The British Independent Film Awards (Bifas) has unveiled the documentary and international film longlists for its 2024 ceremony, with films including in-videogame title Grand Theft Hamlet and Sean Baker’s Palme d’Or winner Anora.
Grand Theft Hamlet is on the 12-strong best feature documentary list. The film is the debut feature from directorial duo Pinny Grylls and Sam Crane; it premiered at SXSW this year and was recently acquired for a UK-Ireland theatrical release. It follows two struggling actors who find solace from lockdown isolation by staging William Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the online Grand Theft Auto game.
Scroll down for the longlists
Also on the documentary list is Ian Bonhote and Peter Ettedgui’s Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, documenting the life of the late US actor and disability rights activist. Further individual profile films include Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge Of Everything, and Clair Titley’s The Contestant, about a Japanese reality TV star left naked in a room for more than a year.
Baker’s Anora will look to add Bifa international independent film success to its expanding awards cabinet, after winning Cannes’ top prize in May and finishing third in the Toronto People’s Choice award.
It is one of 15 titles on the international list, alongside Payal Kapadia’s All We Imagine As Light, which looks to have missed out on selection as an Oscar international feature entry; and Mohammad Rasoulof’s The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, which is representing Germany in the Oscars race.
Further titles include Alice Rohrwacher’s La Chimera starring two-time Bifa best actor winner Josh O’Connor; and No Other Land, the documentary about the destruction of the occupied West Bank by Israeli soldiers, that won the documentary award in Berlin.
Bifa longlists for breakthrough performance and new talent filmmakers were published last week, with the Raindance Maverick list arriving tomorrow.
The final five nominations in each category will be unveiled on Thursday, November 5; with the winners announced at the Bifa ceremony on Sunday, December 8 at the Camden Roundhouse in London.
Last year’s documentary and international awards went to If The Streets Were On Fire and Anatomy Of A Fall respectively.
Bifa 2024 documentary, international longlists
Documentary
The Contestant, dir. Clair Titley
Copa 71, dirs. Rachel Ramsay, James Erskine
The Cranes Call, dir. Laura Warner
The Flight Of Bryan, dir. James Erskine
Grand Theft Hamlet, dirs. Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane
Made In England: The Films Of Powell And Pressburger, dir. David Hinton
Ronnie O’Sullivan: The Edge Of Everything, dir. Sam Blair
Strike: An Uncivil War, dir. Daniel Gordon
Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story, dirs. Ian Bonhote, Peter Ettedgui
Two Strangers Trying Not To Kill Each Other, dirs. Manon Ouimet, Jacob Perlmutter
Wilding, dir. David Allen
Witches, dir. Elizabeth Sankey
International Independent Film
About Dry Grasses, dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan
All We Imagine As Light, dir. Payal Kapadia
Àma Gloria, dir. Marie Amachoukeli-Barsacq
Anora, dir. Sean Baker
Bye Bye Tiberias, dir. Lina Soualem
Crossing, dir. Levan Akin
A Different Man, dir. Aaron Schimberg
The Girl With The Needle, dir. Magnus von Horn
I’m Still Here, dir. Walter Salles
Julie Keeps Quiet, dir. Leonardo Van Dijl
La Chimera, dir. Alice Rohrwacher
No Other Land, dirs. Yuval Abraham, Basel Adra, Hamdan Ballal, Rachel Szor
The Remarkable Life Of Ibelin, dir. Benjamin Ree
The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, dir. Mohammad Rasoulof
Sing Sing, dir. Greg Kwedar
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