Elsinore, the drama in which Andrew Scott plays the actor Ian Charleson as he takes on Shakespeare’s Hamlet in the last months of his life, before he died of Aids in 1990, has emerged as the leading contender for the British independent film awards (Bifas).
The film, which is directed by Simon Stone and co-stars Olivia Colman, Billie Piper and Johnny Flynn, received 12 nominations, including best British independent film, best director for Stone and best lead performance for Scott. Elsinore has collected rave reviews since its premiere at the Telluride film festival in September, with the Guardian’s Benjamin Lee describing it as “a devastating movie [that] is a reminder of Charleson’s strength and the many men like him and it implores us to remember them too”. Scott is also already being tipped as the favourite for the best actor Oscar – and he would be the first out gay actor to win.
In second place is Clio Barnard’s Birmingham-set ensemble drama I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning, which has eight nominations including best British independent film, best director for Barnard and best ensemble performance for its main cast. In a five-star review, the Guardian’s chief critic Peter Bradshaw said its “mix of poignancy, defiance and contaminated euphoria stayed with me hours after the closing credits”.
Animol, the feature-length directing debut of Top Boy and Adolescence star Ashley Walters, came in third with seven nominations, including best lead performance for Tut Nyuot and best debut director for Walters. Mike Leigh’s final film, Tender Loving Care, has four nominations.
Jay Lycurgo, Anthony Boyle and Lola Petticrew are among the Bifa-nominated ensemble cast of I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning. Photograph: Chris Harris
With their focus on British independent cinema, the Bifas are also distinctive for their non-gendered acting categories, in which Scott and Nyuot will compete against, among others, Juliette Binoche for dementia drama Queen at Sea and Leisa Gwenllian for Welsh-language stage play adaptation Effi o Blaenau.
The Bifas have an award for cinema of the year which was won in its inaugural year in 2025 by the Magic Lantern Cinema in Tywyn, Wales. This year’s contenders include Campus West in Welwyn Garden City, the Hippodrome in Bo’ness, and the Ultimate Picture Palace in Oxford, the last of which is is threatened with closure by its landlord, Oriel College, Oxford University.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony at the Roundhouse in London on 6 December.
Full list of nominations
Best British independent film
Effi o Blaenau
Elsinore
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Queen at Sea
Tender Loving Care
Best director
Clio Barnard, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Andrew Haigh, A Long Winter
Mark Jenkin, Rose of Nevada
Mike Leigh, Tender Loving Care
Simon Stone, Elsinore
Best screenplay
Stephen Beresford, Elsinore
Lance Hammer, Queen at Sea
Mike Leigh, Tender Loving Care
Gary Owen, Effi o Blaenau
Enda Walsh, I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Best lead performance
Juliette Binoche, Queen at Sea
Erin Doherty, Faith
Leisa Gwenllian, Effi o Blaenau
Jonathan Jules, Florid
Tut Nyuot, Animol
Andrew Scott, Elsinore
Best supporting performance
Anna Calder-Marshall, Queen at Sea
Tom Courtenay, Queen at Sea
Sekou Diaby, Animol
Claire Foy, Ink
Billie Piper, Elsinore
Bill Pullman, Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Best joint lead performance
Séamus McLean Ross, Samuel Bottomley, California Schemin’
Flora Nicholson, Clare Dunne, Mia Tharia, The Education of Jane Cumming
Marni Duggan, Galaxie Clear, Extra Geography
Chimpaye Florence Mariserena, Bizimana Hussain, Small Gods
Best ensemble performance
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Sunny Dancer
Tender Loving Care
Best feature documentary
All Rivers Spill Their Stories to the Sea
Everybody to Kenmure Street
One in a Million
Something Familiar
We, the Hated
Cinema of the year
Abbeygate Cinema, Bury St Edmunds
Campus West, Welwyn Garden City
Hippodrome Cinema, Bo’ness
The Kinema in the Woods, Woodhall Spa
The Ultimate Picture Palace, Oxford
Douglas Hickox award for best debut director
Billy Lumby, Florid
Molly Manners, Extra Geography
Bertil Nilsson, Masc
Louis Paxton, The Incomer
Ashley Walters, Animol
Breakthrough producer
Itab Azzam, Jack Macinnes, Will Anderson, James Bluemel, Andrew Palmer, One in a Million [also produced by Raney Aronson-Rath]
Branwen Cennard, Effi O Blaenau
Tom Hawkins Animol [also produced by Joy Gharoro-Akpojotor, Nick Love, Ashley Walters]
Oskar Pimlott Bad Apples
Alex Polunin Black Church Bay [also produced by Tristan Goligher]
Breakthrough performance
Galaxie Clear, Extra Geography
Sekou Diaby, Animol
Leisa Gwenllian, Effi o Blaenau
Jonathan Jules, Florid
Tut Nyuot, Animol
Best debut screenwriter
Miriam Battye, Extra Geography
Thea Gajić, Surviving Earth
Rhys Marc Jones, Black Church Bay
Jess O’Kane, Bad Apples
Louis Paxton, The Incomer
The Raindance maverick award
Act 3
Chatlines
Masc
The Peril at Pincer Point
Something Familiar
Best British short film
Allies in Exile
Coyotes
Forgotten Spaceman
Untitled Woman
Vote Gavin Lyle
Best international independent film
All of a Sudden
Club Kid
La Bola Negra
La Gradiva
Possible Love
Best casting
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Animol
Florid
Extra Geography
Elsinore
Best cinematography
Elsinore
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Straight Circle
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
A Long Winter
Best costume design
The Incomer
Savage House
A Long Winter
Straight Circle
Elsinore
Best editing
Elsinore
Black Is Beautiful: The Kwame Brathwaite Story
Straight Circle
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Ink
Best effects
Shaun the Sheep: The Beast of Mossy Bottom
The Magic Faraway Tree
The Incomer
Best music supervision
I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning
Queen at Sea
Sunny Dancer
Best make-up & hair sesign
Savage House
Elsinore
Madfabulous
The Magic Faraway Tree
Straight Circle
Best original music
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
Elsinore
Rose of Nevada
Underland
Effi O Blaenau
Best production design
Straight Circle
Ink
Elsinore
The Magic Faraway Tree
Savage House
Best sound
Everybody Digs Bill Evans
A Long Winter
Ink
Rose of Nevada
Florid
