‘Elsinore’, ‘I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning’ lead Bifa 2026 nominations

Simon Stone’s Elsinore leads the nominations for the 2026 British Independent Film Awards (Bifa), garnering 12, while Clio Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning secures eight.

Elsinore has scored nominations for categories including best British independent film, best director for Stone, best screenplay for Simon Beresford, best lead performance for Andrew Scott and best supporting performance for Billie Piper. The film has also received seven craft nominations.

The story of actor Ian Charleson’s final performance of Hamlet world premiered at Telluride, before playing at Toronto and opening the BFI London Film Festival. Studiocanal will release the film in UK-Ireland.

The nominations for Cannes Directors Fortnight prize winner I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning include best British independent film, best director for previous Douglas Hickox winner Barnard (The Arbor, 2010), best screenplay for Enda Walsh, and best ensemble performance for the cast, which includes Jay Lycurgo, Joe Cole, Lola Petticrew, Daryl McCormack and Anthony Boyle. They play five friends from Birmingham navigating their 30s against the backdrop of a national housing crisis.

Craft nominees for the film include casting director Shaheen Baig, a previous winner for Blue Jean in 2022. Curzon has UK-Ireland rights. 

Ashley Walters’ Berlinale premiere and debut feature Animol is close behind with seven nominations. They are for best debut director, best breakthrough producer for Tom Hawkins, best lead and supporting performance for Tut Nyuot and Sekou Diaby respectively, plus best breakthrough performance for both Nyuot and Diaby. The film is now on release in the UK-Ireland via Sky/Studiocanal.

Marc Evans’s Welsh-language drama Effi O Blaenau and Lance Hammer’s Queen At Sea, about a long marriage tested by dementia, both have six nominations. 

The nominations for best international independent film are Ryusuke Hamaguchi’s All Of A Sudden, Lee Chang-dong’s Possible Love, Javier Ambrossi and Javier Calvo’s La Bola Negra and two debuts: Jordan Firstman’s Club Kid and Marine Atlan’s La Gradiva.

The five cinema of the year nominees, voted for by cinemagoers nationwide, are Abbeygate Cinema in Bury St Edmunds, Campus West in Welwyn Garden City, The Hippodrome Cinema in Bo’ness, The Kinema in the Woods in Woodhall Spa and The Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford.

The recipient of this year’s Richard Harris award for outstanding contribution by an actor to British film will be announced in the coming weeks, with Emily Watson receiving the award last year.

Craft winners will be announced prior to the main ceremony, on November 24, with the rest of the awards unveiled on December 6 at London’s Roundhouse.

Bifa 2026 nominations

Best British independent film

• Marc Evans, Gary Owen, Branwen Cennard - Effi O Blaenau
• Simon Stone, Stephen Beresford, Andrea Occhipinti, Gabrielle Tana, Pete Shilaimon, Mickey Liddell, Stefano Massenzi, Carolyn Marks Blackwood, Andrew Scott - Elsinore
• Clio Barnard, Enda Walsh, Tracy O’Riordan - I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Lance Hammer, Tristan Goligher - Queen At Sea
• Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe - Tender Loving Care

Cinema of the year

• Abbeygate Cinema - Bury St Edmunds
• Campus West -  Welwyn Garden City
• Hippodrome Cinema - Bo’ness
• The Kinema In The Woods - Woodhall Spa
• The Ultimate Picture Palace - Oxford 

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 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 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 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

• Anthony Boyle, Joe Cole, Jay Lycurgo, Daryl McCormack, Lola Petticrew - I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Bella Ramsey, Daniel Quinn-Toye, Ruby Stokes, Earl Cave, Conrad Khan, Jasmine Elcock, Shalom Brune-Franklin, Louis Gaunt, Josie Walker, Jessica Gunning, James Norton, Neil Patrick Harris, James Blunt - Sunny Dancer
• Marion Bailey, Paul Jesson, Kate O’Flynn, Alice Bailey Johnson - Tender Loving Care

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

The Raindance Maverick Award

• Christine Molloy, Joe Lawlor, Alex Thiele, Hannah Patterson - Act 3
• Neil Ely, Lloyd Eyre-Morgan, Paul Mortlock - Chatlines
• Bertil Nilsson - Masc
• Jake Kuhn, Noah Stratton-Twine - The Peril At Pincer Point
• Rachel Taparjan, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan, Elena Martin, Aleksandra Bilic - Something Familiar

Best feature documentary

• Jeanie Finlay, Charlie Phillips - All Rivers Spill Their Stories To The Sea
• Felipe Bustos Sierra, Ciara Barry - Everybody To Kenmure Street
• Itab Azzam, Jack MacInnes, Will Anderson, Andrew Palmer, James Bluemel, Raney Aronson-Rath - One In A Million
• Rachel Taparjan, Aleksandra Bilic, Monica Lăzurean-Gorgan - Something Familiar
• Rich Felgate, David Allen - We, The Hated

Best British short film

• Hasan Kattan, Orlando von Einsiedel - Allies In Exile
• Said Zagha, Myriam Sassine, Laura Jumel - Coyotes
• Elham Ehsas, Lorraine Bhattachary - Forgotten Spaceman
• Camille Summers-Valli, Rosmarie Vind, Sorcha Bacon, Martha McGuirk, David Zander - Untitled Woman
• Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell, Tom Gardner - Vote Gavin Lyle

Best international independent film

• Ryusuke Hamaguchi, Léa Le Dimna, David Gauquié, Julien Deris, Kôsuke Oshida, Yûji Sadai, Jean-Luc Ormières, Renan Artukmaç, Hiroko Matsuda - All Of A Sudden
• Jordan Firstman, Galen Core, Alex Coco - Club Kid
• Javier Ambrossi, Javier Calvo - La Bola Negra
• Marine Atlan, Anne Brouilet, Inès Daïen Dasi - La Gradiva
• Lee Chang-dong, Oh Jung-mi - Possible Love

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
• Paul Cotterell, Ron Osiowy, Joakim Sundström - A Long Winter
• Simon Hayes, Johnnie Burn - Ink
• Mark Jenkin, Ian Wilson - Rose Of Nevada
• Dario Swade, George Elliott, Tom Harburt - Florid