Aleem Khan’s After Love, set in the port town of Dover, where a recent widow discovers a secret after her husband’s unexpected death, was the big winner at 2021 British Independent Film Awards on Sunday, taking six awards: Best British Independent Film, Best Director, Best Debut Director and Best Screenplay – all for Khan – as well as Best Actress for Joanna Scanlan and Best Supporting Actor for Talid Ariss.
Philip Barantini’s Boiling Point, a single-take shot film about a struggling top chef and his team received 11 BIFA nominations this year, tying for the most, and won four awards; Best Cinematography for Matthew Lewis, Best Casting for Carolyn McLeod and Best Sound for James Drake, Rob Entwistle and Kiff McManus. Vinette Robinson bested the likes of Oscar winners Judi Dench (Belfast) and Tilda Swinton (The Souvenir Part II) to win Best Supporting Actress.
With nine BIFA nominations, The Souvenir Part II, Joanna Hogg’s follow up to 2019’s multi-BIFA nominated The Souvenir, won three awards; Best Costume Design for Grace Snell, Best Editing for Helle Le Fevre and Best Production Design for Stéphane Collonge. All three were BIFA nominated in 2019 for their work on The Souvenir.
Best Effects went to Mike Knights, Steven Bray, Dan Martin and Leigh Cranston for their work on Rob Savage’s fright-fest road-trip horror DASHCAM. Best Make-Up and Hair Design went to Vickie Lang, Kristyan Mallett and Donald McInnes for The Electrical Life of Louis Wain, Will Sharpe’s biopic of the eccentric Edwardian artist, starring Benedict Cumberbatch. Clio Barnard’s forbidden love drama Ali & Ava, which received seven nominations, including Best British Independent Film, won Best Music and Best Actor for Adeel Akhtar.
Although it entered the nominations tying with a field-best 11, Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast was completely shut out of wins. The film has missed nominations in top categories: Best British Independent Film and Best Director as well as Best Screenplay.
Riz Ahmed received the Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Film by an Actor. The Crown star Emma Corrin presented a Special Jury Prize to Raising Films, the organization dedicated to supporting parents and carers in the UK film industry.
Here is the full list of nominees and winners for the 2021 British Independent Film Awards.
Best British Independent Film
After Love – Aleem Khan, Matthieu De Braconier – WINNER
Ali & Ava – Clio Barnard, Tracy O’riordan
Boiling Point – Philip Barantini, James Cummings, Bart Ruspoli, Hester Ruoff
The Nest – Sean Durkin, Ed Guiney, Derrin Schlesinger, Rose Garnett, Amy Jackson, Cristina Piovesan
The Souvenir Part II – Joanna Hogg, Ed Guiney, Emma Norton, Andrew Lowe, Luke Schiller
Best Director
Philip Barantini – Boiling Point
Clio Barnard – Ali & Ava
Sean Durkin – The Nest
Joanna Hogg – The Souvenir Part II
Aleem Khan – After Love – WINNER
Best Screenplay
Clio Barnard – Ali & Ava
Terence Davies – Benediction
Sean Durkin – The Nest
Joanna Hogg – The Souvenir Part II
Aleem Khan – After Love – WINNER
Best Actress
Caitríona Balfe – Belfast
Carrie Coon – The Nest
Claire Rushbrook – Ali & Ava
Joanna Scanlan – After Love – WINNER
Ruth Wilson – True Things
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed – Encounter
Adeel Akhtar – Ali & Ava – WINNER
Stephen Graham – Boiling Point
Jude Law – The Nest
James Norton – Nowhere Special
Best Supporting Actress
Judi Dench – Belfast
Jo Hartley – Sweetheart
Nathalie Richard – After Love
Vinette Robinson – Boiling Point – WINNER
Tilda Swinton – The Souvenir Part II
Best Supporting Actor
Talid Ariss – After Love – WINNER
Richard Ayoade – The Souvenir Part II
Lucian-River Chauhan – Encounter
Ciarán Hinds – Belfast
Ray Panthaki – Boiling Point
The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director
Prano Bailey-Bond – Censor
Celeste Bell – Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché [also directed by Paul Sng]
Cathy Brady – Wildfire
Aleem Khan – After Love – WINNER
Marley Morrison – Sweetheart
Breakthrough Producer
Michelle Antoniades – Sweetheart – WINNER
Helen Jones – Censor
Jessica Malik – She Will [also produced by Bob Last]
Hester Ruoff – Boiling Point [also produced by Bart Ruspoli]
Rob Watson – The Power [also produced by Matthew James Wilkinson]
Breakthrough Performance
Lauryn Ajufo – Boiling Point
Nell Barlow – Sweetheart – WINNER
Max Harwood – Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Jude Hill – Belfast
Ellora Torchia – In The Earth
Best Debut Screenwriter
Prano Bailey-Bond – Censor [also written by Anthony Fletcher]
Cathy Brady – Wildfire – WINNER
Aleem Khan – After Love
Marley Morrison – Sweetheart
Reggie Yates – Pirates
Best Documentary
Cow – Andrea Arnold, Kat Mansoor
Dying To Divorce – Chloë Fairweather, Sinead Kirwan
I Am Belmaya – Sue Carpenter, Christopher Hird
Keyboard Fantasies – Posy Dixon, Liv Proctor
Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché – Paul Sng, Celeste Bell, Zoë Howe, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Matthew Silverman, Daria Nitsche – WINNER
The Discovery Award
Bank Job – Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell, Christopher Hird
The Bike Thief – Matt Chambers, Pk Fellowes, Sophia Gibber, Lene Bausager
I Am Belmaya – Sue Carpenter, Christopher Hird
Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché – Paul Sng, Celeste Bell, Zoë Howe, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Matthew Silverman, Daria Nitsche – WINNER
Rebel Dykes – Harri Shanahan, Siân A. Williams, Siobhan Fahey
Best British Short Film
Egúngún (Masquerade) – Olive Nwosu, Alex Polunin
Femme – Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, Sam Riztenberg, Hayley Williams, Rienjke Attoh – WINNER
Night Of The Living Dread – Ida Melum, Laura Jayne Tunbridge, Hannah Kelso, Danielle Goff
Play It Safe – Mitch Kalisa, Chris Toumazou
Precious Hair & Beauty – John Ogunmuyiwa, Sophia Gibber, Tony Longe, Lene Bausager
Best International Independent Film
Compartment No. 6 – Juho Kuosmanen, Livia Ulman, Andris Feldmanis, Jussi Rantamäki, Emilia Haukka
First Cow – Kelly Reichardt, Jon Raymond, Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani
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.
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.