Elsinore Leads British Independent Film Awards 2026 Nominations

Director Simon Stone‘s biographical drama Elsinore, starring Andrew Scott, is the film to beat at the 2026 British Independent Film Awards. Following the nominations announcement by previous BIFA winners Jay Lycurgo and Posy Sterling, the film leads with a total of twelve nominations, including Best British Independent Film, Director, and Lead Performance.

Other leading films include Cleo Barnard’s I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, which garnered eight nominations, and Ashley Walters’ feature directorial debut Animol, which scored seven. Welsh-language film Effi o Blaenau and Queen at Sea also received six nominations each.

The recipient of this year’s Richard Harris Award, which recognises an outstanding contribution by an actor to British film, is yet to be announced. Emily Watson received the award last year.

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

The full list of BIFA nominations across 27 categories can be found below.

BIFA 2026 Nominations

Best British Independent Film

• Effi o Blaenau
• Elsinore
• I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Queen at Sea
• Tender Loving Care

Best Screenplay

• Gary Owen – Effi o Blaenau
• Enda Walsh – I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Lance Hammer – Queen at Sea
• Mike Leigh – Tender Loving Care

Best Director

• Simon Stone – Elsinore
• Clio Barnard – I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Andrew Haigh – A Long Winter
• Mark Jenkin – Rose of Nevada
• Mike Leigh – Tender Loving Care

Best Lead Performance

• Tut Nyuot – Animol
• Leisa Gwenllian – Effi o Blaenau
• Andrew Scott – Elsinore
• Erin Doherty – Faith
• Jonathan Jules – Florid
• Juliette Binoche – Queen at Sea

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

Best Joint Lead Performance

• Séamus McLean Ross / Samuel Bottomley – California Schemin’
• Flora Nicholson / Claire Dunne / Mia Tharia – The Education of Jane Cumming
• Marni Duggan / Galaxie Clear – Extra Geography
• Chimpayre Florence Mariserena / Bizimana Hussain – Small Gods

Best Supporting Performance

• Sekou Diaby – Animol
• Billie Piper – Elsinore
• Bill Pullman – Everybody Digs Bill Evans
• Claire Foy – Ink
• Anna Calder-Marshall – Queen at Sea
• Tom Courtenay – Queen at Sea

Breakthrough Performance

• Tut Nyuot – Animol
• Sekou Diaby – Animol
• Leisa Gwenllian – Effi o Blaenau
• Galaxie Clear – Extra Geography
• Jonathan Jules – Florid

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)

• Ashley Walters – Animol
• Molly Manners – Extra Geography
• Billy Lumby – Florid
• Louis Paxton – The Incomer
• Bertil Nilsson – Masc

Best Debut Screenwriter

• Jess O’Kane – Bad Apples
• Rhys Marc Jones – Black Church Bay
• Miriam Battye – Extra Geography
• Louis Paxton – The Incomer
• Thea Gajić – Surviving Earth

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary

• Janay Boulos / Abd Alkader Habak – Birds of War
• Rachel Taparjan – Something Familiar
• Ed Sayers – Super Nature

Breakthrough Producer

• Tom Hawkins – Animol
• Oskar Pimlott – Bad Apples
• Alex Polunin – Black Church Bay
• Branwen Cennard – Effi o Blaenau
• Itab Azzam / Jack Macinnes / Will Anderson / James Bluemel / Andrew Palmer – One in a Million

Best Feature Documentary

• All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea
• Everybody to Kenmure Street
• One in a Million
• Something Familiar
• We, The Hated

The Raindance Maverick Award

• Act 3
• Chatlines
• Masc
• The Peril at Pincer Point
• Something Familiar

Best International Independent Film

• All of a Sudden
• Club Kid
• La Bola Negra
• La Gradiva
• Possible Love

Best British Short Film

• Allies in Exile
• Coyotes
• Forgotten Spaceman
• Untitled Woman
• Vote Gavin Lyle

Best Casting

• Heather Basten – Animol
• Jessica Ronane – Elsinore
• Lucy Pardee – Extra Geography
• Lara Manwaring – Florid
• Shaheen Baig – I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning

Best Cinematography

• Mike Eley – Elsinore
• Piers McGrail – Everybody Digs Bill Evans
• Simon Tindall – I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• André Turpin – A Long Winter
• Christopher Ripley – Straight Circle

Best Costume Design

• Mel Page – Elsinore
• Sarah Blenkinsop – The Incomer
• Carol Case – A Long Winter
• Alex Bovaird – Savage House
• Darion Hing – Straight Circle

Best Editing

• Otto Burnham – Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
• Valerio Bonelli – Elsinore
• Maya Maffioli – I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Fin Oates – Ink 
• Fouad Gaber – Straight Circle

Best Effects

• The Incomer
• The Magic Faraway Tree
• Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom

Best Make-Up & Hair Design

• Nadia Stacey – Elsinore
• Nadia Stacey – Madfabulous
• Karen Hartley-Thomas – The Magic Faraway Tree
• Jacquetta Levon – Savage House
• Tristan Versluis – Straight Circle

Best Music Supervision

• Connie Farr – I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
• Connie Farr – Queen at Sea
• Phil Canning – Sunny Dancer

Best Original Music

• Siôn Trefor / Ioana Selaru – Effi o Blaenau
• Stefan Gregory – Elsinore
• Roger Goula – Everybody Digs Bill Evans
• Mark Jenkin – Rose of Nevada
• Hannah Peel – Underland

Best Production Design

• Helen Scott – Elsinore
• Gareth Pugh / Carson McColl – Ink
• Alexandra Walker – The Magic Faraway Tree
• Gary Williamson – Savage House
• Luke Moran-Morris – Straight Circle

Best Sound

• Everybody Digs Bill Evans
• Florid
• Ink
• A Long Winter
• Rose of Nevada

Cinema of the Year

• Abbeygate Cinema
• Campus West
• The Hippodrome Cinema
• The Kinema in the Woods
• The Ultimate Picture Palace

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Emily Ries

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