The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) today announced the winners of its ten film craft categories.
The announcement was made by BIFA in partnership with Letterboxd. This year, co-hosts Ella Kemp (London Editor, Letterboxd) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education, Barbie) revealed the winners from Sea Containers hotel, celebrating the importance of craftspeople in the creative industries.
Kneecap, Rich Peppiatt’s comedy following the west Belfast hip-hop trio and their mission to save their mother tongue, which leads this year’s BIFA nominations with 14, wins four craft awards: Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society and Spotlight for Carla Stronge, Best Editing for Julian Ulrichs and Chris Gill, Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group for Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante and Best Music Supervision for Chris Welch and Jeanette Rehnstrom.
Alex Garland’s explosive imagining of a dystopian near-future America, Civil War, wins Best Effects for David Simpson – his second BIFA win after 2022’s Men. The film also scooped Best Sound for Glenn Freemantle, Mary H Ellis and Howard Bargroff.
With 12 BIFA nominations, Rose Glass’s blistering noir Love Lies Bleeding wins Best Cinematography sponsored by Kodak and Molinare for Ben Fordesman. This is Ben’s second BIFA; he won this award in 2020 for his work on Rose Glass’s debut feature Saint Maud.
Best Costume Design goes to Michael O’Connor for Firebrand, the tense drama of Henry VIII’s 6th wife Katherine Parr’s fight for survival in blood soaked Tudor England. Michael O’Connor has previously been BIFA-nominated for his work on The Duchess, Ammonite and The Electrical Life of Louis Wain.
Battling forbidden love and prejudice, the power of being true to yourself shines in Unicorns, which takes the Best Make-Up & Hair Design BIFA for Lisa Mustafa.
Jan Houllevigue wins Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword for The Assessment, a future-set tale of a couple’s spiral into psychological nightmare as they fight for the right to have a child.
BIFA introduced nine craft award categories in 2017 to better recognise the wealth of exceptional talent working on British independent films, with Best Music Supervision introduced in 2022. The nominees and winners have been chosen by BIFA voters over the course of three rounds of viewing, discussion and voting.
The winners in all remaining categories will be announced at the 27th BIFA ceremony on Sunday 8th December at The Roundhouse.
