2016 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Winners: American Honey Tops; Women Win Big

Erik Anderson December 4, 2016

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American Honey, from Andrea Arnold, was the big winner at the British Independent Film Awards today taking Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Actress and Outstanding Achievement in Craft for its cinematography. I, Daniel Blake, Under the Shadow and Adult Life Skills also won today

The Greasy Strangler received the Discovery Prize while the Special Jury Prize went to Clare Binns. Moonlight won Best International Independent Film, adding another award to its tally after today’s triumph with Los Angeles film critics. All Breakthrough or Debut wins went to women this year.

Full winners list:

Best British Independent Film

American Honey – WINNER
Couple in a Hole
I, Daniel Blake
Notes on Blindness
Under the Shadow

Best International Independent Film

Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight – WINNER
Mustang
Toni Erdmann

Best Director

Andrea Arnold, American Honey – WINNER
Babak Anvari, Under the Shadow
Ben Wheatley, Free Fire
Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake
Peter Middleton and James Spinney, Notes on Blindness

Best Screenplay

Andrea Arnold, American Honey
Babak Anvari, Under the Shadow – WINNER
Billy O’Brien and Christopher Hyde, I Am Not a Serial Killer
Paul Laverty, I, Daniel Blake
Rachel Tunnard, Adult Life Skills

Best Actor

Dave Johns, I, Daniel Blake – WINNER
Max Records, I Am Not a Serial Killer
Michael Fassbender, Trespass Against Us
Shia Labeouf, American Honey
Steve Brandon, My Feral Heart

Best Actress

Hayley Squires, I, Daniel Blake
Jodie Whittaker, Adult Life Skills
Kate Dickie, Couple in a Hole
Narges Rashidi, Under the Shadow
Sasha Lane, American Honey – WINNER

Best Supporting Actor

Arinze Kene, The Pass
Brett Goldstein, Adult Life Skills – WINNER
Christopher Lloyd, I Am Not a Serial Killer
Jamie Dornan, Anthropoid
Sean Harris, Trespass Against Us

Best Supporting Actress

Avin Manshadi, Under the Shadow – WINNER
Gemma Arterton, The Girl with All the Gifts
Naomie Harris, Our Kind of Traitor
Shana Swash, My Feral Heart
Terry Pheto, A United Kingdom

Best Documentary

The Confession: Living the War on Terror
Dancer
The Hard Stop
Notes on Blindness – WINNER
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach

Outstanding Achievement in Craft

Joakim Sundström, Notes on Blindness (sound)
Paul Monaghan and Mat Whitecross, Supersonic (editing)
Robbie Ryan, American Honey (cinematography) – WINNER
Seb Baker, The Girl with All the Gifts (visual effects)
Shaheen Baig, Free Fire (casting)

The Douglas Hickox Award (Debut Director)

Adam Smith, Trespass Against Us
Alice Lowe, Prevenge
Babak Anvari, Under the Shadow – WINNER
Peter Middleton and James Spinney, Notes on Blindness
Rachel Tunnard, Adult Life Skills

Breakthrough Producer

Camille Gatin, The Girl with All the Gifts – WINNER
Dionne Walker, The Hard Stop
Michael Berliner, Adult Life Skills
Mike Brett, Jo-Jo Ellison and Steve Jamison, Notes on Blindness
Paul Fegan, Where You’re Meant to Be

Debut Screenwriter

Ed Talfan, The Passing
Hope Dickson Leach, The Leveling
John Cairns and Michael McCartney, A Patch of Fog
Rachel Tunnard, Adult Life Skills – WINNER
Simon Farnaby and Julian Barratt, Mindhorn

Most Promising Newcomer

Dave Johns, I, Daniel Blake
Hayley Squires, I, Daniel Blake – WINNER
Letitia Wright, Urban Hymn
Sennia Nanua, The Girl with All the Gifts
Steve Brandon, My Feral Heart

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Erik Anderson

Erik Anderson is the founder/owner and Editor-in-Chief of AwardsWatch and has always loved all things Oscar, having watched the Academy Awards since he was in single digits; making lists, rankings and predictions throughout the show. This led him down the path to obsessing about awards. Much later, he found himself in film school and the film forums of GoldDerby, and then migrated over to the former Oscarwatch (now AwardsDaily), before breaking off to create AwardsWatch in 2013.

He is a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, accredited by the Cannes Film Festival, Telluride Film Festival, Toronto International Film Festival and more, is a member of the International Cinephile Society (ICS), The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics (GALECA), Hollywood Critics Association (HCA) and the International Press Academy. Among his many achieved goals with AwardsWatch, he has given a platform to underrepresented writers and critics and supplied them with access to film festivals and the industry and calls the Bay Area his home where he lives with his husband and son.