bifa 2022 noms

Source: Mubi / Altitude / Netflix

‘Aftersun’, ‘Blue Jean’, ‘The Wonder’

Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun, Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jean and Sebastian Lelio’s The Wonder lead the nominations for the 2022 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas), with several major categories dominated by women including the new merged performance categories.

At the Bifas 25th edition, Wells’ Aftersun has 16 nominations – the second-most ever for a film at the Bifas, behind only Saint Maud’s record 17 from 2020. Wells is nominated for best British independent film, director, screenplay, debut director and debut screenwriter; while Frankie Corio and Paul Mescal are nominated in the new best joint lead performance category.

Scroll down for the full list of nominations 

Blue Jean is selected in 13 categories, including the same five for Oakley as Wells; plus best lead performance for Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 Rosy McEwen, and best supporting performance for both Lucy Halliday and Kerrie Hayes.

Other titles to rack up multiple nominations include Lelio’s Netflix drama The Wonder with 12; Living with nine, including lead performance for Bill Nighy and supporting performance for Aimee Lou Wood; and Peter Strickland’s Flux Gourmet with seven. 

Three films have five nominations each – God’s Creatures, Men and The Origin.

Living, The Wonder and Sophie Hyde’s Good Luck To You, Leo Grande are up for best British independent film alongside Aftersun and Blue Jean.

Women head major categories

In the first year of single performance categories for lead, supporting and joint lead, 18 of the 25 actors nominated are women; while of the 37 actors represented in the best ensemble performance category, 24 of them are women. Four of the five breakthrough performance nominees are female.

Women also represent three of five nominees in best director and debut director; four of six in breakthrough producer and best debut director – feature documentary; and five of seven in best screenplay.

Cannes titles head the best international independent film category: Lukas Dhont’s Close and Park Chan-wook’s Decision To Leave from this year, plus Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World from 2021. Laura Poitras’ Venice winner All The Beauty And The Bloodshed and US hit Everything Everywhere All At Once round out the international selection.

Screen Stars of Tomorrow are well-represented: 16 Stars share 22 nominations, including actors Florence Pugh, Emma Mackey, Jessie Buckley, Fionn Whitehead and Mescal; plus filmmakers Andrew Cumming, Ruth Greenberg and Thomas Hardiman.

For distributors, Mubi has flourished with 22 nominations for AftersunMedusa DeluxeDecision To LeaveClose and The Worst Person In The World; while Lionsgate has scored 13 across Living and Good Luck To You, Leo Grande. Altitude picks up 14, through Blue Jean and All The Beauty And The Bloodshed.

The 2022 Bifas will take place on Sunday, December 4 in London. The ceremony host, juries and recipient of the Richard Harris honorary award will be announced in the coming weeks.

Bifa 2022 nominations

Best British Independent Film

Aftersun – Charlotte Wells, Barry Jenkins, Mark Ceryak, Adele Romanski, Amy Jackson
Blue Jean – Georgia Oakley, Helene Sifre
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande – Sophie Hyde, Katy Brand, Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski
Living – Oliver Hermanus, Kazuo Ishiguro, Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen
The Wonder – Sebastian Lelio, Emma Donoghue, Alice Birch, Juliette Howell, Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross, Ed Guiney

Best director

Oliver Hermanus – Living
Sophie Hyde – Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
Sebastian Lelio – The Wonder
Georgia Oakley – Blue Jean
Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

Best screenplay
Katy Brand – Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
Kazuo Ishiguro – Living
Sebastian Lelio, Alice Birch, Emma Donoghue – The Wonder
Georgia Oakley – Blue Jean
Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

Best lead performance
Sally Hawkins – The Lost King
Cosmo Jarvis – It Is In Us All
Emma Mackey – Emily
Rosy McEwen – Blue Jean
Bill Nighy – Living
Florence Pugh – The Wonder
Emily Watson – God’s Creatures
Hala Zein – Nezouh

Best supporting performance
Zoey Deutch – The Outfit
Aisling Franciosi – God’s Creatures
Lucy Halliday – Blue Jean
Kerrie Hayes – Blue Jean
Zainab Joda – Our River… Our Sky
Fatma Mohamed – Flux Gourmet
Paul Mescal – God’s Creatures
Fionn Whitehead – Emily
Aimee Lou Wood – Living

Best joint lead performance
Frankie Corio, Paul Mescal – Aftersun
Daryl McCormack, Emma Thompson – Good Luck To You, Leo Grande
Jessie Buckley, Rory Kinnear – Men
Tamara Lawrance, Letitia Wright – The Silent Twins

Best ensemble performance
Blue Jean – including Rosy McEwen, Kerrie Hayes, Lucy Halliday, Lydia Page, Stacy Abalogun, Farrah Cave, Amy Booth-Steel
Emily – including Amelia Gething, Emma Mackey, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Fionn Whitehead, Alexandra Dowling, Gemma Jones, Adrian Dunbar
Flux Gourmet – including Makis Papadimitriou, Gwendoline Christie, Asa Butterfield, Fatma Mohamed, Ariane Labed, Richard Bremmer
Our River… Our Sky – including Zainab Joda, Darina Al Joundi, Amed Hashimi, Mahmoud Abo Al Abbas, Basim Hajar, Labwa Arab, Meriam Abbas, Siham Mustafa
The Wonder – including Kila Lord Cassidy, Florence Pugh, Tom Burke, Toby Jones, Niamh Algar, Elaine Cassidy, Ciaran Hinds, Brian F. O’Byrne, Josie Walker

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best debut director)
Andrew Cumming­ – The Origin
Thomas Hardiman – Medusa Deluxe
Frances O’Connor – Emily
Georgia Oakley – Blue Jean
Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

Breakthrough producer
Aleksandra Bilic, Jennifer Corcoran – Nascondino (Hide & Seek)
Paul Kennedy – Nightride [also produced by Jon Silk]
Rupert Majendie – Brian And Charles
Nadira Murray – Winners [also produced by Paul Welsh]
Helene Sifre – Blue Jean

Breakthrough performance
Frankie Corio – Aftersun
Leo Long – I Used To Be Famous
Kila Lord Cassidy – The Wonder
Rosy McEwen – Blue Jean
Safia Oakley-Green – The Origin

Debut screenwriter
Shane Crowley – God’s Creatures
David Earl, Chris Hayward – Brian And Charles
Ruth Greenberg – The Origin
Georgia Oakley – Blue Jean
Charlotte Wells – Aftersun

Debut director – feature documentary
Kathryn Ferguson – Nothing Compares
Victoria Fiore – Nascondino (Hide & Seek)
Leah Gordon, Eddie Hutton Mills – Kanaval
Jono McLeod – My Old School
Becky Hutner – Fashion Reimagined

Raindance discovery award
Electric Malady – Marie Liden, Aimara Reques
Fadia’s Tree – Sarah Beddington, Susan Simnett
Off The Rails – Peter Day, Grant Keir, Rob Alexander
Rebellion – Elena Sanchez Bellot, Maia Kenworthy, Kat Mansoor
Winners – Hassan Nazer, Nadira Murray, Paul Welsh

Feature documentary
My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years In Afghanistan – Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi, Amanda Wilkie
My Old School – Jono McLeod, John Archer, Olivia Lichtenstein
Nascondino (Hide & Seek) – Victoria Fiore, Jennifer Corcoran, Aleksandra Bilic
Nothing Compares – Kathryn Ferguson, Eleanor Emptage, Michael Mallie
Young Plato – Neasa Ni Chianain, Declan McGrath, David Rane

British short film
A Fox In The Night – Keeran Anwar Blessie, Benjamin Jacob Smith
Honesty – Roxy Rezvany, Emily Renee, Elly Camisa
Sandstorm – Seemab Gul, Abid Aziz Merchant
Scale – Joseph Piece, Helene Mitjavile
Too Rough – Sean Lionadh, Ross McKenzie, Alfredo Covelli

International independent film
All The Beauty And The Bloodshed - Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov
Close - Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens, Michiel Dhont, Dirk Impens
Decision To Leave - Park Chan-Wook, Chung Seo-Kyung
Everything Everywhere All At Once - Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo, Mike Larocca
The Worst Person In The World - Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar, Thomas Robsahm

Casting
Shaheen Baig - Blue Jean
Leila Bertrand - Our River… Our Sky
Kharmel Cochrane - The Silent Twins
Kahleen Crawford - Living
Lucy Pardee - Aftersun

Cinematography
Alfredo De Juan - Nascondino [Hide & Seek]
Rob Hardy - Men
Joel Honeywell - Kanaval
Gregory Oke - Aftersun
Ari Wegner - The Wonder

Costume design
Jenny Beavan – Mrs. Harris Goes To Paris
Saffron Cullane - Flux Gourmet
Odile Dicks-Mireaux - The Wonder
Frank Gallacher - Aftersun
Sandy Powell - Living

Editing
Joanna Crickmay - Elizabeth: A Portrait In Parts
Izabella Curry - Blue Jean
Mátyás Fekete - Flux Gourmet
Mick Mahon - Nothing Compares
Blair Mcclendon - Aftersun

Original music
Danny Bensi, Saunder Jurriaans - God’s Creatures
Oliver Coates - Aftersun
Matthew Herbert - The Wonder
Adam Janota Bzowski - The Origin
Ben Salisbury, Geoff Barrow - Men

Make-Up & hair design
Oya Aygör, Murat Çağin - Aftersun
Morna Ferguson, Lorri Ann King - The Wonder
Siobhan Harper-Ryan - Flux Gourmet
Niamh Morrison - The Origin
Eugene Souleiman, Scarlett O’Connell - Medusa Deluxe

Effects
Chris Marshall - The Feast
David Simpson - Men
Ahmed Yousry - Nezouh

Music supervision
Lucy Bright - Aftersun
Phil Canning - The Phantom Of The Open
Rupert Hollier - Living

Sound
Tim Harrison, Raoul Brand, Cassandra Rutledge - Flux Gourmet
Glenn Freemantle, Ben Barker, Gillian Dodders, Howard Bargoff, Mitch Low - Men
Jovan Ajder - Aftersun
Hugh Fox, Ben Baird - The Wonder
Dom Corbisiero, Dai Shell - The Feast

Production design
Fletcher Jarvis - Flux Gourmet
Grant Montgomery - The Wonder
Helen Scott - Living
Billur Turan - Aftersun
Gary Williamson - Medusa Deluxe