With a touch of sub/dom romance and a splash of leather-clad biker vibes, Harry Lighton's directorial debut, Pillion, starring Alexander Skarsgård as the titular leather-clad biker and Harry Melling as a suburban Londoner who embarks on a relationship with him and becomes his submissive, took home four British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), including Best Independent British Film and Best Debut Screenwriter on Sunday in London. Celia Imrie, in a ceremony full of love and appreciation for indie film, presented the Best Film award.
Including the recently unveiled BIFA Craft Awards, Pillion ended up with a total of four BIFA wins, tying with Ray Mendoza and Alex Garland's Navy SEALs platoon movie Warfare in the previously unveiled craft and ensemble cast categories. Myrid Carten's exploration of mental health and addiction within her family, A Want in Her, was honored with three BIFAs on Sunday, namely for Best Feature Documentary, Best Debut Director – Feature Documentary, and The Raindance Maverick Award.
Early in the evening, Joachim Trier's Sentimental Value was honored with the Best International Indie Film BIFA. "Well, we have to soak it up now," Trier's co-writer Eskil Vogt joked to The Hollywood Reporter before their win. "And that's what Joachim is doing – going from one place to another and talking about the film. And that's the one disadvantage of attention around the film – we can't really start working on the next one."
Akinola Davies Jr. won the Best Director honor for his Lagos, Nigeria-set debut feature My Father's Shadow, a family drama starring Sopé Dirisu (Slow Horses). The film, the U.K. submission for the Best International Feature
