Nigeria-set drama My Father’s Shadow is the leading contender at this year’s British independent film awards (Bifas), after it scooped 12 nominations, including best British independent film, best director for Akinola Davies Jr, and best screenplay for Davies’s brother Wale. The film came out ahead of Pillion, adapted from Adam Mars-Jones’s coming-of-age relationship story, which got 10 nominations, and biopic I Swear, which got nine.
My Father’s Shadow, which stars Sope Dirisu and is Davies’s debut feature as a director, premiered at the Cannes film festival to admiring reviews. The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw described it as “a transparently personal project and a coming-of-age film in its (traumatised) way, a moving account of how, just for one day, two young boys glimpse the real life and real history of their father who has been mostly absent for much of their lives”. The film is yet to be released in the UK, but has already come out in Nigeria.
Pillion, likewise, had a successful premiere at Cannes in May, with Bradshaw calling it “an intensely English story of romance, devotion and loss from first-time feature director Harry Lighton, who has created something funny and touching and alarming – like a cross between Alan Bennett and Tom of Finland with perhaps a tiny smidgen of what could be called a BDSM Wallace and Gromit”. Due for UK release later in November, it is up for best British independent film, best director for Lighton and best lead performance for Harry Melling.
I Swear is already in cinemas, having been released in October. A life story of Tourette syndrome activist John Davidson, the film is likewise up for best British indepependent film, best director for Kirk Jones, and best lead performance for Robert Aramayo.
The nominations also include, for the first time, an award for cinema of the year, which is voted on by the public. The contenders include the Depot in Lewes, the Magic Lantern in Tywyn, Montrose Playhouse, Queen’s Film Theatre in Belfast and the Watershed in Bristol.
The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 30 November.