BIFA ceremony

Source: Nikki Wills/BIFA

BIFA ceremony

Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane and Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex are among the 35 features on the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) Filmmaker New Talent longlists for 2023.

The ceremony has released longlists for four awards: the Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director), Best Debut Screenwriter, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary and Breakthrough Producer.

Scroll down for the full New Talent longlists

Eight films have been longlisted in three of the four categories: Earth Mama, Femme, In Camera, Pretty Red Dress, Raging Grace, Rye Lane, Scrapper and The Teacher.

Other filmmakers on the longlists include Kibwe Tavares and Daniel Kaluuya for The Kitchen, with Kaluuya also included in debut screenwriter (written with Joe Murtagh).

The 35 films consist of 20 fiction and 15 documentary features, from a record number of British film entries. There are 19 first-time fiction directors, 17 first-time documentary directors, 17 first-time writers and 24 breakthrough producers.

The longlist for the Breakthrough Performance award for acting talent will be announced on Tuesday, October 24.

The final five nominations in each category will be announced on Thursday, November 2; with winners revealed at the 26th BIFA ceremony on Sunday, December 3.

BIFA 2023 New Talent Longlists

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)

  • Prasanna Puwanarajah - Ballywalter
  • Savanah Leaf - Earth Mama
  • Mahalia Belo - The End We Start From
  • Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping - Femme
  • Adura Onashile - Girl
  • Molly Manning Walker - How To Have Sex
  • Naqqash Khalid - ­In Camera
  • Neil Boyle, Kirk Hendry - Kensuke’s Kingdom
  • Kibwe Tavares, Daniel Kaluuya - The Kitchen
  • Nida Manzoor - Polite Society
  • Dionne Edwards - Pretty Red Dress
  • Paris Zarcilla - Raging Grace
  • Raine Allen-Miller - Rye Lane
  • Charlotte Regan - Scrapper
  • Moin Hussain - Sky Peals
  • Farah Nabulsi - The Teacher

Best Debut Screenwriter

  • Savanah Leaf - Earth Mama
  • Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping - Femme
  • Adura Onashile - Girl
  • Molly Manning Walker - How To Have Sex
  • Naqqash Khalid - In Camera
  • Daniel Kaluuya - The Kitchen (Also Written By Joe Murtagh)
  • Alex Mackeith The Lesson
  • Angeli Macfarlane - LOLA (Also Written By Andrew Legge)
  • Nida Manzoor - Polite Society
  • Dionne Edwards - Pretty Red Dress
  • Paris Zarcilla - Raging Grace
  • Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia - Rye Lane
  • Charlotte Regan - Scrapper
  • Moin Hussain - Sky Peals
  • Farah Nabulsi - The Teacher

Best Debut Director - Feature Documentary

  • Oscar Harding - A Life On The Farm
  • Christopher Morris - A Year In A Field
  • Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn - Another Body
  • Christopher Sharp - Bobi Wine: The People’s President (Also Directed By Moses Bwayo)
  • Franky Murray Brown - Dalton’s Dream (Also Directed By Kim Longinotto)
  • Rich Felgate - Finite: The Climate Of Change
  • Alice Russell - If The Streets Were On Fire
  • Ella Glendining - Is There Anybody Out There?
  • Eva Weber - Merkel
  • Peter Beard, Bruce Fletcher - Otto Baxter: Not A F***Ing Horror Story
  • Kate Stonehill - Phantom Parrot
  • Kit Vincent - Red Herring
  • Jane Giles, Ali Catterall - Scala!!! Or, The Wildest Cinema And How It Influenced A Mixed-Up Generation Of Weirdos And Misfits
  • Chloe Abrahams - The Taste Of Mango

Breakthrough Producer

  • Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn - Another Body (Also Produced By Elizabeth Woodward)
  • Lorine Plagnol - Dalton’s Dream (Also Produced By Kim Longinotto)
  • Medb Riordan, Shirley O’Connor, Savanah Leaf - Earth Mama (Also Produced By Cody Ryder And Sam Bisbee)
  • Sam Ritzenberg, Myles Payne - Femme
  • Gannesh Rajah - If The Streets Were On Fire
  • Juliette Larthe - In Camera (Also Produced By Mary Burke)
  • Fleur Nieddu, Edward Lovelace, Sam Arnold, Beyan Taher, Neil Andrews - Name Me Lawand (Also Produced By Marisa Clifford)
  • Georgia Goggin - Pretty Red Dress
  • Chi Thai - Raging Grace
  • Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo - Rye Lane (also produced by Damian Jones)
  • Theo Barrowclough - Scrapper
  • Adam Deacon, Jazzie Zonzolo - Sumotherhood (Also Produced By Finn Bruce)
  • Farah Nabulsi, Sawsan Asfari - The Teacher (Also Produced By Ossama Bawadi)
  • Juliet Dowling - The Unlikely Pilgrimage Of Harold Fry (Also Produced By Marilyn Milgrom And Kevin Loader)