'For Sama' tops British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) winners with Best Film, Director

For Sama, the intimate and epic journey into the female experience of the war in Syria was the big winner at the 22nd British Independent Film Awards (BIFA), winning Best British Independent Film, Best Director for Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts and Best Documentary, besting the likes of Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir). Curiously enough, Copperfield director Armando Iannucci was not nominated here.

Armando Iannucci’s The Personal History of David Copperfield won three: Best Casting, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design. Copperfield led the nominees with 11 overall.

Also in the previously announced categories Brian Welsh’s Beats won two: Best Cinematography for Benjamin Kracun, and Best Sound for David Bowtle-McMillan, Joakim Sundström and Robert Farr. Judy and Wild Rose won one each: Best Make Up & Hair Design for Jeremy Woodhead and Best Music for Jack Arnold, respectively.

The Richard Harris Award recipient went to BAFTA winner BIFA and Academy Award nominee Kristin Scott Thomas.

Here is the full list of nominees and winners (in bold).

Best British Independent Film
Bait
For Sama – WINNER
The Personal History Of David Copperfield
The Souvenir
Wild Rose

Best Director
Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts, For Sama – WINNER
Oliver Hermanus, Moffie
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir
Mark Jenkin, Bait
Asif Kapadia, Diego Maradona

Best Actress
Jessie Buckley, Wild Rose
Holliday Grainger, Animals
Sally Hawkins, Eternal Beauty
Vicky Knight, Dirty God
Renée Zellweger, Judy – WINNER

Best Actor
Sam Adewumi, The Last Tree
Tom Burke, The Souvenir
Kris Hitchen, Sorry We Missed You
Josh O’Connor, Only You – WINNER
Dev Patel, The Personal History Of David Copperfield

Best Screenplay
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir
Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell, The Personal History Of David Copperfield – WINNER
Paul Laverty, Sorry We Missed You
Peter Strickland, In Fabric
Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose

Best Supporting Actress
Jessica Barden, Scarborough
Ruthxjiah Bellenea, The Last Tree – WINNER
Elizabeth Debicki, Vita & Virginia
Tilda Swinton, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Julie Walters, Wild Rose

Best Supporting Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, The Boy Who Harnessed The Wind
Hugh Laurie, The Personal History Of David Copperfield – WINNER
Edilson Manuel Olbera Núñez, Yuli – The Carlos Acosta Story
Peter Mullan, The Vanishing
Bluey Robinson, Dirty God

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 – WINNER
Seahorse, Jeanie Finlay, Andrea Cornwell
Tell Me Who I Am, Ed Perkins, Simon Chinn

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 – WINNER

Breakthrough Producer
Finn Bruce, Tucked
Kate Byers, Linn Waite, Bait – WINNER
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]

Debut Screenwriter
Kieran Hurley, Beats
Lisa Owens, Days Of The Bagnold Summer
Nicole Taylor, Wild Rose
Emma Jane Unsworth, Animals – WINNER
Harry Wootliff, Only You

Most Promising Newcomer
Sam Adewumi, The Last Tree – WINNER
Vicky Knight, Dirty God
Lorn Macdonald, Beats
Roxanne Scrimshaw, Lynn + Lucy
Honor Swinton Byrne, The Souvenir

The Raindance Discovery Award
A Bump Along The Way, Shelly Love
Children Of The Snow Land, Zara Balfour, Marcus Stephenson, Mark Hakansson – WINNER
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 International Independent Film
Ash Is Purest White
Marriage Story
Monos
Parasite – WINNER
Portrait Of A Lady On Fire

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 – WINNER

Best Cinematography
Ole Bratt Birkeland, Judy
Benjamin Kracun, Beats – WINNER
Zac Nicholson, The Personal History Of David Copperfield
Jamie D Ramsay, Moffie
Ari Wegner, In Fabric

Best Costume Design
Suzie Harman, Robert Worley, The Personal History Of David Copperfield – WINNER
Anna Mary Scott Robbins, Wild Rose
Grace Snell, The Souvenir
Jany Temime, Judy
Jo Thompson, In Fabric

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 – WINNER
Helle Le Fevre, The Souvenir

Best Effects
Howard Jones, A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon – WINNER
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 – WINNER

Best Music
Jack Arnold, Wild Rose – WINNER
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 – WINNER
Stéphane Collonge, The Souvenir
Kave Quinn, Judy
Anne Seibel, The White Crow
Paki Smith, In Fabric

Best Sound
Anna My Bertmark, Jonathan Seale, Jules Woods, Gwen
David Bowtle-Mcmillan, Joakim Sundström, Robert Farr, Beats – WINNER
Stephen Griffiths, Tim Cavagin, Max Walsh, Andy Shelley, Diego Maradona
Lee Walpole, Colin Nicholson, Stuart Hilliker, Wild Rose
Martin Pavey, In Fabric

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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.

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