BIFA Nominations: "Saint Maud" leads the horror friendly pack
Thursday, December 10, 2020 at 12:34AM by Nathaniel R
The British Independent Film Awards have announced their nominations for the year. 27 films received at least one nomination but the bulk of the nominations went to Saint Maud (17), His House (16), and Rocks (15). UPDATE: Rocks and His House later emerged as the big winners. Higher profile Oscar hopefuls like The Father (6) and Ammonite (2) didn't do as well though The Father eventually won 3 of its 6 categories. Due to the category divisions BIFA has a lot of people that are double or triple nominated this year (they have the regular categories plus "debut" style categories). The BIFAs have a unique process in that the nominations are juried and then winners are decided in two separate ways. All BIFA vote by secret ballot to decide the winners of the nine craft categories plus Best Film, Best International Film, Discovery Award, and Short Film. But everything else is decided by discussion of individual juries separate from the juries who picked the nomination! Confusing right?!
THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED WITH THE WINNERS 02/19/21
British Independent Film
- Calm with Horses - A drug dealing crime drama. Available to rent online.
- The Father - An adaptation of the Tony winning father/daughter drama about dementia. Sony Pictures Classics has pushed back the release of this one until late February here in the US (grrr).
- His House - A horror drama about Sudanese refugees. On Netflix.
- ★ Rocks - A drama about a teen on the streets. No US distribution.
- Saint Maud - A horror drama about an obsessive religious nurse first hit festivals in 2019. A24 has the rights but there's still no US release date that we're aware of...
Best Actress
Andrea Riseborough in "Luxor"
- Bukky Bakray, Rocks
- Morfydd Clark, Saint Maud
- Clare Dunne, Herself
- ★ Wunmi Mosaku, His House
- Andrea Riseborough, Luxor
Luxor, a romantic drama about a British aid worker and her former Egyptian lover just "opened" in the US (which means you can rent it online if theaters aren't open near you). We love ourselves some Riseborough but her films are always so low profile it can be easy to miss them!
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed in "Mogul Mowgli"
- Riz Ahmed, Mogul Mowgli
- Sope Dirisu, His House
- Amir El-Masry, Limbo
- ★ Anthony Hopkins, The Father
- Cosmo Jarvis, Calm with Horses
Because Riz Ahmed is an overachiever he doesn't just win raves playing a drummer in Sound of Metal but also wins raves playing a rapper. In both films sudden illness intervenes with his music plans (!!!). Unfortunately there's no US distributor for this one yet.
P.S. Did you see Cosmo Jarvis's two episode appearance in HBO's Raised by Wolves? Holy shit and also *drools* You might remember Jarvis from Lady Macbeth, Florence Pugh's breakout picture a few years back.
Best Supporting Actress
Fiona Shaw with Tamara Lawrance in "Kindred"
- Niamh Algar, Calm with Horses
- ★ Kosar Ali, Rocks
- Jennifer Ehle, Saint Maud
- Ashley Madekwe, County Lines
- Fiona Shaw, Kindred
Jennifer Ehle AND Fiona Shaw alert (!!!) and they're both in horror movies. Kindred, which is available to rent online, has a shockingly low rating on IMDb. Not that that means anything per se. (The rest of these films aren't available in the US yet)
Best Supporting Actor
Merab Ninidze with Benedict Cumberbatch in "The Courier"
- Harris Dickinson, County Lines
- Barry Keoghan, Calm with Horses
- Alyy Khan, Mogul Mowgli
- ★ D'Angelou Osei Kissiedu, Rocks
- Merab Ninidze, The Courier
We always forget that Harris Dickinson is British, he was so convincing as a Brooklynite in Beach Rats.
Most Promising Newcomer
Bukky and Kosar in "Rocks"
- Niamh Algar, Calm with Horses
- ★ Kosar Ali, Rocks
- Bukky Bakray, Rocks
- Frankie Box, Perfect 10
- Conrad Kahn, County Lines
Best Director
- Sarah Gavron, Rocks
- Rose Glass, Saint Maud
- Nick Rowland, Calm with Horses
- ★ Remi Weekes, His House
- Florian Zeller, The Father
Gavron has two previous features under her belt (Suffragette and Brick Lane) but the rest of the list is debuting directors all but one of whom are double-nominated since they're also up for "debut director".
Best Screenplay
- ★ The Father - Florian Zeller & Christopher Hampton
- His House - Remi Weekes
- Mogul Mowgli - Bassam Tariq & Riz Ahmed
- Rocks - Theresa Ikoko & Claire Wilson
- Saint Maud - Rose Glass
This list is almost entirely identical to their "debut screenwriter list" except The Father is missing in the other category (Christopher Hampton isn't exactly a newbie)
Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director)
Remi Weekes has already signed with CAA after "His House" was a hit at Sundance
- Henry Blake, County Lines
- ★ Rose Glass, Saint Maud
- Nick Rowland, Calm with Horses
- Eva Riley, Perfect 10
- Remi Weekes, His House
Florian Zeller (The Father) was also a debut and nominated in the Best Director category but not here. Different jury apparently!
Debut Screenwriter
- Calm with Horses -Joe Murtagh
- His House -Remi Weekes
- ★ Mogul Mowgli -Riza Ahmed (cowritten by Bassam Tariq)
- Rocks -Theresa Ikoko & Claire Wilson
- Saint Maud -Rose Glass
Same as the Best Screenplay list except Calm with Horses replaces The Father.
Best Cinematography
- His House - Jo Willems
- Limbo - Nick Cooke
- Mogul Mowgli - Annika Summerson
- Rocks - Helene Louvart
- ★ Saint Maud - Ben Fordesman
Best Costume Design
Ammonite
- Ammonite - Michael O'Connor
- ★ Misbehavior - Charlotte Walter
- Rocks - Ruka Johnson
- Saint Maud - Tina Kalivas
- The Secret Garden - Michele Clapton
Best Editing
- ★ The Father - Yorgos Lamprinos
- His House - Julia Bloch
- Host - Brenna Rangott
- Rocks - Maya Maffioli
- Saint Maud - Mark Towns
Best Makeup & Hair Design
Keira Knightley and Gugu Mbatha-Raw in "Misbehaviour" which has 3 craft nominations
- Ammonite - Ivana Primorac
- His House - Sharon A Martin
- ★ Misbehavior - Jill Sweeney
- Rocks - Nora Robertson
- Saint Maud - Jacquetta Levon
Misbehaviour, about the Women's Liberation Movement interrupting a "Miss World" competition in 1970, is available to stream on Hoopla or rent from various services
Best Music
- His House - Roque Banos
- ★ Mogul Mowgli - Paul Corley
- The Reason I Jump - Nainita Desai
- Rocks - Connie Farr & Emilie Levienaise-Farrouch
- Saint Maud - Adam Janota Bzowski
Best Production Design
- The Father - Peter Francis
- ★ His House - Jacqueline Abrahams
- Misbehavior - Cristina Casali
- Saint Maud - Paulina Rzeszowska
- Undergods - Marketa Korinkova & Elo Soode
Best Sound
- His House
- Host
- Mogul Mowgli
- ★ The Reason I Jump
- Saint Maud
Best Effects
- ★ His House
- Saint Maud
- Undergods
Best Casting
- Calm with Horses - Shaheen Baig
- His House - Carmen Cuba
- Limbo - Dan Jackson
- ★ Rocks - Lucy Pardee
- Saint Maud - Kharmel Cochrane
Best Documentary
- The Australian Dream
- Being a Human Person
- ★ The Reason I Jump
- Rising Phoenix
- White Riot
Best International Independent Film
Babyteeth
- Babyteeth (Australia)
- Les Misérables (France)
- Never Rarely Sometimes Always (US)
- ★ Nomadland (US)
- Notturno (Italy)
Best British Short
- Filipinana
- The Forgotten C
- ★ The Long Goodbye
- Mandem
- Sudden Light
The Raindance Discovery Award
This is a prize for low budget innovative compelling pictures. They can't have cost more than £500k
- Justine (streaming on Netflix)
- Looted
- One Man and His Shoes (documentary on Michael Jordan, available to rent online)
- ★ Perfect 10
- Rose: A Love Story
Looted and Perfect 10 both opened this past month in the UK so we probably won't get them for a bit. Rose is a horror movie. BIFA liked a lot of horror films this year!
Reader Comments (16)
Where are the Ammonite ladies in the list of nominees? And Olivia Colman for The Father? Were they ineligible or deemed not as good as the nominated actresses?
The ladies from Ammonite and The Father were eligible, they simply passed on. I’m quite interested in their noms year by year, nowadays they are the real Bafta
Mirko - thanks.
I was befuddled by their non-inclusion knowing how high-profile these actresses (and their movies) are. I agree that Bifa's choices are what I also seek in film groups. They really watch films even those under-the-radar ones and not just the popular ones. I'll be checking out Luxor, Saint Maud and Calm with Horses.
SAINT MAUD is quite good and its last cut is a movie moment for the ages. Jennifer Ehle is fantastic in it too, ravishingly prickly, refusing to play victimized helplessness with the fury of a raging fire.
Is the new Talking Heads available in the US? Great cast and phenomenal acting.
Oh dear, how pretentious you must be to not include Winslet and Colman in the nominations.
I love how different this looks than the Indie Spirits, which can sometimes look fairly similar to the SAG/Oscars save 1 or 2 names. It feels like BIFA tries to elevate smaller films and actors that aren't massively popular. Adding some of these to my list now.
Dl You say pretentious, I say thorough
More like thoroughly incompetent, Peggy Sue.
I didn't know that KINDRED has a low rating on IMDb, but I'm not surprised -- it's a slow, thoughtful character piece about black-white race relations and not even US ones but UK ones, so I'm not surprised the IMDb trolls aren't its audience. I thought it was terrific and Fiona Shaw has an absolutely ace monologue at the film's midpoint which she, being Fiona fucking Shaw, absolutely NAILS.
You all need the same names in the sames lists every single year. You're boring.
Not a great sign for Kate & Saoirse...
Rocks was released straight to Netflix in the UK, and although it didn't seem to receive much of a publicity push, it's comfortably Sarah Gavron's best film to date, easily marshalling one of the year's best ensembles. Delighted to see both that and Calm With Horses - which has an intense, committed performance from Cosmo Jarvis, absolutely delivering on his Lady Macbeth promise - noticed here.
Cosmo Jarvis!
Niamh Algar is one to watch. She was excellent in The Virtues (I believe she recently won an Irish acting award for that and Calm With Horses). Also, she was the best thing in that weird show, MotherFatherSon, and doing good things in another weird show, Raised by Wolves.
@Peggy Sue. Those Talking Heads monologues were fantastic. They should all be nommed for awards. Curious about your favorites..
Pam -- I love Staunton in everything. The one with Sarah Lancashire made me so uncomfortable. She's such a brave actress! Martin Freeman has never been better and I have never thought that Kristin Scott Thomas could nail that kind of role.
I want Maxine Peake and Miranda Richardson to play sisters someday.
What about yours?