2025 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA): ‘Pillion’ Takes Best Film

Erik Anderson November 30, 2025

Harry Lighton’s frisky BDSM rom-com Pillion has been named the Best British Independent Film of 2025 at the BIFAs, which were held today at London’s Roundhouse, with Lighton also taking home the award for Best Debut Screenwriter. At the craft awards held previously, the film also won for its costumes and makeup & hair, giving the film a total of four wins.

Those four wins tied with with Alex Garland’s Warfare, which was awarded a juried ensemble award along with sound, effects and editing.

The Ballad of Wallis Island was another big winner with three: Best Music, Best Screenplay and Best Joint Lead Performance for Tim Key and Tom Basden.

At 11 nominations, My Father’s Shadow–the UK Oscar submission for International Feature Film–was the most-nominated film at the BIFAs this year but came away with just a single win, Akinola Davies Jr. for Best Director.

I Swear, another top nomination getter earned wins for Robert Aramayo in Best Lead Performance and Best Casting. Jay Lycurgo bested Alexander Skarsgård in Pillion and a trio of actors from I Swear to win Best Supporting Performance for Steve.

Myrid Carten was a triple winner this evening for her first film as her doc A Want in Her won for Best Feature Documentary, Best Debut Director and the BIFAs RAindance Maverick Award.

Norway’s Sentimental Value, directed by Joachim Trier, won the award for Best International Independent Feature, besting France’s It Was Just an Accident, Spain’s Sirāt, United States’s Sorry, Baby and Germany’s Sound of Falling.

Craft winners, previously announced on November 20, included Warfare, Die My Love and Pillion.

The BIFA for Cinema of the Year, sponsored by Kia UK, went to The Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn, founded 131 years ago.

Emily Watson, currently on screen in Hamnet, received the Richard Harris Award. Introduced in 2002, The Richard Harris Award recognises an outstanding contribution by an actor to British film. It has previously been awarded to, amongst others, Samantha Morton, Riz Ahmed, Kristin Scott Thomas, Daniel Day-Lewis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, Stephen Graham and Sophie Okonedo in 2024.

Here is the complete list of winners of the 2025 British Independent Film Awards.

Best British Independent 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
PILLION – Harry Lighton, Lee Groombridge, Ed Guiney, Andrew Lowe, Emma Norton – WINNER
URCHIN – Harris Dickinson, Archie Pearch, Scott O’Donnell

Best Director
LAURA CARREIRA – On Falling
AKINOLA DAVIES JR. – My Father’s Shadow – WINNER
KIRK JONES – I Swear
HARRY LIGHTON – Pillion
LYNNE RAMSAY – Die My Love

Best Screenplay
TOM BASDEN, TIM KEY – The Ballad of Wallis Island – WINNER
LAURA CARREIRA – On Falling
WALE DAVIES – My Father’s Shadow
KIRK JONES – I Swear
HARRY LIGHTON – Pillion

Best Lead Performance
ROBERT ARAMAYO – I Swear – WINNER
FRANK DILLANE – Urchin
DAVID JONSSON – Wasteman
JENNIFER LAWRENCE – Die My Love
HARRY MELLING – Pillion
CILLIAN MURPHY – Steve

Best Supporting Performance
TOM BLYTH – Wasteman
SCOTT ELLIS WATSON – I Swear
JAY LYCURGO – Steve – WINNER
PETER MULLAN – I Swear
MAXINE PEAKE – I Swear
ALEXANDER SKARSGÅRD – Pillion

Best Joint Lead Performance
EBADA HASSAN, SAFFIYA INGAR – Brides
TIM KEY, TOM BASDEN – The Ballad of Wallis Island – WINNER
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH, BRENDA BLETHYN – Dragonfly

Best Ensemble Performance
WARFARE – D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton

The Douglas Hickox Award
(Best Debut Director)
sponsored by BBC Film
LAURA CARREIRA – On Falling
AKINOLA DAVIES JR. – My Father’s Shadow
HARRIS DICKINSON – Urchin
HARRY LIGHTON – Pillion
CAL McMAU – Wasteman – WINNER

Breakthrough Producer
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] – WINNER
ARCHIE PEARCH – Urchin [also produced by Scott O’Donnell]

Breakthrough Performance
SCOTT ELLIS WATSON – I Swear
EBADA HASSAN – Brides
SAFIYYA INGAR – Brides
POSY STERLING – Lollipop – WINNER
CONNOR TOMPKINS – The Son and the Sea

Best Debut Screenwriter
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 – WINNER

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
MYRID CARTEN – A Want in Her – WINNER
CÉCILE EMBLETON, ALYS TOMLINSON – Mother Vera
VICTORIA MAPPLEBECK – Motherboard

The Raindance Maverick Award
FOUL EVIL DEEDS – Richard Hunter
HOLLOWAY – Sophie Compton, Daisy-May Hudson, Stella Heath Keir, Alice Hughes, Polly Creed
MOTHER VERA – Cécile Embleton, Alys Tomlinson, Laura Shacham
MOTHERBOARD – Victoria Mapplebeck
A WANT IN HER – Myrid Carten – WINNER

Best Feature Documentary
ANTIDOTE – James Jones, David Moulton
MOTHER VERA – Cécile 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, Roisín Geraghty, Kat Mansoor – WINNER

Best British Short Film
FLOCK – Mac Nixon, Matt Ashwell, Daley Nixon
MAGID / ZAFAR – Luís Hindman, Sufiyaan Salam, Aidan Robert Brooks – WINNER
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

Best International Independent Film
IT WAS JUST AN ACCIDENT – Jafar Panahi, Phillippe Martin
SENTIMENTAL VALUE – Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar – WINNER
SIRĀT – Oliver Laxe, Santiago Fillol, Domingo Corral, Oriol Maymó, Andrea Queralt, Mani Mortazavi, Xavi Font, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar, Esther García
SORRY, BABY – Eva Victor, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak, Barry Jenkins
SOUND OF FALLING – Mascha Schilinski, Louise Peter, Maren Schmitt, Lucas Schmidt

Best Casting: Lauren Evans, I Swear
Best Cinematography: Seamus McGarvey, Die My Love
Best Costume Design: Grace Snell, Pillion
Best Editing: Fin Oates, Warfare
Best Effects: Simon Stanley-Clamp and Ryan Conder, Warfare
Best Make-Up & Hair Design: Diandra Ferreira, Pillion
Best Music Supervision: Raife Burchell and Ian Neil, Die My Love
Best Original Music: Tom Basden and Adem Ilhan, The Ballad of Wallis Island
Best Production Design: Nathan Parker, Harvest
Best Sound: Glenn Freemantle, Mitch Low, Howard Bargroff, Ben Barker & Richard Spooner – Warfare

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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), Critics Choice Association (CCA), San Francisco Bay Area Film Critics Circle (SFBAFCC) 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.