‘Pillion’ Tops BIFA Awards, ‘Sentimental Value’ Wins Best International Film

Pillion Harry Lighton’s sub/dom romance and Warfare win four each, Myrid Carten’s docu ‘A Want in Her’ three, Akinola Davies Jr. is named best director for ‘My Father’s Shadow,’ while the top acting honor goes to ‘I Swear’ star Robert Aramayo.

Alexander Skarsgard in 'Pillion'. — Alexander Skarsgard in Harry Lighton’s ‘Pillion’. © A24 / Courtesy Everett Collection

Writer-director Harry Lighton‘s feature debut Pillion, a sub/dom romance starring Alexander Skarsgård as a leather-clad biker and Harry Melling as a suburban Londoner who starts a relationship with him and becomes his submissive, was top winner.

Pillion won 4 British Independent Film Awards (BIFA), including best independent British film and best debut screenwriter.

Including the BIFA craft awards, Pillion ended up with a total of 4 BIFA wins, the same number as Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Navy SEALs platoon movie Warfare earned in the previously unveiled craft and ensemble cast categories.

Myrid Carten’s exploration of mental health and addiction in her family, A Want in Her, was honored with 3 BIFAs, for best feature documentary, best debut director – feature documentary, and The Raindance Maverick Award.

Early in the evening, Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value was honored with the best international indie film. “We have to soak it up now,” Trier’s co-writer Eskil Vogt, who accepted the film on his colleague’s behalf. “That’s what Joachim is doing — going from one place to another and talking about the film. And that’s the one disadvantage of attention around the film,” he teased, “is that we can’t really start working on the next one.”

Akinola Davies Jr. won the best director honor for his Nigeria-set debut feature My Father’s Shadow, a family drama starring Sopé Dirisu (Slow Horses). The film, the U.K. submission for the best international feature film Oscar, had led the BIFA nominations with 12.

Meanwhile, Tom Basden and Tim Key won BIFAs for the best joint lead performance, as well as best screenplay for their debut feature The Ballad of Wallis Island, about a faded folk musician and his former partner reluctantly reuniting for an eccentric fan.

The BIFA acting trophies went to Robert Aramayo, who received the best lead performance award for his role as a Tourette’s campaigner in Kirk Jones’ I Swear, Posy Sterling for her best breakthrough performance-honored role as a mother fighting for the custody of her children in Daisy-May Hudson’s debut feature Lollipop, and Jay Lycurgo for his best supporting performance-winning role in pressure-cooker school drama Steve, also starring Cillian Murphy.

“To be here at all is amazing, I’ve never been nominated for anything before. It’s an incredible honor, but also… I just feel so proud that the film has led to some really interesting conversations around Tourette’s and neurodiversity in general. And there’s still a lot further to go,” he added.

The Douglas Hickox Award for best debut director went to Cal McMau for his prison drama Wasteman, tracing the tense bond between two men whose lives collide behind bars. The movie stars David Jonsson and Tom Blyth. And the breakthrough producer honor was bestowed upon Mahey for his work on the social-realist coming-of-age drama Ish, which was also produced by Bennett McGhee.

The best British short film award went to “Magid/Zafar,” Luís Hindman’s tale of the relationship between two men amid rising tensions in a British-Pakistani takeaway restaurant.

A special jury prize went to Warp Films, producer of Adolescence and This Is England.

In his speech, Lighton recalled being nominated in 2017 for a BIFA with a short film. “I didn’t win, and I got incredibly drunk and spent the rest of the evening kind of burning industry bridges. I’m going to start by saying thank you to BIFA for not blacklisting me,” he quipped.

He thanked a range of collaborators, including the film’s stars, “Harry and Alex. What a hot couple!” noted Lighton: “It kind of blew my mind that I sent both of you a script about butt plugs, and you both said yes.”

The 2025 Richard Harris Award for Outstanding Contribution by Actor to British Film was handed to Emily Watson by her two-time co-star Paul Mescal.

Watson addressed the audience as “you lot — independent, creative critical thinkers. You are actually going to save us when the stories that are being told to us, about us, or by us, are all driven by rapacious, hungry algorithm. The awkward truth of the stories that you tell, they are our life support.”

“So what you have to do is you have to reach out to those coming behind you, and you have to build relationships with younger colleagues, less certain of their path than you are. And that is actually the most rewarding part of the job, and it will ensure that we can help keep holding the algorithm to the fire.”

The full list of winners at the British Independent Film Awards 2025:

Best British Independent Film

Pillion

Best British Short Film
Magid / Zafar

Best Casting
Lauren Evans, I Swear

Best Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey, Die My Love

Best Costume Design
Grace Snell, Pillion

Best Debut Screenwriter
Harry Lighton, Pillion

Best Debut Director

Cal McMau, Wasteman

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
Myrid Carten, A Want in Her

Best Director
Akinola Davies Jr. My Father’s Shadow