The 2026 British Independent Film Awards nominations were announced in London on Tuesday 3 November, with Simon Stone’s Elsinore leading on 12 nods, including best British independent film, best director, best screenplay for Stephen Beresford and best lead performance for Andrew Scott. I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, directed by Clio Barnard, takes eight nominations, and Ashley Walters’ first feature Animol takes seven. Craft winners will be named on BIFA’s social channels on Tuesday 24 November; the remaining prizes will be presented at the Roundhouse in Camden on Sunday 6 December.
Key facts
- Announced 3 November 2026 at One Hundred Shoreditch by Jay Lycurgo and Posy Sterling
- Leaders: Elsinore 12; I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning 8; Animol 7 (trade tallies)
- Craft winners 24 November; ceremony 6 December at the Roundhouse, London
- Cinema of the Year: five cinemagoer-chosen nominees; Richard Harris Award still to come
- Full category list below from BIFA’s official 2026 nominations page
The field
Elsinore, which opened the BFI London Film Festival, casts Scott as Ian Charleson in the period when the Chariots of Fire actor was offered Hamlet at the National Theatre while living with AIDS. Billie Piper is nominated for best supporting performance. Mike Leigh’s final feature, Tender Loving Care, is among the best-film and best-director nominees.
Courtesy of BIFA / film still Welsh-language Effi o Blaenau and Lance Hammer’s Queen at Sea (with Juliette Binoche) also make the best-film five. International independent film nominees include Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All of a Sudden and Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love.
The nominations sit alongside other European awards calendars already on the desk, including MedFilm’s Rome line-up and Tallinn Black Nights. More UK and festival coverage is in our Festivals & Markets section.
Full nominations
Titles, names and groupings follow BIFA’s official 2026 awards page. Producer credits in square brackets are as BIFA lists them (“also produced by”).
Best British Independent Film
- Effi o Blaenau: Marc Evans, Gary Owen, Branwen Cennard
- Elsinore: Simon Stone, Stephen Beresford, Andrea Occhipinti, Gabrielle Tana, Pete Shilaimon, Mickey Liddell, Stefano Massenzi, Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Andrew Scott
- I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning: Clio Barnard, Enda Walsh, Tracy O’Riordan
- Queen at Sea: Lance Hammer, Tristan Goligher
- Tender Loving Care: Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
Best Director
- Clio Barnard: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
- Andrew Haigh: A Long Winter
- Mark Jenkin: Rose of Nevada
- Mike Leigh: Tender Loving Care
- Simon Stone: Elsinore
Best Screenplay
- Stephen Beresford: Elsinore
- Lance Hammer: Queen at Sea
- Mike Leigh: Tender Loving Care
- Gary Owen: Effi o Blaenau
- Enda Walsh: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Best Lead Performance
- Juliette Binoche: Queen at Sea
- Erin Doherty: Faith
- Leisa Gwenllian: Effi o Blaenau
- Jonathan Jules: Florid
- Tut Nyuot: Animol
- Andrew Scott: Elsinore
Best Supporting Performance
- Anna Calder-Marshall: Queen at Sea
- Tom Courtenay: Queen at Sea
- Sekou Diaby: Animol
- Claire Foy: Ink
- Billie Piper: Elsinore
- Bill Pullman: Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Best Joint Lead Performance
- Séamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley: California Schemin’
- Flora Nicholson, Clare Dunne, Mia Tharia: The Education of Jane Cumming
- Marni Duggan, Galaxie Clear: Extra Geography
- Chimpaye Florence Mariserena, Bizimana Hussain: Small Gods
Best Ensemble Performance
- I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning: Lola Petticrew, Daryl McCormack, Jay Lycurgo, Joe Cole, Anthony Boyle
- Sunny Dancer: Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Conrad Khan, Jasmine Elcock, Bella Ramsey, Neil Patrick Harris, James Norton, Jessica Gunning, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Josie Walker, James Blunt, Louis Gaunt
- Tender Loving Care: Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Kate O’Flynn, Alice Bailey Johnson
The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)
- Billy Lumby: Florid
- Molly Manners: Extra Geography
- Bertil Nilsson: Masc
- Louis Paxton: The Incomer
- Ashley Walters: Animol
Breakthrough Producer
- Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer: One in a Million [also produced by Raney Aronson-Rath]
- Branwen Cennard: Effi o Blaenau
- Tom Hawkins: Animol [also produced by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Nick Love, Ashley Walters]
- Oskar Pimlott: Bad Apples
- Alex Polunin: Black Church Bay [also produced by Tristan Goligher]
Breakthrough Performance
- Galaxie Clear: Extra Geography
- Sekou Diaby: Animol
- Leisa Gwenllian: Effi o Blaenau
- Jonathan Jules: Florid
- Tut Nyuot: Animol
Best Debut Screenwriter
- Miriam Battye: Extra Geography
- Thea Gajić: Surviving Earth
- Rhys Marc Jones: Black Church Bay
- Jess O’Kane: Bad Apples
- Louis Paxton: The Incomer
Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
- Janay Boulos, Abd Alkader Habak: Birds of War
- Ed Sayers: Super Nature
- Rachel Taparjan: Something Familiar
Best Feature Documentary
- All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea: Jeanie Finlay, Charlie Phillips
- Everybody to Kenmure Street: Felipe Bustos Sierra, Ciara Barry
- One in a Million: Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Will Anderson, Andrew Palmer, James Bluemel, Raney Aronson-Rath
- Something Familiar: Rachel Taparjan, Aleksandra Bilić, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan
- We, the Hated: Rich Felgate, David Allen
The Raindance Maverick Award
- Act 3: Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor, Alex Thiele, Hannah Patterson
- Chatlines: Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Paul Mortlock, Neil Ely
- Masc: Bertil Nilsson
- The Peril at Pincer Point: Noah Stratton-Twine, Jake Kuhn
- Something Familiar: Rachel Taparjan, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Aleksandra Bilić, Elena Martin
Best British Short Film
- Allies in Exile: Orlando von Einsiedel, Hasan Kattan
- Coyotes: Said Zagha, Myriam Sassine, Laura Jumel
- Forgotten Spaceman: Lorraine Bhattachary, Elham Ehsas
- Untitled Woman: Sorcha Bacon, Camille Summers-Valli, Rosmarie Vind, Martha McGuirk, David Zander
- Vote Gavin Lyle: Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell, Tom Gardner
Best International Independent Film
- All of a Sudden: Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Léa Le Dimna, David Gauquié, Julien Deris, Kôsuke Oshida, Yûji Sadai, Jean-Luc Ormières, Renan Artukmaç, Hiroko Matsuda
- Club Kid: Jordan Firstman, Galen Core, Alex Coco
- La Bola Negra: Javier Calvo, Javier Ambrossi
- La Gradiva: Marine Atlan, Anne Brouillet, Inès Daïen Dasi
- Possible Love: Lee Chang-dong, Oh Jung-mi
Best Casting
- Shaheen Baig: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
- Heather Basten: Animol
- Lara Manwaring: Florid
- Lucy Pardee: Extra Geography
- Jessica Ronane: Elsinore
Best Cinematography
- Mike Eley: Elsinore
- Piers McGrail: Everybody Digs Bill Evans
- Christopher Ripley: Straight Circle
- Simon Tindall: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
- André Turpin: A Long Winter
Best Costume Design
- Sarah Blenkinsop: The Incomer
- Alex Bovaird: Savage House
- Carol Case: A Long Winter
- Darion Hing: Straight Circle
- Mel Page: Elsinore
Best Editing
- Valerio Bonelli: Elsinore
- Otto Burnham: Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
- Fouad Gaber: Straight Circle
- Maya Maffioli: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
- Fin Oates: Ink
Best Effects
- Jon Biggins, Jeff Dillon: Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
- Ruslan Borysov, Richard Cheal, Tim Ledbury: The Magic Faraway Tree
- Daniel Morris: The Incomer
Best Music Supervision
- Connie Farr: I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
- Connie Farr: Queen at Sea
- Phil Canning: Sunny Dancer
Best Make-Up & Hair Design
- Jacquetta Levon: Savage House
- Nadia Stacey: Elsinore
- Nadia Stacey: Madfabulous
- Karen Hartley-Thomas: The Magic Faraway Tree
- Tristan Versluis: Straight Circle
Best Original Music
- Roger Goula: Everybody Digs Bill Evans
- Stefan Gregory: Elsinore
- Mark Jenkin: Rose of Nevada
- Hannah Peel: Underland
- Siôn Trefor, Ioana Selaru: Effi o Blaenau
Best Production Design
- Luke Moran-Morris: Straight Circle
- Gareth Pugh, Carson McColl: Ink
- Helen Scott: Elsinore
- Alexandra Walker: The Magic Faraway Tree
- Gary Williamson: Savage House
Best Sound
- Andy Coles, John Brennan: Everybody Digs Bill Evans
- Joakim Sundström, Paul Cotterell, Ron Osiowy: A Long Winter
- Simon Hayes, Johnnie Burn: Ink
- Mark Jenkin, Ian Wilson: Rose of Nevada
- Dario Swade, George Elliott, Tom Harburt: Florid
Cinema of the Year (supported by Kia)
Chosen by cinemagoers from almost 80 entered cinemas; the winner is decided by a jury at the ceremony.
- Abbeygate Cinema (Bury St Edmunds)
- Campus West (Welwyn Garden City)
- The Hippodrome Cinema (Bo’ness)
- The Kinema in the Woods (Woodhall Spa)
- The Ultimate Picture Palace (Oxford)
The Richard Harris Award recipient, the ceremony host and this year’s juries are still to be announced, BIFA said.
Our reading
Twelve nominations for a London Film Festival opener is a clear signal to buyers and awards strategists, but the craft split on 24 November will show whether Elsinore’s lead holds beyond the acting and directing races. The debut-director and breakthrough lists are where the UK indie pipeline is most visible this year, with Walters, Manners, Lumby, Paxton and Nilsson all in the Hickox five.
Sources
- BIFA, BIFA 2026 nominations announced (3 November 2026)
- BIFA, Awards 2026 nominations (full official list)
- Variety, Elsinore, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning and Animol lead BIFA nominations (3 November 2026)
- Deadline, British Independent Film Awards: Elsinore leads nominations (3 November 2026)