The British Independent Film Awards announced on 2nd November 2023 the nominees for their latest annual awards show, with debut features Rye Lane and Scrapper leading the list of nominated films.

Announced via an event hosted by Susan Wokoma and Morfydd Clark at One Hundred Shoreditch, London, the nominees for what BIFA consider to be the most outstanding British independent films of 2023 were revealed.

Overall, 26 British feature films were included, with Raine Allen Miller’s Rye Lane earning 16 nominations and Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper earning 14. Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers, starring Paul Mescal, Andrew Scott, Claire Foy and Jamie Bell, also earned 14 nominations, with Molly Manning Walker’s How to Have Sex earning 13 in total. Other success stories were Femme (11 nominations) and The End We Start From (9 nominations).

Cannes Palme d’Or winner Anatomy of a Fall was nominated for Best International Feature Film, as was festival favourite Past Lives, while heavyweights Tilda Swinton, Andrew Scott and Jodie Comer are among those nominated in the Best Lead Performance category.

The nominees for the 2023 British Independent Film Awards are as follows:

Best British Independent Film
All of Us Strangers
Femme
How to Have Sex
Rye Lane
Scrapper

Best International Independent Film sponsored by Champagne Taittinger
Anatomy of a Fall
Fallen Leaves
Fremont
Monster
Past Lives

Best Director sponsored by Sky Cinema
Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)
Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Best Screenplay sponsored by Apple Original Films
Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers)
Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Best Lead Performance
Jodie Comer (The End We Start From)
Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex)
Tia Nomore (Earth Mama)
Nabhaan Rizwan (In Camera)
Andrew Scott (All of Us Strangers)
Tilda Swinton (The Eternal Daughter)

Best Supporting Performance
Ritu Arya (Polite Society)
Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers)
Samuel Bottomley (How to Have Sex)
Alexandra Burke (Pretty Red Dress)
Amir El-Masry (In Camera)
Clair Foy (All of Us Strangers)
Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers)
Alia Shawkat (Drift)
Shaun Thomas (How to Have Sex)
Katherine Waterston (The End We Start From)

Best Joint Lead Performance
Lola Campbell, Harris Dickinson (Scrapper)
David Jonsson, Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane)
Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, George MacKay (Femme)

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director) sponsored by BBC Film
Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Savanah Leaf (Earth Mama)
Holly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios
Theo Barrowclough (Scrapper)
Georgia Goggin (Pretty Red Dress)
Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo (Rye Lane)
Gannesh Rajah (If the Streets Were on Fire)
Chi Thai (Raging Grace)

Breakthrough Performance sponsored by Netflix
Le’Shantey Bonsu (Girl)
Lola Campbell (Scrapper)
Priya Kansara (Polite Society)
Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex)
Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane)

Best Debut Screenwriter sponsored by Film4
Nathan Bryon, Tom Melia (Rye Lane)
Sam H Freeman, Ng Choon Ping (Femme)
Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex)
Nida Manzoor (Polite Society)
Charlotte Regan (Scrapper)

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary
Chloe Abrahams (The Taste of Mango)
Sophie Compton, Reuben Hamlyn (Another Baby)
Ella Glendining (Is There Anybody Out There?)
Alice Russell (If the Streets Were on Fire)
Christopher Sharp (Bobi Wine: The People’s President)

The Raindance Maverick Award
If the Streets Were on Fire
Is There Anybody Out There?
Name Me Lawand
Raging Grace
Red Herring

Best Feature Documentary sponsored by Intermission Film
Another Body
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
If the Streets Were on Fire
Lyra
Occupied City

Best British Short Film
Christopher At Sea
Festival of Slaps
Lions
Muna
The Talent

Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight 
Shaheen Baig (Scrapper)
Kharmel Cochrane (Rye Lane)
Kahleen Crawford (All of Us Strangers)
Isabella Odoffin (How to Have Sex)
Salome Oggenfuss, Geraldine Barón, Abby Harri (Earth Mama)

Best Cinematography sponsored by Harbor & Kodak
Olan Collardy (Rye Lane)
Suzie Lavelle (The End We Start From)
Molly Manning Walker (Scrapper)
Jamie D. Ramsay (All of Us Strangers)
James Rhodes (Femme)

Best Costume Design
George Buxton (How to Have Sex)
Oliver Cronk (Scrapper)
Buki Ebiesuwa (Femme)
Cynthia Lawrence-John (Rye Lane)
PC Williams (The End We Start From)

Best Editing 
Jonathan Alberts (All of Us Strangers)
Victoria Boydell (Rye Lane)
Paul Carlin (Bobi Wine: The People’s President)
Avdhesh Mohla (High & Low – John Galliano)
Arttu Salmi (The End We Start From)

Best Effects
Paddy Eason (Polite Society)
Theodor Flo-Groeneboom (The End We Start From)
Jonathan Gales, Richard Baker (The Kitchen)

Best Music Supervision
Ciara Elwis (Femme)
Connie Farr (All of Us Strangers)
David Fish (Rye Lane)

Best Make-Up & Hair Design sponsored by The Wall Group
Zoe Clare Brown (All of Us Strangers)
Claire Carter (Polite Society)
Marie Deehan (Femme)
Natasha Lawes (How to Have Sex)
Bianca Simone Scott (Rye Lane)

Best Original Music sponsored by Universal Music Publishing Group
Adam Janota Bzowski (Femme)
Patrick Jonsson (Scrapper)
Kwes (Rye Lane)
Anna Meredith (The End We Start From)
Ré Olunuga (Girl)

Best Production Design sponsored by ATC & Broadsword
Laura Ellis Cricks (The End We Start From)
Sarah Finlay (All of Us Strangers)
Elena Muntoni (Scrapper)
Nathan Parker (The Kitchen)
Anna Rhodes (Rye Lane)

Best Sound supported by Halo
Scrapper
How to Have Sex
All of Us Strangers
Enys Men
The End We Start From

The Cannes International Film Festival will premiere new films from influential British filmmakers Jonathan Glazer and Ken Loach, as well as Japanese Palme d’Or winner Hirokazu Kore-eda, as part of its 2023 festival line-up.

Announced by general delegate Thierry Frémaux and incoming president Iris Knobloch during a press conference from Paris, France on Thursday 13th April, the 2023 Cannes International Film Festival will also debut new films from Todd Haynes, Wes Anderson and Wim Wenders.

Of the films listed to be in competition at the festival, six have been directed by women. This is a new record. Press and visitors can expect new films from former Palme d’Or-nominated directors Alice Rohrwacher (Happy as Lazzaro) and Jessica Hausner (Little Joe) among others.

The opening film of the festival will be Jeanne du Barry from French actress and director Maïwenn, about the last official mistress of Louis XV (set to be played by Johnny Depp).

Jeanne du Barry will be presented out of competition alongside Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Kim Jee-won’s Cobweb, Sam Levinson’s The Idol, and James Mangold’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny.

There will also be a special screening of the latest film from British filmmaker Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave), Occupied City, a documentary about life in Amsterdam, Netherlands during the Nazi occupation of World War II.

The debut of Jonathan Glazer’s adaptation of Martin Amis’ “The Zone of Interest” will mark the first feature release by the Sexy Beast director since 2013’s critically-acclaimed Under the Skin. The Zone of Interest tells of a Nazi officer falling in love with the wife of the commander of the Auschwitz concentration camp and will star Toni Erdmann’s Sandra Hüller.

Meanwhile, Kes director Ken Loach will debut his first film since before to the pandemic. The British filmmaker, last at Cannes with Sorry We Missed You, directed Palme d’Or winners The Wind that Shakes the Barley (2006) and I, Daniel Blake (2016). His latest film, The Old Oak, will see him reunite with screenwriter Paul Laverty to tell of the tensions between UK immigrants and the small north east village they are housed in.

Hirokazu Kore-eda, whose films have been nominated for the Palme d’Or six times, is another former Palme d’Or winner (Shoplifters) returning to the south of France in 2023. Kore-eda’s latest film, Monster, is currently being kept top secret, though it will reunite the Japanese director with his Shoplifters star Sakura Ando.

The only other Palme d’Or winner to return in 2023 will be Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan, whose film Winter Sleep won the prestigious award in 2014. Ceylan also won Best Director at Cannes in 2008 for Winter Sleep.

The line-up for the 2023 Cannes International Film Festival is as follows:

In Competition

CLUB ZERO Jessica HAUSNER
THE ZONE OF INTEREST Jonathan GLAZER
FALLEN LEAVES Aki KAURISMAKI
LES FILLES D’OLFA Kaouther BEN HANIA
ASTEROID CITY Wes ANDERSON
ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE Justine TRIET
MONSTER KORE-EDA Hirokazu
IL SOL DELL’AVVENIRE Nanni MORETTI
L’ÉTÉ DERNIER Catherine BREILLAT
KURU OTLAR USTUNE Nuri Bilge CEYLAN
LA CHIMERA Alice ROHRWACHER
LA PASSION DE DODIN BOUFFANT TRAN ANH Hùng
RAPITO Marco BELLOCCHIO
MAY DECEMBER Todd HAYNES
JEUNESSE WANG Bing
THE OLD OAK Ken LOACH
BANEL E ADAMA Ramata-Toulaye SY
PERFECT DAYS Wim WENDERS
FIREBRAND Karim AÏNOUZ

Un Certain Regard

LOS DELINCUENTES Rodrigo MORENO
HOW TO HAVE SEX Molly MANNING WALKER
GOODBYE JULIA Mohamed KORDOFANI
KADIB ABYAD Asmae EL MOUDIR
SIMPLE COMME SYLVAIN Monia CHOKRI
CROWRÃ João SALAVIZA; Renée NADER MESSORA
LOS COLONOS Felipe GÁLVEZ
OMEN Baloji TSHIANI
THE BREAKING ICE Anthony CHEN
ROSALIE Stéphanie DI GIUSTO
THE NEW BOY Warwick THORNTON
IF ONLY I COULD HIBERNATE Zoljargal PUREVDASH
HOPELESS KIM Chang-hoon
TERRESTRIAL VERSES Ali ASGARI; Alireza KHATAMI
RIEN À PERDRE Delphine DELOGET
LES MEUTES Kamal LAZRAQ

Out of Competition

INDIANA JONES AND THE DIAL OF DESTINY James MANGOLD
COBWEB KIM Jee-woon
THE IDOL Sam LEVINSON
KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON Martin SCORSESE

Midnight Screenings

KENNEDY Anurag KASHYAP
OMAR LA FRAISE Elias BELKEDDAR
ACIDE Just PHILIPPOT

Cannes Premiere

KUBI Takeshi KITANO
BONNARD, PIERRE ET MARTHE Martin PROVOST
CERRAR LOS OJOS Victor ERICE
LE TEMPS D’AIMER Katell QUILLÉVÉRÉ

Special Screenings

MAN IN BLACK WANG Bing
OCCUPIED CITY Steve MCQUEEN
ANSELM (DAS RAUSCHEN DER ZEIT) Wim WENDERS
RETRATOS FANTASMAS Kleber MENDONÇA FILHO

The 2023 Cannes International Film Festival will take place 16-27 May, 2023.