‘Kneecap’ Dominates British Independent Film Awards Craft Categories, ‘Civil War’ Follows

Northern Irish hip-hop film Kneecap has won four of the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA)’s 10 craft categories, with wins elsewhere for Alex Garland’s Civil War and Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding.

The craft category winners were revealed on Tuesday by co-hosts Ella Kemp (London Editor at Letterboxd) and Connor Swindells (Sex Education, Barbie).

Rich Peppiatt’s comedy — which leads this year’s BIFA nominations with 14 nods — triumphed with best casting for Carla Stronge, best editing for Julian Ulrichs and Chris Gill, best original musicfor Michael ‘Mikey J’ Asante and best music supervision for Chris Welch and Jeanette Rehnstrom.

Alex Garland’s imagining of a dystopian near-future America Civil War took home best effects for David Simpson and best sound for Glenn Freemantle, Mary H. Ellis and Howard Bargroff.

With 12 BIFA nominations, Rose Glass’s Love Lies Bleeding, led by Kristen Stewart and Katy M. O’Brien, won best cinematography for Ben Fordesman.

Elsewhere, best costume design went to Michael O’Connor for Fireband, the drama following Henry VIII’s sixth wife Katherine Parr in a blood-soaked Tudor England, and Lista Mustafa took the best make-up and hair design BIFA for Unicorns. Jan Houllevigue won best production design sponsored for The Assessment, a future-set tale of a couple’s spiral into psychological nightmare as they fight for the right to have a child.

BIFA introduced nine craft award categories in 2017 to better recognize the wealth of exceptional talent working on British independent films, with best music supervision introduced in 2022. The nominees and winners have been chosen by BIFA voters over the course of three rounds of viewing, discussion and voting.

The winners in all remaining categories will be unveiled at the 27th BIFA ceremony on Dec. 8 at London venue The Roundhouse.