I, Daniel Blake leads British independent film award nominations

Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake is up for seven prizes at the British independent film awards, including nominations for best film and best director. American Honey, Adult Life Skills, Notes on Blindness and Under the Shadow received six Bifanominations each.

Loach’s film, which won the Palme d’Or at Cannes this year, is about a man trying to negotiate Britain’s labyrinthine benefits system. As well as the nominations for best film and director, it has picked up nominations for actors Dave Johns and Hayley Squires, who are also competing for the most promising newcomer award. Loach’s longtime collaborator Paul Laverty is nominated for best screenplay.

This is the fifth time Loach has been nominated as best director at the Bifas, although he has not won since the inaugural edition of the awards in 1998, when he won for My Name Is Joe.

Elsewhere, Andrea Arnold picked up her fourth best director nomination for American Honey, an award she won in 2009 for Fish Tank. Arnold is also nominated for best screenplay, and American Honey is nominated for best picture.

Michael Fassbender is nominated in the best actor category for Trespass Against Us. It is his third consecutive Bifa nomination and his sixth overall, with two victories in 2008 and 2011 for Hunger and Shame.

The nominations for best international independent film are all high-profile choices: Maren Ade’s comedy-drama Toni Erdmann was a Palme d’Or favourite; Moonlight and Manchester By the Sea are likely Oscar contenders; Mustang was nominated for best foreign film at last year’s Oscars; and Hunt for the Wilderpeople has become New Zealand’s highest-grossing film.

The winners will be announced on 4 December.

Full list of nominations

Best British independent film
American Honey
Couple in a Hole
I, Daniel Blake
Notes on Blindness
Under the Shadow

Best international independent film
Hunt for the Wilderpeople
Manchester By the Sea
Moonlight
Mustang
Toni Erdmann

Best director
Andrea Arnold (American Honey)
Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow)
Ben Wheatley (Free Fire)
Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake)
Peter Middleton and James Spinney (Notes on Blindness)

Best screenplay
Andrea Arnold (American Honey)
Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow)
Billy O’Brien and Christopher Hyde (I Am Not a Serial Killer)
Paul Laverty (I, Daniel Blake)
Rachel Tunnard (Adult Life Skills)

Best actress
Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake)
Jodie Whittaker (Adult Life Skills)
Kate Dickie (Couple in a Hole)
Narges Rashidi (Under the Shadow)
Sasha Lane (American Honey)

Best actor
Dave Johns (I, Daniel Blake)
Max Records (I Am Not a Serial Killer)
Michael Fassbender (Trespass Against Us)
Shia LaBeouf (American Honey)
Steve Brandon (My Feral Heart)

Best supporting actress
Avin Manshadi (Under the Shadow)
Gemma Arterton (The Girl With All the Gifts)
Naomie Harris (Our Kind of Traitor)
Shana Swash (My Feral Heart)
Terry Pheto (A United Kingdom)

Best supporting actor
Arinzé Kene (The Pass)
Brett Goldstein (Adult Life Skills)
Christopher Lloyd (I Am Not a Serial Killer)
Jamie Dornan (Anthropoid)
Sean Harris (Trespass Against Us)

Best documentary
The Confession: Living the War on Terror
Dancer
The Hard Stop
Notes on Blindness
Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach

Outstanding achievement in craft
Joakim Sundström (sound, Notes on Blindness)
Paul Monaghan and Mat Whitecross (editing, Supersonic)
Robbie Ryan (cinematography, American Honey)
Seb Barker (visual effects, The Girl With All the Gifts)
Shaheen Baig (casting, Free Fire)

Douglas Hickox award for best debut director
Adam Smith (Trespass Against Us)
Alice Lowe (Prevenge)
Babak Anvari (Under the Shadow)
Peter Middleton and James Spinney (Notes on Blindness)
Rachel Tunnard (Adult Life Skills)

Best debut screenwriter
Ed Talfan (The Passing/Yr Ymadawiad)
Hope Dickson Leach (The Levelling)
John Cairns, Michael McCartney (A Patch of Fog)
Rachel Tunnard (Adult Life Skills)
Simon Farnaby and Julian Barratt (Mindhorn)

Breakthrough producer
Camille Gatin (The Girl With All the Gifts)
Dionne Walker (The Hard Stop)
Michael Berliner (Adult Life Skills)
Mike Brett, Jo-Jo Ellison, Steve Jamison (Notes on Blindness)
Paul Fegan (Where You’re Meant to Be)

Most promising newcomer
Dave Johns (I, Daniel Blake)
Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake)
Letitia Wright (Urban Hymn)
Sennia Nanua (The Girl With All the Gifts)
Steve Brandon (My Feral Heart)

Discovery award
Black Mountain Poets
The Darkest Universe
The Ghoul
Gozo
The Greasy Strangler

Best British short
Jacked
Mother
Over
Rate Me
The Wrong End of the Stick