Irish actors Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott are among the stars who have been nominated for the British Independent Film Awards (Bifas) 2023.
For their roles in Andrew Haigh’s All Of Us Strangers, which has received 14 nods, Fleabag actor Scott (47) has been nominated in the best lead performance category while Normal People’s Mescal (27) is nominated for best supporting performance.
Elsewhere, Killing Eve actress Comer (30) is a nominee in the best lead performance category for The End We Start From, which follows a young family torn apart in the aftermath of an environmental crisis.
Presenting the #BIFA2023 nominees.
Discover all of this year's nominees, and tune in on Sunday 3 December to find out the winners 🏆https://t.co/ZkZWj5veSg— BIFA (@BIFA_film) November 2, 2023
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Leading the nominations this year with 16 nods is Rye Lane, Raine Allen-Miller’s London-set romantic comedy following a pair of semi-reluctant lovers on an impromptu tour of Peckham.
The film will go head to head with All Of Us Strangers in the best British independent film category, also featuring director Molly Manning Walker’s How To Have Sex, Charlotte Regan’s Scrapper, and British film thriller Femme, directed by Sam H Freeman and Ng Choon Ping.
Competing against Scott and Comer in the best lead performance category is Mia McKenna-Bruce for How To Have Sex, musical artist Tia Nomore for Earth Mama, Nabhaan Rizwan for In Camera and Tilda Swinton for The Eternal Daughter.
Among those to compete against Mescal in the best supporting performance category is singer and actress Alexandra Burke for Pretty Red Dress, The Crown’s Amir El-Masry for In Camera, Arrested Development actress Alia Shawkat for Drift, and Inherent Vice star Katherine Waterston for The End We Start From.
Also nominated in this category, for their performance in All Of Us Strangers, is The Crown’s Claire Foy and Billy Elliot’s Jamie Bell who star as the mother and father of protagonist Adam, played by Scott.
Haigh’s film follows a screenwriter who is drawn back to his childhood home and enters into a fledgling relationship with a mysterious neighbour, later discovering that his parents appear to be living as they were on the day they died, 30 years prior.
Over in the best joint lead performance is Lola Campbell and Harris Dickinson for Scrapper, David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah for Rye Lane and Nathan Stewart-Jarrett and George MacKay for Femme.
Other categories include best international independent film, best director, best screenplay, best breakthrough performance, best debut screenwriter, best debut director, best feature documentary, best editing, best costume design and more.
In total, 26 British features have been nominated and the awards have continued with using gender neutral categories after they were introduced last year.
The Richard Harris Award, introduced in 2002 in honour of Harry Potter actor Harris, is yet to be announced and recognises outstanding contribution to British Film by an actor.
Previous winners have included Sir Daniel Day-Lewis, Dame Julie Walters, Sir John Hurt, Dame Emma Thompson, Dame Judi Dench and Dame Kristin Scott Thomas.
Bifa was created in 1998 and has since celebrated and promoted British independent cinema and filmmaking talent in the UK.
The nominations were announced by Chewing Gum star Susan Wokoma and Saint Maud actress Morfydd Clark at One Hundred Shoreditch, London on Thursday.
Winners will be announced at the Bifa ceremony on Sunday December 3.
