Pillion Wins Best British Film, Sentimental Value Wins Best International Film at British Independent Film Awards

Harry Lighton’s debut feature Pillion wins four awards, including Best British Independent Film at the 2025 British Independent Film Awards. The film stars Harry Melling as a timid gay man and Alexander Skarsgård as a biker gang leader, who initiates him into a submissive relationship.

Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland’s Warfare also won four awards including Best Ensemble Performance along with 3 craft awards. Warfare embeds audiences with a platoon of American Navy SEALs on a surveillance mission gone wrong in insurgent territory.

Best Director went to Akinola Davies Jr for his debut feature film, My Father’s Shadow, set against the backdrop of the 1993 Nigerian presidential election, where two young brothers spend a day in Lagos with their estranged father

A Want In Her won Best Feature Documentary and The Raindance Maverick Award, along with Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary for Myrid Carten. The documentary follows artist Myrid Carten who returns to Ireland to find her missing mother.

Best International Independent Film went to Joaquim Trier’s Sentimental Value about estranged sisters who reconnect with their absent film director father after their mother’s death.

See below the complete list of winners of 2025 British Independent Film Awards

2025 British Independent Film Awards Winners

Best British Independent Film

Pillion
Harry Lighton / Lee Groombridge / Ed Guiney / Andrew Lowe / Emma Norton

Best Screenplay

Pillion
Harry Lighton

Best Director

My Father’s Shadow
Akinola Davies Jr

Best Lead Performance

I Swear
Robert Aramayo

Best Ensemble Performance

Warfare
D’Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai / Will Poulter / Cosmo Jarvis / Kit Connor / Finn Bennett / Joseph Quinn / Charles Melton

Best Joint Lead Performance

The Ballad of Wallis Island
Tim Key / Tom Basden

Best Supporting Performance

Steve
Jay Lycurgo

Breakthrough Performance

Lollipop
Posy Sterling

The Douglas Hickox Award (Best Debut Director)

Wasteman
Cal McMau

Best Debut Screenwriter

The Ballad of Wallis Island
Tom Basden / Tim Key

Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary

A Want In Her
Myrid Carten

Breakthrough Producer

Ish
Dhiraj Mahey
also produced by Bennett McGhee

Best Feature Documentary

A Want In Her
Myrid Carten / Tadhg O’Sullivan / Roisín Geraghty / Kat Mansoor

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

Best British Short

MAGID / ZAFAR
Luís Hindman / Sufiyaan Salam / Aidan Robert Brooks

Best Casting

I Swear
Lauren Evans

Best Cinematography

Die My Love
Seamus McGarvey

Best Costume Design

Pillion
Grace Snell

Best Editing

Warfare
Fin Oates

Best Make-Up & Hair Design

Pillion
Diandra Ferreira

Best Music Supervision

Die My Love
Ian Neil / Raife Burchell

Best Original Music

The Ballad of Wallis Island
Tom Basden / Adem Ilhan

Best Production Design

Harvest
Nathan Parker

Best Sound

Warfare
Sound Team

Best Effects

Warfare
Simon Stanley-Clamp / Ryan Conder