Lady Macbeth, Death of Stalin and I Am Not a Witch lead BIFA nominations

The Nineteenth Century drama Lady Macbeth has received a field-leading fifteen nominations at the twentieth British Independent Film Awards.

Florence Pugh received one of Lady Macbeth’s 15 nominations.

It’s been recognised in the main categories – including Best British Independent Film, Best Director and Best Screenplay – but it’s also up for the debut director and screenwriter awards, for William Oldroyd and Alice Birch and Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly is nominated for the Breakthrough Producer prize. As well as a Best Actress nomination for Florence Pugh, it’s also secured two nominations for Naomi Ackie as a Best Supporting Actress and Most Promising Newcomer.

The Death of Stalin is one of the higher profile films among the BIFA nominations.

Two films that couldn’t be more different, Armando Iannucci’s star-studded political comedy The Death of Stalin and Rungano Nyoni’s low-budget directorial debut I Am Not a Witch are close behind, with thirteen nominations each. Two of The Death of Stalin’s ensemble cast, Steve Buscemi and Simon Russell Beale, are up against each other in the Best Supporting Actor category.  The nominations for I Am Not a Witch, include Best Debut Director, Best Debut Screenplay and Breakthrough Producer.

The Edinburgh FiIm Festival winner God’s Own Country is also up for the three awards targeted at first-time film-makers, among its eleven nominations – equal with Martin McDonagh’s Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which was named Best Film in Toronto. Due to the peculiarity of the eligibility windows, Lady Macbeth took its bow on the international stage at Toronto, a full year earlier.

Gaby Chiappe’s Their Finest is in the running for Best Debut Screenplay.

All five of these films are up against each other in each of the three main categories of film, director and screenplay but at an awards ceremony that aims to honour newer talent, three of the films are also contesting a categories reserved for first-timers, in which they’re up against films including Pin Cushion, Jawbone and Their Finest, so it will be interesting to see whether the higher profile film-makers get the main prizes with the debut categories being treated as consolation prizes.

In its twentieth year, BIFA is expanding from its main categories to recognise talent in a range of technical categories – previously, such skills as editing and cinematography used to compete against each other – but so as not to slow down the main ceremony, on 10th December, the behind the scenes awards will be decided at an earlier event.

The BIFA awards – backed by the Raindance independent film organisation – exist largely to recognise the best film-making at lower-budget levels within the UK industry – a British version of America’s Independent Spirit Awards, and as with the Spirit Awards, BIFA has a category to honour international features. The Cannes Palme d’Or winner The Square is up against the London Film Festival Award winner Loveless and the festival hit The Florida Project.

And here is the full list of this year’s BIFA nominees:

Best British Independent Film
THE DEATH OF STALIN
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY
I AM NOT A WITCH
LADY MACBETH
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI

Best International Independent Film
THE FLORIDA PROJECT
GET OUT
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO
LOVELESS
THE SQUARE

Best Director
ARMANDO IANNUCCI, The Death of Stalin
FRANCIS LEE, God’s Own Country
MARTIN McDONAGH, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
RUNGANO NYONI, I Am Not a Witch
WILLIAM OLDROYD, Lady Macbeth

Best Screenplay
ALICE BIRCH Lady Macbeth
ARMANDO IANNUCCI, DAVID SCHNEIDER, IAN MARTIN The Death of Stalin
FRANCIS LEE God’s Own Country
MARTIN McDONAGH Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
RUNGANO NYONI I Am Not a Witch

Best Actress
EMILY BEECHAM Daphne
FRANCES McDORMAND Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
MARGARET MULUBWA I Am Not a Witch
FLORENCE PUGH Lady Macbeth
RUTH WILSON Dark River

Best Actor
JAMIE BELL Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
PADDY CONSIDINE Journeyman
JOHNNY HARRIS Jawbone
JOSH O’CONNOR God’s Own Country
ALEC SECAREANU God’s Own Country

Best Supporting Actress
NAOMI ACKIE Lady Macbeth
PATRICIA CLARKSON The Party
KELLY MACDONALD Goodbye Christopher Robin
ANDREA RISEBOROUGH The Death of Stalin
JULIE WALTERS Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Best Supporting Actor
SIMON RUSSELL BEALE The Death of Stalin
STEVE BUSCEMI The Death of Stalin
WOODY HARRELSON Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
IAN HART God’s Own Country
SAM ROCKWELL Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Most Promising Newcomer
NAOMI ACKIE Lady Macbeth
HARRY GILBY Just Charlie
COSMO JARVIS Lady Macbeth
HARRY MICHELL Chubby Funny
LILY NEWMARK Pin Cushion

Best Debut Director
DEBORAH HAYWOOD Pin Cushion
FRANCIS LEE God’s Own Country
THOMAS NAPPER Jawbone
RUNGANO NYONI I Am Not a Witch
WILLIAM OLDROYD Lady Macbeth

Debut Screenwriter
ALICE BIRCH Lady Macbeth
GABY CHIAPPE Their Finest
JOHNNY HARRIS Jawbone
FRANCIS LEE God’s Own Country
RUNGANO NYONI I Am Not a Witch

Breakthrough Producer
GAVIN HUMPHRIES Pin Cushion
EMILY MORGAN I Am Not a Witch
BRENDAN MULLIN, KATY JACKSON Bad Day for the Cut
FODHLA CRONIN O’REILLY Lady Macbeth
JACK TARLING, MANON ARDISSON God’s Own Country

The Discovery Award
EVEN WHEN I FALL Sky Neal, Kate McLarnon, Elhum Shakerifar
HALFWAY Ben Caird, Jonny Paterson
IN ANOTHER LIFE Jason Wingard, Hannah Stevenson, Rebecca Clare Evans
ISOLANI R Paul Wilson, Lisa Hague
MY PURE LAND Sarmad Masud, Bill Kenwright

Best Documentary
ALMOST HEAVEN Carol Salter
HALF WAY Daisy-May Hudson
KINGDOM OF US Lucy Cohen, Julia Nottingham, Lucas Ochoa, Thomas Benski, Bill Rudgard
UNCLE HOWARD Aaron Brookner, Paula Vaccaro
WILLIAMS Morgan Matthews, Hayley Reynolds, Sarah Hamilton

Best British Short Film
1745 Gordon Napier, Morayo Akandé, John McKay
FISH STORY Charlie Lyne, Catherine Bray, Anthony Ing
THE ENTERTAINER Jonathan Schey, Jodie Brown, Jun Bung Lee
WORK Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell
WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, John Fitzpatrick, Sorcha Bacon

Best Cinematography
BEN DAVIS Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
DAVID GALLEGO I Am Not a Witch
TAT RADCLIFFE Jawbone
THOMAS RIEDELSHEIMER Leaning Into the Wind
ARI WEGNER Lady Macbeth

Best Casting
SHAHEEN BAIG Lady Macbeth
SHAHEEN BAIG, LAYLA MERRICK-WOLF God’s Own Country
SARAH CROWE The Death of Stalin
SARAH HALLEY FINN Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
DEBBIE McWILLIAMS Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Best Costume Design
DINAH COLLIN My Cousin Rachel
SUZIE HARMAN The Death of Stalin
SANDY POWELL How to Talk to Girls at Parties
HOLLY REBECCA I Am Not a Witch
HOLLY WADDINGTON Lady Macbeth

Best Editing
JOHNNY BURKE Williams
DAVID CHARAP Jawbone
JON GREGORY Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
PETER LAMBERT The Death of Stalin
JOE MARTIN Us and Them

Best Effects
NICK ALLDER, BEN WHITE The Ritual
LUKE DODD Journeyman
EFFECTS TEAM The Death of Stalin
DAN MARTIN Double Date
CHRIS REYNOLDS Their Finest

Best Make Up & Hair Design
JULENE PATON I Am Not a Witch
JAN SEWELL Breathe
NADIA STACEY Journeyman
NICOLE STAFFORD The Death of Stalin
SIAN WILSON Lady Macbeth

Best Music
CARTER BURWELL Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
FRED FRITH Leaning into the Wind
MATT KELLY I Am Not a Witch
PAUL WELLER Jawbone
CHRISTOPHER WILLIS The Death of Stalin

Best Production Design
JACQUELINE ABRAHAMS Lady Macbeth
CRISTINA CASALI The Death of Stalin
JAMES MERIFIELD Final Portrait
NATHAN PARKER I Am Not a Witch
EVE STEWART Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

Best Sound
ANNA BERTMARK God’s Own Country
MAIKEN HANSEN I Am Not a Witch
ANDY SHELLEY, STEVE GRIFFITHS Jawbone
JOAKIM SUNDSTRÖM Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
SOUND TEAM Breathe