The British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) announced the 2022 nominees on Friday, November 4th, with hosts Sam Claflin and BIFA winner Kosar Ali revealing the list of exceptional contenders at the Everyman Broadgate event. Once again, this year’s nominees highlight the wealth of talent within the British film industry, with 2022’s list featuring acclaimed debuts alongside previous BIFA recipients such as Emma Thompson, Jessie Buckley, Florence Pugh and Alice Birch, in a strong year for women filmmakers and performers. Brand new performance categories and the addition of a category for first-time documentary feature directors means even more to celebrate in BIFA’s 25th anniversary year.
Among the MENA favorites nominated are Venice Audience Award title Nezouh, by Syrian filmmaker Soudade Kaadan, whose actress Hala Zein was nominated in the Best Lead Performance category, with Ahmed Yousry securing a Best Effects nomination.
Maysoon Pachachi's narrative feature debut Our River...Our Sky was nominated in three categories, Best Ensemble Performance (for the entire cast including Zainab Joda, Darina Al Joundi, Amed Hashimi, Mahmoud Abo Al Abbas, Basim Hajar, Labwa Arab, Meriam Abbas, Siham Mustafa), Best Supporting Performance, for Zainab Joda, as well as Best Casting sponsored by Casting Society & Spotlight for Leila Bertrand.
Winners, by British-Iranian filmmaker Hassan Nazer secured a nomination for Nadira Murray [who co-produced with Paul Welsh] in the Breakthrough Producer sponsored by Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, as well as a Raindance Discovery Award for the the filmmaker and producers Hassan Nazer, Nadira Murray and Paul Welsh.
Pakistani short Sandstorm by Seemab Gul, produced by Abid Aziz Merchant, Mehnaz Diwan and Jemima Khan was nominated for a Best British Short Film supported by BFI Network.
For the full list of nominations, check out the BIFA website.
