British Independent Film Awards: What are the BIFAs and why do they matter?

Because British cinema needs celebrating

Benedict Cumberbatch won a BIFA in 2014 (BIFA)

You’ve probably heard of BAFTA. Well this is BIFA — and it stands for the British Independent Film Awards.

Where the former is academic, what with its academy and all, the latter is independent and tries to live up to everything that word entails.

Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of it, BIFA has long been an industry insider affair and only in the last few years has it been sort-of televised (on Sky Movies).

That doesn’t mean it’s not been important, however. It is perhaps the platform for rising British and Irish film talent, from auteurs like Andrea Arnold to now-Hollywood actors like Michael Fassbender.

Well this year the awards, which will be held on December 6 at the Old Billingsgate building at London Bridge, are turning 18 — just old enough to properly enjoy themselves.

And just as an 18 year old is oh-so-different from a 17 year old, so too is BIFA turning over a new leaf, bringing in a new directorial team and fresh face to host (Richard Ayoade, would you believe it).

Deena Wallace, formerly head of film at BAFTA, and Amy Gustin, producer of the independent film festival Raindance, are now at the helm, filling shoes worn for more than a decade by Tessa Collinson and Johanna von Fischer.

Wallace and Gustin spoke with The Independent this week about BIFA’s particular place in the UK cinema landscape and what’s in store for British film.

“It’s pretty much just all about British film,” Wallace said.

“The BAFTAs have always been about international as well as British film and so it’s important that BIFA exists to give our own cinema the kind of celebration that other countries have — such as the Cesars in France or the Goyas in Spain.”

“The downside of the UK’s position in relation to Hollywood is that local filmmaking can be overshadowed by US imports.”

“We’re here to make sure that the best of British film is getting the attention it deserves.”

On that front BIFA most certainly succeeds; there’s only one award for international films and it’s first in the running order.

The big ones go to the Brits and Irish, and those same winners sometimes even go on to sweep awards season in the states — both the King’s Speech and Slumdog Millionaire won their first of many trophies at Old Billingsgate.

Now those films, however polished, aren’t really your standard BIFA-fare. For every mainstream Slumdog, there’s several small but worthy projects like Tyrannosaur or Berberian Sound Studio that win big.

Actor Stanley Tucci and Director Joe Wright (BIFA)

Gustin exclaimed: “It’s independent film! Like the Independent Spirits in the US, the films we celebrate are made outside of the studio system and free of the strictures that that can entail.

“Sometimes you find something out of the ordinary, a new voice, a new way of seeing the world.”

Zygi Kamasa, the CEO of film firm Lionsgate UK, told The Independent in an email: “It’s the only major film awards that celebrates truly independent films, irrespective of budget or scale.”

“This allows the awards to focus on just the quality of work and not be influenced by their commercial success.”

Claire Jones, a producer who works with folk horror hero Ben Wheatley, explained: “The films nominated gain oxygen with the public in a film market that’s already quite oversaturated.”

“It also gives a higher profile to small independent film-makers that might otherwise be easy to ignore; it opens doors which in turn helps pave the way for the financing of future films.”

There’s plenty of love to go round to the elite UK indies of the year, from newcomer performers to debut directors to microbudget movies.

Is British and Irish independent film alive and kicking? They sure say so.

“Of course it is,” Wallace said, “just look at our nominees.”

And it’s true that the industry has rebounded from the low point a few years back when coalition government cuts threatened and ended many organisations and projects.

The UK Film Council, a key backer of BIFA, was closed in 2010 and the British Film Institute continues to have its budget slashed, seemingly every few months.

The loss of Film Council cash forced BIFA, like the filmmakers it promotes, to reinvent itself — and it found itself an angel investor in champagne brand Moet.

Amy said: “It’s cheaper and easier to make films and make them well.

“It’s also easier to find audiences for those films directly. The industry is starting to respond to the way that audiences want to see films; traditional release windows are starting to fracture. That applies to the glossier titles too.”

So cinema, especially independent, has been disrupted by technology, and just in time to rescue filmmakers from an old funding structure now on its last legs.

BIFA was a bit player in the old ecosystem, however much insiders enjoyed the night and appreciated its often artsy films, but it’s in prime position to inject itself in the chaotic auteur-driven cinema scene of right now.

Full disclosure: I have been on the BIFA screening committee

Updated to correct the absence of Ireland in the piece