Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut feature Aftersun was the big winner of the 2022 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas), taking seven prizes at Sunday night’s (December 4) ceremony in London.
Wells’ drama won the award for best British independent film, best director, the Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director, and best screenplay, adding to the three craft awards already announced – best cinematography, best editing and best music supervision.
The Cannes premiere follows a daughter as she reflects on her relationship with her complicated father, through memories of a summer holiday in Turkey, and stars Screen Star of Tomorrow 2020 Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio.
Scroll down for the full list of winners
Host Ben Bailey Smith kicked off the ceremony by saying: “Welcome to the 2022 Aftersun awards. Sixteen nominations! We might as well stop this now and watch the football.”
In the first year for gender-neutral acting categories at the Bifas, Screen Star of Tomorrow 2022 Rosy McEwen won the best lead performance prize for her role in Georgia Oakley’s feature debut Blue Jean, in which she plays a secondary school teacher living in Margaret Thatcher-era Newcastle, and grappling with the secret of her sexuality. Blue Jean also scooped the best supporting performance prize for Kerrie Hayes, and best debut screenwriter for Oakley. As previously announced, Blue Jean also won the best casting prize for Shaheen Baig.
Hassan Nazer’s Iran set drama Winners won the Raindance discovery award, with producer Nadira Murray also picking up the award for breakthrough producer, with Scottish Uzbek Murray saying the awards signified “our belonging” in the UK industry.
Best breakthrough performance went to Safia Oakley-Green in The Origin, Andrew Cumming’s debut feature, in which a nomadic tribe faces a terrifying ancient threat that comes when night falls.
New category best joint lead performance went to Tamara Lawrance and Letitia Wright in The Silent Twins, while Our River…Our Sky took home the best ensemble award. Some of the members of the ensemble cast from the Iraq shot feature were unable to get visas to attend the ceremony.
Kathryn Ferguson won both best feature documentary and the new best debut director – feature documentary prize for her Sinead O’Conner documentary Nothing Compares.
Joachim Trier’s The Worst Person In The World, following one woman’s quest for love and meaning in today’s world, landed the best international independent film award.
Samantha Morton was presented with this year’s honorary award. She used her acceptance speech to call out the UK government’s lack of support for the performing arts, saying: “We need a general election.” The special jury prize was given to Open Door for their work helping talented young people without financial support or resources gain places at leading UK drama schools.
Bifa 2022 winners
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 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 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 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
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
Special jury prize
Open Door
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Richard Harris honorary award
Samantha Morton
Previously announced craft winners:
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 Delux
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