The Personal History of David Copperfield leads nominations for British Independent Film Awards 2019

Wild Rose, In Fabric and The Souvenir also receive multiple nominations as this year’s BIFA contenders are announced.

30 October 2019

The Personal History of David Copperfield (2019)

The Personal History of David Copperfield has emerged as the frontrunner for this year’s British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs). Armando Iannucci’s Dickens adaptation has picked up 11 nominations, including Dev Patel for best actor and both Hugh Laurie and Tilda Swinton in supporting categories.

Close behind with 10 nominations is Wild Rose, featuring Jessie Buckley in a best actress-nominated turn as the cleaner who dreams of making it as a country star.

Peter Strickland’s haunted-dress horror In Fabric follows with nine nominations, while Joanna Hogg’s The Souvenir – based on Hogg’s years as a film student in 1980s London – has eight.

With five nominations a piece are the rave drama Beats, Judy Garland biopic Judy and Asif Kapadia’s documentary Diego Maradona.

The Personal History of David Copperfield, Wild Rose and The Souvenir all compete to be named best British independent film, alongside the documentary For Sama and Mark Jenkin’s BFI-distributed hit debut Bait.

A total of 38 different British films were nominated, with films with backing from the BFI Film Fund including Wild Rose, In Fabric, The Souvenir, The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The Last Tree, Sorry We Missed You, Beats, Lynn + Lucy, Dirty God, Gwen, Eternal Beauty and the short film Goldfish. In all, BFI funded films picked up 50 nominations.

The Personal History of David Copperfield was the opening night gala of this year’s BFI London Film Festival.

The winners will be announced at a ceremony on 1 December.

Best British independent film

Bait
For Sama
The Personal History of David Copperfield
The Souvenir
Wild Rose

Best director

Waad Al-kateab and Edward Watts (For Sama)
Oliver Hermanus (Moffie)
Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir)
Mark Jenkin (Bait)
Asif Kapadia (Diego Maradona)

Best screenplay

Joanna Hogg (The Souvenir)
Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Paul Laverty (Sorry We Missed You)
Peter Strickland (In Fabric)
Nicole Taylor (Wild Rose)

Best actress

Jessie Buckley (Wild Rose)
Holliday Grainger (Animals)
Sally Hawkins (Eternal Beauty)
Vicky Knight (Dirty God)
Renee Zellweger (Judy)

Best actor

Sam Adewunmi (The Last Tree)
Tom Burke (The Souvenir)
Kris Hitchen (Sorry We Missed You)
Josh O’Connor (Only You)
Dev Patel (The Personal History Of David Copperfield)

Best supporting actress

Jessica Barden (Scarborough)
Ruthxjiah Bellenea (The Last Tree)
Elizabeth Debicki (Vita & Virginia)
Tilda Swinton (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Julie Walters (Wild Rose)

Best supporting actor

Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind)
Hugh Laurie (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Edlison Manuel Olbera Núñez Yuli (The Carlos Acosta Story)
Peter Mullan (The Vanishing)
Bluey Robinson (Dirty God)

Best cinematography

Ole Bratt Birkeland (Judy)
Benjamin Kracun (Beats)
Zac Nicholson (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Jamie D Ramsay (Moffie)
Ari Wegner (In Fabric)

Best editing 

Mick Audsley, Peter Lambert (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Mark Jenkin (Bait)
Chris King (Diego Maradona)
Chloe Lambourne, Simon Mcmahon (For Sama)
Helle Le Fevre (The Souvenir)

Best sound

Anna My Bertmark, Jonathan Seale and Jules Woods (Gwen)
David Bowtle-Mcmillan, Joakim Sundström and Robert Farr (Beats)
Stephen Griffiths, Tim Cavagin, Max Walsh and Andy Shelley (Diego Maradona)
Lee Walpole, Colin Nicholson, Stuart Hilliker (Wild Rose)
Martin Pavey (In Fabric)

Best casting 

Shaheen Baig (In Fabric)
Shaheen Baig, Aisha Bywaters (The Last Tree)
Kahleen Crawford, Caroline Stewart (Only You)
Kahleen Crawford (Wild Rose)
Sarah Crowe (The Personal History of David Copperfield)

Best costume design

Suzie Harman, Robert Worley (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Anna Mary Scott Robbins (Wild Rose)
Grace Snell (The Souvenir)
Jany Temime (Judy)
Jo Thompson (In Fabric)

Best effects

Howard Jones (A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon)
Paul Mann (In Fabric)
Andy Quinn (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind)

Best makeup and hair design

Morten Jacobsen, Rogier Samuels, Lindelotte Van Der Meer (Dirty God)
Karen Hartley-Thomas (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Emma Scott (In Fabric)
Jody Williams (Wild Rose)
Jeremy Woodhead (Judy)

Best music

Jack Arnold (Wild Rose)
Cavern Of Anti-Matter (In Fabric)
Nainita Desai (For Sama)
Antonio Pinto (Diego Maradona)
Jd Twitch, Penelope Trappes, Stephen Hindman (Beats)

Best production design

Cristina Casali (The Personal History of David Copperfield)
Stéphane Collonge (The Souvenir)
Kave Quinn (Judy)
Anne Seibel (The White Crow)
Paki Smith (In Fabric)

The Douglas Hickox Award (debut director)

Will Becher, Richard Phelan (A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon)
Fyzal Boulifa (Lynn + Lucy)
Ninian Doff (Boyz in the Wood)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind)
Harry Wootliff (Only You)

Breakthrough producer

Finn Bruce (Tucked)
Kate Byers, Linn Waite (Bait)
Joy Gharoro-akpojotor (Blue Story)
Becky Read (Three Identical Strangers)
Jack Sidey (Moffie)

Debut screenwriter

Kieran Hurley (Beats)
Lisa Owens (Days of the Bagnold Summer)
Nicole Taylor (Wild Rose)
Emma Jane Unsworth (Animals)
Harry Wootliff (Only You)

Most promising newcomer

Sam Adewumni (The Last Tree)
Vicky Knight (Dirty God)
Lorn Macdonald (Beats)
Roxanne Scrimshaw (Lynn + Lucy)
Honor Swinton Byrne (The Souvenir)

Best documentary

Coup 53
Diego Maradona
For Sama
Seahorse
Tell Me Who I Am

Best international independent film

Ash Is Purest White
Marriage Story
Monos
Parasite
Portrait of a Lady on Fire

The Raindance Discovery Award

A Bump Along the Way
Children of the Snow Land
Here for Life
Muscle
The Street

Best British short film

Anna
Boiling Point
The Devil’s Harmony
Goldfish
Serious Tingz

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