2020 was certainly an unique year sadly not for the right reason, 2021 is looking will be different too. Instead of the usual announce all the award winners at an ceremony (on and offline), The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) today announced the first of this year’s award winners for its nine film craft categories.
Remi Weekes’ chilling debut His House, which received 16 BIFA nominations in total, has won two awards: Best Effects (for Pedro Sabrosa and Stefano Pepin) and Best Production Design went to, for Jacqueline Abrahams who was previously nominated for the award in 2017 for Lady Macbeth.
Philippa Lowthorpe’s Misbehaviour, a colourful portrait of the Woman’s Liberation Movement, won awards for its Costume Design and Make Up & Hair, for Charlotte Walter and Jill Sweeney respectively.
Lucy Pardee was awarded Best Casting and Spotlight for Rocks, which was cast through a collaborative process that involved workshopping with young untrained actors to explore their characters.
Saint Maud, which topped the BIFA nominations with 17, and expected to do well at The BIFAs, won Best Cinematography for DP Ben Fordesman. This is only the first round so more awards to come!
Yorgos Lamprinos was awarded Best Editing for his work on The Father, a devastating portrayal of dementia, led by Sir Anthony Hopkins and Olivia Colman.
2021 is turning out a great year from Riz Ahmed, winning for his screenwriting debut with Mogul Mowgli. Also Paul Corley won Best Music for composer.
Best Sound went to Nick Ryan, Ben Baird, Sara De OIiveira Lima for their work on The Reason I Jump, an immersive exploration of nonspeaking autism.
BIFA introduced these nine award categories in 2017 to better recognise the wealth of exceptional talent working on British independent films. The nominations and winners have been chosen by BIFA voters over the course of three rounds of viewing, discussion and voting.
