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| Pillon won four awards Photo: Courtesy of Cannes Film Festival |
Harry Lighton was the big winner at last night's British Independent Film Awards, snagging four gongs, including Best Independent Film for his BDSM romantic drama Pillion.
Producer Emma Norton, who collected the best British independent film prize, told the gathering at London’s Roundhouse: “Pillion couldn’t have been made without masses of creative support… We were never censored, we were never told there’s too much cock.”
The best director honour went to Akinola Davies Jr for his Nigeria=set debut feature My Father's Shadow, while the international indie film award went to Joachim Trier’s family drama Sentimental Value.
Tom Basden and Tim Key won BIFAs for the best joint lead performance, for their bittersweet debut feature The Ballad of Wallis Island about a washed up musician and his biggest fan. Best lead performance was won by Robert Aramayo in I Swear. Best breakthrough performance went to Posy Sterling in Lollipop, in which she stars as a mother struggling to regain custody of her children. Jay Lycurgo won best supporting performance for school drama Steve.
The Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director went to Cal McMau for prison drama Wasteman, while the best British short film award went to Magid / Zafar, directd by Luís Hindman.
The full list of winners is below:
- Best British Independent Film - Pillion - Harry Lighton
- Best Director - Akinola Davies Jr - My Father’s Shadow
- Best Joint Lead Performance - Tim Key, Tom Basden - The Ballad Of Wallis Island
- Best Ensemble Performance (previously announced) - Warfare - D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Will Poulter, Cosmo Jarvis, Kit Connor, Finn Bennett, Joseph Quinn, Charles Melton
- Best Lead Performance - Robert Aramayo - I Swear
- Best Screenplay - Tom Basden, Tim Key - The Ballad Of Wallis Island
- Best Supporting Performance - Jay Lycurgo - Steve
- Best Feature Documentary - A Want In Her - Myrid Carten, Tadhg O’Sullivan, Roisin Geraghty, Kat Mansoor
- The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director - Cal McMau for Wasteman
- Best Debut Screenwriter - Harry Lighton - Pillion
- Breakthrough Producer - Dhiraj Mahey - Ish (also produced by Bennett McGhee)
- Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary - Myrid Carten - A Want In Her
- Cinema Of The Year - The Magic Lantern Cinema in Gwynedd, Wales
- Best British Short Film - Magid / Zafar - Luis Hindman, Sufiyaan Salam, Aidan Robert Brooks
- Breakthrough Performance - Posy Sterling - Lollipop
- The Raindance Maverick Award - A Want In Her - Myrid Carten Best International Independent Film - Sentimental Value - Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Maria Ekerhovd, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar
Craft Awards (previously announced)
- Casting – Lauren Evans, I Swear
- Cinematography – Seamus McGarvey, Die My Love
- Costume design – Grace Snell, Pillion
- Editing – Fin Oates, Warfare
- Effects – Simon Stanley-Clamp and Ryan Conder, Warfare
- Music supervision – Raife Burchell and Ian Neil, Die My Love
- Make-up and hair design – Diandra Ferreira, Pillion
- Original music – Tom Basden and Adem Ilhan, Ballad Of Wallis Island
- Production design – Nathan Parker, Harvest
- Sound – Glenn Freemantle, Mitch Low, Howard Bargroff, Ben Barker and Richard Spooner, Warfare
