Reggie Yates’ Pirates, Corinna Faith’s The Power and Marley Morrison’s Sweetheart lead the new talent longlists for the 2021 British Independent Film Awards (Bifas).
Longlists have been announced for four categories: the Douglas Hickox award for best debut director; best debut screenwriter; breakthrough producer; and the renamed breakthrough performance.
Scroll down for the full new talent longlists
Pirates scored the most longlist spots with five – for Yates as director and writer, and for the film’s three leads Elliot Edusah, Jordan Peters and Reda Elazour in breakthrough performance.
The film, which paused production due to the pandemic before wrapping in autumn 2020, follows three friends on New Year’s Eve 1999 as they travel across London looking for tickets to the hottest party. Picturehouse Entertainment is distributing it on November 26 in the UK and Ireland.
The Power was selected in each of the four categories: for Faith in writer and director, for Rob Watson in producer and for Screen Star of Tomorrow 2019 Rose Williams in performance. The horror title follows a nurse forced to work the night shift in a crumbling London hospital in 1974.
Sweetheart repeated the quadruple, for Morrison in writer and director, Michelle Antoniades in producer, and Nell Barlow in performance. It sees a socially awkward teenager forced to spend the holidays with her family in a caravan park, where she falls for a lifeguard.
Six titles received three longlist spots each: comedy horror All My Friends Hate Me, thriller The Bike Thief, horror Censor, musical Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, comedy People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan and thriller She Will.
Among the 16 actors longlisted in breakthrough performance is Jude Hill, for his role in Kenneth Branagh’s black-and-white drama Belfast.
Nine filmmakers were chosen in both the director and writer categories, six of whom are women.
Thirty-one ilms are represented across the four categories, with 39 individuals, all of whom are automatically invited to Bifa’s Springboard professional development programme to assist them in building on the success of their debut features.
Of the 39, nine – securing 13 spots - have previously been named Screen Stars of Tomorrow.
The international film, documentary and discovery longlists will be announced in the coming days, with nominations on Wednesday, November 3.
The ceremony will take place in-person in London on Sunday, December 5.
Bifa 2021 longlists
Best Debut Director
Aleem Khan, After Love
Matt Chambers, The Bike Thief
Prano Bailey-Bond, Censor
Jonathan Butterell, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Sonita Gale, Hostile
Jack Clough, People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan
Reggie Yates, Pirates
Celeste Bell, Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché
Corinna Faith, The Power
Charlotte Colbert, She Will
Camille Griffin, Silent Night
Marley Morrison, Sweetheart
Cathy Brady, Wildfire
Best Debut Screenwriter
Aleem Khan, After Love
Tom Palmer, Tom Stourton, All My Friends Hate Me
Matt Chambers, The Bike Thief
Colum Eastwood, Black Medicine
Prano Bailey-Bond, Censor
Richard Bean, Clive Coleman, The Duke
Tom MacRae, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Steve Stamp, Allan Mustafa, People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan
Reggie Yates, Pirates
Corinna Faith, The Power
Charlotte Colbert, Kitty Percy, She Will
Camille Griffin, Silent Night
James Webber, Sorority
Marley Morrison, Sweetheart
Matt Redd, The Toll
Cathy Brady, Wildfire
Breakthrough Producer
Tom Palmer, All My Friends Hate Me
PK Fellowes, Sophia Gibber, The Bike Thief
Annika Ranin, Jasmin Morrison, Boarders
Hester Ruoff, Boiling Point
Dominic Tighe, Bull
Helen Jones, Censor
Katie Hodgkin, Martyrs Lane
Tim Sealey, People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan
Rob Watson, The Power
Martyn Robertson, Louise Storrie, Ride The Wave
Jessica Malik, She Will
Clive Patterson, Sing, Freetown
Michelle Antoniades, Sweetheart
Breakthrough Performance
Ariana Bodorová, Ali & Ava
Tom Stourton, All My Friends Hate Me
Jude Hill, Belfast
Lauryn Ajufo, Boiling Point
Max Harwood, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Tom Prior, Firebird
Ellora Torchia, In The Earth
Hannah Douglas, Lapwing
Kiera Thompson, Martyrs Lane
Daniel Lamont, Nowhere Special
Tallulah Greive, Our Ladies
Elliot Edusah, Pirates
Jordan Peters, Pirates
Reda Elazour, Pirates
Rose Williams, The Power
Nell Barlow, Sweetheart
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