY
Best Casting
Shaheen Baig, In Fabric
Shaheen Baig, Aisha Bywaters, The Last Tree
Kahleen Crawford, Caroline Stewart, Only You
Kahleen Crawford, Wild Rose
Sarah Crowe, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Best Costume Design
Suzie Harman, Robert Worley, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Anna Mary Scott Robbins, Wild Rose
Grace Snell, The Souvenir
Jany Temime, Judy [RELATED FYC]
Jo Thompson, In Fabric
Without knowing a list of eligible titles we can’t tell if these were the best choices but we do like those Judy costumes.
Best Cinematography
Ole Bratt Birkeland, Judy
Benjamin Kracun, Beats
Zac Nicholson, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Jamie D Ramsay, Moffie
Ari Wegner, In Fabric
Hmmm. Cant say that we could have seen these honors coming for Judy or David Copperfield.
Best Editing
Mick Audsley, Peter Lambert, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Mark Jenkin, Bait
Chris King, Diego Maradona
Chloe Lambourne, Simon Mcmahon, For Sama
Helle Le Fevre, The Souvenir
Best Effects
Howard Jones, A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
Paul Mann, In Fabric
Andy Quinn, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Best Make Up & Hair Design
Morten Jacobsen, Rogier Samuels, Lindelotte Van Der Meer, Dirty God
Karen Hartley-Thomas, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Emma Scott, In Fabric
Jody Williams, Wild Rose
Jeremy Woodhead, Judy
Best Music
Jack Arnold, Wild Rose
Cavern Of Anti-Matter, In Fabric
Nainita Desai, For Sama
Antonio Pinto, Diego Maradona
Jd Twitch, Penelope Trappes, Stephen Hindman, Beats
Best Production Design
Cristina Casali, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Stéphane Collonge, The Souvenir
Kave Quinn, Judy
Anne Seibel, The White Crow
Paki Smith, In Fabric
Loved the production design of David Copperfield so we’re here for that nomination. Also nice to see The White Crow show up here but why not in Costumes?
Best Sound
Anna My Bertmark, Jonathan Seale, Jules Woods, Gwen
David Bowtle-Mcmillan, Joakim Sundström, Robert Farr, Beats
Stephen Griffiths, Tim Cavagin, Max Walsh, Andy Shelley, Diego Maradona
Lee Walpole, Colin Nicholson, Stuart Hilliker, Wild Rose
Martin Pavey, In Fabric
The sound of Wild Rose lovingly delivers us astonishing vocals from Jessie Buckley for which we must thank it.