British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film

British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film
Awarded for	Best International Independent Films
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	BIFA
First award	1998
Currently held by	Anora (2024)
Website	www.bifa.org.uk

The British Independent Film Award for Best International Independent Film is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) to recognize the best international independent films. The award was first presented in the 1998 ceremony.

From 1998 to 2002, two categories named Best Foreign Independent Film – English Language and Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language were presented, in 2003 both categories were merged into the current category.

In 2012 the category was renamed to its current name, previously the category was named Best Foreign Independent Film.

Winners and nominees

1990s

Year	English title	Original title	Recipient(s)	Country
1998 (1st) [1]
	Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language
	The Apartment	L'Appartement	Gilles Mimouni	France
	Airbag		Juanma Bajo Ulloa	Spain
	Live Flesh	Carne trémula	Pedro Almodóvar
	Marquise		Véra Belmont	France
	Men with Guns		Kari Skogland	Canada
	Best Foreign Independent Film – English Language
	Boogie Nights		Paul Thomas Anderson	United States
	Left Luggage		Jeroen Krabbé	Netherlands
	Broken Vessels		Scott Ziehl	United States
	Chasing Amy		Kevin Smith
	The Castle		Rob Sitch	Australia
1999 (2nd) [2]
	Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language
	All About My Mother	Todo sobre mi madre	Pedro Almodóvar	Spain
	The Celebration	Festen	Thomas Vinterberg	Denmark
	Life Is Beautiful	La vita è bella	Roberto Benigni	Italy
	Romance		Catherine Breillat	France
	The Dreamlife of Angels	La Vie rêvée des anges	Erick Zonca
	Best Foreign Independent Film – English Language
	Happiness		Todd Solondz	United States
	Buffalo '66		Vincent Gallo	United States
	Praise		John Curran
	Rushmore		Wes Anderson
	The Blair Witch Project		Daniel Myrick and Eduardo Sánchez

2000s

Year	English title	Original title	Recipient(s)	Country
2000 (3rd) [3]
	Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language
	Kadosh		Amos Gitai	Israel
	Beau travail		Claire Denis	France
	Those Who Love Me Can Take the Train	Ceux qui m'aiment prendront le train	Patrice Chéreau
	Une liaison pornographique		Frédéric Fonteyne
	The Emperor and the Assassin	荊軻刺秦王, Jīng Kē Cì Qín Wáng	Chen Kaige	‹See TfM›   China
	Best Foreign Independent Film – English Language
	The Straight Story		David Lynch	United States
	Jesus' Son		Alison Maclean	Canada
	Boiler Room		Ben Younger	United States
	Chuck & Buck		Miguel Arteta
	Nurse Betty		Neil LaBute
2001 (4th) [4]
	Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language
	In the Mood for Love	花樣年華, huāyàng niánhuá	Wong Kar-wai	Hong Kong
	Amores perros		Alejandro González Iñárritu	Mexico
	The Taste of Others	Le Goût des autres	Agnès Jaoui	France
	Songs from the Second Floor	Sånger från andra våningen	Roy Andersson	Sweden
	Best Foreign Independent Film – English Language
	Memento		Christopher Nolan	United States
	Chopper		Andrew Dominik	Australia
	Hedwig and the Angry Inch		John Cameron Mitchell	United States
	Dark Days		Marc Singer
2002 (5th) [5] [6]
	Best Foreign Independent Film – Foreign Language
	Monsoon Wedding		Mira Nair	India
	Talk to Her	Hable con ella	Pedro Almodóvar	Spain
	Nine Queens	Nueve reinas	Fabián Bielinsky	Argentina
	Y Tu Mamá También		Alfonso Cuarón	Mexico
	Best Foreign Independent Film – English Language
	Lantana		Ray Lawrence	Australia
	Ghost World		Terry Zwigoff	United States
	Ivans XTC		Bernard Rose
	Lost in La Mancha		Keith Fulton and Louis Pepe

Best Foreign Independent Film

Year	English title	Original title	Recipient(s)	Country
2003 (6th) [7] [8]	City of God	Cidade de Deus	Fernando Meirelles and Kátia Lund	Brazil
	The Triplets of Belleville	Les Triplettes de Belleville	Sylvain Chomet	France
	Secretary		Steven Shainberg	United States
	Spirited Away	千と千尋の神隠し, Sen to Chihiro no Kamikakushi	Hayao Miyazaki	Japan
	Whale Rider		Niki Caro	New Zealand
2004 (7th) [9]	Oldboy	올드보이	Park Chan-wook	South Korea
	Fahrenheit 9/11		Michael Moore	United States
	Pieces of April		Peter Hedges
	Hero	英雄, Yīngxióng	Zhang Yimou	‹See TfM›   China
	The Motorcycle Diaries	Diarios de motocicleta	Walter Salles	Argentina
2005 (8th) [10]	Downfall	Der Untergang	Oliver Hirschbiegel	Germany
	Broken Flowers		Jim Jarmusch	United States
	Crash		Paul Haggis
	The Woodsman		Nicole Kassell
	Secuestro Express		Jonathan Jakubowicz	Venezuela
2006 (9th) [11] [12]	Caché		Michael Haneke	France
	Brick Lane		Sarah Gavron	India
	Hard Candy		David Slade	United States
	The Beat That My Heart Skipped	De battre mon cœur s'est arrêté	Jacques Audiard	France
	Volver		Pedro Almodóvar	Spain
2007 (10th) [13] [14]	The Lives of Others	Das Leben der Anderen	Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck	Germany
	Black Book	Zwartboek	Paul Verhoeven	Netherlands
	La Vie en rose	La Môme	Olivier Dahan	France
	Tell No One	Ne le dis à personne	Guillaume Canet
	Once		John Carney	Ireland
2008 (11th) [15] [16]	Waltz with Bashir	ואלס עם באשיר, Vals Im Bashir	Ari Folman	Israel
	I've Loved You So Long	Il y a longtemps que je t'aime	Philippe Claudel	France
	Persepolis		Marjane Satrapi and Vincent Paronnaud
	The Diving Bell and the Butterfly	Le Scaphandre et le Papillon	Julian Schnabel
	Gomorrah	Gomorra	Matteo Garrone	Italy
2009 (12th) [17] [18]	Let the Right One In	Låt den rätte komma in	Tomas Alfredson	Sweden
	Il Divo		Paolo Sorrentino	Italy
	Sin Nombre		Cary Fukunaga	Mexico
	The Hurt Locker		Kathryn Bigelow	United States
	The Wrestler		Darren Aronofsky

2010s

Year	English title	Original title	Recipient(s)	Country
2010 (13th) [19] [20]	A Prophet	Un prophète	Jacques Audiard	France
	Dogtooth	Κυνόδοντας, Kynodontas	Yorgos Lanthimos	Greece
	I Am Love	Io sono l'amore	Luca Guadagnino	Italy
	The Secret in Their Eyes	El secreto de sus ojos	Juan J. Campanella	Argentina
	Winter's Bone		Debra Granik	United States
2011 (14th) [21] [22]	A Separation	جدایی نادر از سیمین, Jodaí-e Nadér az Simín	Asghar Farhadi	Iran
	Animal Kingdom		David Michôd	Australia
	Drive		Nicolas Winding Refn	United States
	Pina		Wim Wenders	Germany
	The Skin I Live In	La piel que habito	Pedro Almodóvar	Spain
2012 (15th) [23] [24]	The Hunt	Jagten	Thomas Vinterberg	Denmark
	Amour		Michael Haneke	Austria
	Searching for Sugar Man		Malik Bendjelloul	Sweden
	Rust and Bone	De rouille et d'os	Jacques Audiard	France
	Beasts of the Southern Wild		Benh Zeitlin	United States
2013 (16th) [25] [26]	Blue is the Warmest Colour	La Vie d'Adèle – Chapitres 1 & 2	Abdellatif Kechiche	France
	Blue Jasmine		Woody Allen	United States
	Frances Ha		Noah Baumbach
	The Great Beauty	La grande bellezza	Paolo Sorrentino	Italy
	Wadjda	وجدة, Wajda	Haifaa al-Mansour	Saudi Arabia
2014 (17th) [27] [28]	Boyhood		Richard Linklater	United States
	Ida		Paweł Pawlikowski	Poland
	Blue Ruin		Jeremy Saulnier	United States
	Fruitvale Station		Ryan Coogler
	The Babadook		Jennifer Kent	Australia
2015 (18th) [29] [30]	Room		Lenny Abrahamson	United States
	Force Mejeure	Turist	Ruben Östlund	Sweden
	Carol		Todd Haynes	United States
	Girlhood	Bande de filles	Céline Sciamma	France
	Son of Saul	Saul fia	László Nemes	Hungary
2016 (19th) [31] [32]	Moonlight		Dede Gardner, Barry Jenkins, Jeremy Kleiner, Tarell Alvin McCraney and Adele Romanski	United States
	Hunt for the Wilderpeople		Carthew Neal, Matt Noonan, Leanne Saunders and Taika Waititi	New Zealand
	Manchester by the Sea		Lauren Beck, Matt Damon, Kenneth Lonergan, Chris Moore, Kimberly Steward and Kevin J. Wals	United States
	Mustang		Deniz Gamze Ergüven, Charles Gillibert and Alice Winocour	France,   Turkey
	Toni Erdmann		Maren Ade, Jonas Dornbach, Janine Jackowski and Michael Merkt	Austria,   Germany
2017 (20th) [33] [34]	Get Out		Jordan Peele	United States
	The Florida Project		Sean Baker	United States
	I Am Not Your Negro		Raoul Peck
	Loveless	Нелюбовь, Nelyubov	Andrey Zvyagintsev	Russia
	The Square		Ruben Östlund	Sweden
2018 (21st) [35] [36]	Roma		Alfonso Cuarón, Gabriela Rodriguez and Nicolás Celis	Mexico
	Capernaum	كفرناحوم	Nadine Labaki, Jihad Hojeily, Michelle Keserwani, Khaled Mouzanar and Michel Merkt	Lebanon
	Cold War	Zimna wojna	Paweł Pawlikowski, Janusz Glowacki, Ewa Puszczynska and Tanya Seghatchian	Poland
	The Rider		Chloé Zhao, Mollye Asher, Sacha Ben Harroche and Bert Hamelinck	United States
	Shoplifters	万引き家族, Manbiki Kazoku	Hirokazu Kore-eda	Japan
2019 (22nd) [37] [38]	Parasite	기생충, Gisaengchung	Bong Joon-ho	South Korea
	Ash Is Purest White	江湖兒女, jiānghú érnǚ	Jia Zhangke	‹See TfM›   China
	Marriage Story		Noah Baumbach	United States
	Monos		Alejandro Landes	Colombia
	Portrait of a Lady on Fire	Portrait de la jeune fille en feu	Céline Sciamma	France

2020s

Year	English title	Original title	Recipient(s)	Country
2020 (23rd) [39] [40]	Nomadland		Chloé Zhao, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Mollye Asher and Dan Janvey	United States
	Babyteeth		Shannon Murphy, Alex White and Rita Kalnejais	Australia
	Les Misérables		Ladj Ly, Toufik Ayadi, Christophe Barral, Giordano Gederlini and Alexis Manenti	France
	Never Rarely Sometimes Always		Eliza Hittman, Adele Romanski and Sara Murphy	United States,   United Kingdom
	Notturno		Gianfranco Rosi, Donatella Palermo, Paolo Del Brocco, Serge Lalou, Camille Laemlé, Orwa Nyrabia and Eva-Maria Weerts	Italy,   Germany
2021 (24th) [41]	Flee		Jonas Poher Rasmussen, Amin Nawabi, Monica Hellstrøm and Signe Byrge Sørensen	Denmark
	Compartment No. 6	Hytti nro 6 / Купе номер шесть	Juho Kuosmanen, Livia Ulvan, Andris Feldmanis, Jussi Rantamäki and Emilia Hakka	Finland,   Russia
	First Cow		Kelly Reichardt, Jon Raymond, Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino and Anish Savjani	United States
	Petite Maman		Céline Sciamma and Bénédicte Couvreur	France
	Pleasure		Ninja Thyberg, Peter Modestij, Eliza Jones, Markus Waltå and Erik Hemmendorff	Sweden,   Germany,   France
2022 (25th) [42]	The Worst Person in the World	Verdens verste menneske	Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Andrea Berentsen Ottmar and Thomas Robsahm	Norway
	All the Beauty and the Bloodshed		Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, John Lyons, Nan Goldin and Yoni Golijov	United States
	Everything Everywhere All at Once		Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang, Joe Russo, Anthony Russo and Mike Larocca
	Close		Lukas Dhont, Angelo Tijssens, Michiel Dhont and Dirk Impens	Belgium
	Decision to Leave	헤어질 결심, Heojil gyeolsim	Park Chan-Wook and Chung Seo-Kyung	South Korea
2023 (26th) [43]	Anatomy of a Fall	Anatomie d'une chute	Justine Triet, Arthur Harari, Marie-Ange Luciani and David Thion	France
	Fallen Leaves	Kuolleet lehdet	Aki Kaurismäki, Misha Jaari, Mark Lwoff and Reinhard Brundig	Finland
	Fremont		Babak Jalali, Carolina Cavalli, Marjaneh Moghimi, Sudnya Shroff and Rachael Fung	United States
	Past Lives		Celine Song, David Hinojosa, Christine Vachon and Pamela Koffler
	Monster	怪物	Hirokazu Kore-eda, Yuji Sakamoto, Genki Kawamura, Kenji Yamada, Megumi Banse, Taichi Ito and Hijiri Taguchi	Japan
2024 (27th) [44]	Anora		Sean Baker, Alex Coco and Samantha Quan	United States
	All We Imagine as Light		Payal Kapadia, Thomas Hakim and Julien Graff	India,   France
	La Chimera		Alice Rohrwacher, Carlo Cresto-Dina and Paolo Del Brocco	Italy
	No Other Land		Basel Adra, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal, Yuval Abraham, Fabrien Greenberg and Bård Kjøge Rønning	Palestine,   Norway
	The Seed of the Sacred Fig	دانه‌ی انجیر معابد / Les Graines du figuier sauvage / Die Saat des heiligen Feigenbaums	Mohammad Rasoulof, Rozita Hendijanian, Amin Sadraei, Jean-Christophe Simon and Mani Tilgner	Iran,   Germany
2025 (28th) [45]	Sentimental Value	Affeksjonsverdi	Joachim Trier, Eskil Vogt, Maria Ekerhovd and Andrea Berentsen Ottmar	Norway
	It Was Just an Accident	یک تصادف ساده	Jafar Panahi and Phillippe Martin	Iran,   France
	Sirāt		Óliver Laxe, Santiago Fillol, Domingo Corral, Oriol Maymo, Andrea Queralt, Mani Mortazavi, Xavi Font, Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar and Esther García	Spain
	Sorry, Baby		Eva Victor, Adele Romanski, Mark Ceryak and Barry Jenkins	United States
	Sound of Falling	In die Sonne schauen	Mascha Schilinski, Louise Pete, Maren Schmitt and Lucas Schmidt	Germany

References

1. "The Awards 1998". British Independent Film Awards . 24 October 1998. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
2. "The Awards 1999". British Independent Film Awards . 24 October 1999. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
3. "The Awards 2000". British Independent Film Awards . 24 October 2000. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
4. Frater, Patrick (October 24, 2001). "Sexy Beast scores at British indie film awards". Screen Daily . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
5. "Morvern Callar leads British Independent Film Awards nominations". Screen Daily . September 17, 2002. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
6. Gibbons, Fiachra (October 31, 2002). "Sweet Sixteen named best of the independents". The Guardian . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
7. Dams, Tim (September 22, 2003). "Dirty Pretty Things leads BIFA nominations". Screen Daily . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
8. "Dirty Pretty Things sweeps Brit indie awards". The Guardian . November 3, 2003. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
9. Dawtrey, Adam (November 30, 2004). "'Drake' takes the cake". Variety . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
10. "Constant Gardener wins UK awards". BBC News . December 1, 2005. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
11. "'Scotland' duo, 'Queen' pic among top BIFA nominees". The Hollywood Reporter . October 31, 2006. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
12. ""This is England" Takes Top Prize at British Independent Film Awards". Indiewire . November 30, 2006. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
13. "British Independent Film Awards nominations list". Variety . October 23, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
14. "Control takes over at British Independent Film Awards". CBC News . November 29, 2007. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
15. Ward, Audrey (October 28, 2008). "Nominations for British Independent Film Awards announced". Screen Daily . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
16. Kemp, Stuart (December 1, 2008). "'Slumdog' wins big at British indie awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
17. Knegt, Peter (October 26, 2009). ""Fish Tank," "Moon" Lead British Indie Award Nods". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
18. Thompson, Anne (December 6, 2009). "British Independent Film Awards: Moon Wins Best Film". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
19. Child, Ben (November 2, 2010). "The King's Speech rings out in Bifa awards nominations". The Guardian . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
20. Masters, Tim (December 6, 2010). "King's Speech reigns at British Independent Film awards". BBC News . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
21. Knegt, Peter (October 31, 2011). ""Shame," "Tyrannosaur" and "Tinker Tailor" Lead British Independent Film Award Nominations". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
22. Masters, Tim (December 5, 2011). "Tyrannosaur in triple win at British Independent Film Awards". BBC News . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
23. Child, Ben (November 6, 2012). "Broken fixed up with nine British independent film award nominations". The Guardian . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
24. Mueller, Matt (December 9, 2012). "British Independent Film Awards: 'Broken' Takes Best Film, 'Berberian Sound Studio' and 'The Imposter' Big Winners". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
25. "'Metro Manila' gets 5 nominations in British film awards". ABS-CBN News . November 13, 2013. Archived from the original on January 26, 2020. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
26. Kemp, Stuart (December 8, 2013). "'Metro Manila' Wins Big at British Independent Film Awards". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
27. Rosser, Michael (November 3, 2014). "'71, Pride lead BIFA nominations". Screen Daily . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
28. "Pride wins best film at British Independent Film Awards". BBC News . December 7, 2014. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
29. Tartaglione, Nancy (November 3, 2015). "'The Lobster', '45 Years', 'Macbeth' Lead British Independent Film Award Nominations". Deadline . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
30. Lee, Benjamin (December 7, 2015). "Ex Machina triumphs at British independent film awards". The Guardian . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
31. Evans, Alan (November 1, 2016). "I, Daniel Blake leads British independent film award nominations". The Guardian . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
32. Barranclough, Leo (December 4, 2016). "'American Honey' Triumphs at British Independent Film Awards". Variety . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
33. Clarke, Stewart (November 1, 2017). "'Lady Macbeth' Tops Nominations for British Independent Film Awards". Variety . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
34. Nordine, Michael (December 10, 2017). "British Independent Film Awards: 'God's Own Country' and 'Lady Macbeth' Win Top Prizes". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
35. Brown, Mark (October 31, 2018). "The Favourite dominates British independent film award nominations". The Guardian . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
36. Nordine, Michael (December 2, 2018). "'The Favourite' Wins 10 British Independent Film Awards, Living Up to Its Title". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
37. Sharf, Zack (October 30, 2019). "2019 British Indie Film Awards Nominations: 'David Copperfield,' Zellweger, and More". IndieWire . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
38. Ritman, Alex (December 1, 2019). "British Independent Film Awards: 'For Sama' Wins Top Prize". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
39. Ramachandran, Naman (December 9, 2020). "'Saint Maud,' 'His House,' 'Rocks' Lead British Independent Film Awards Nominations". Variety . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
40. Grater, Tom (February 18, 2021). "'Rocks' & 'His House' Win Big At British Independent Film Awards". Deadline . Retrieved October 4, 2021.
41. Ramachandran, Naman (November 3, 2021). "'Belfast,' 'Boiling Point' Lead BIFA Nominations". Variety . Retrieved November 3, 2021.
42. Szalai, Georg (4 November 2022). "British Independent Film Awards: Debut Movies 'Aftersun,' 'Blue Jean' Lead Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved 4 November 2022.
43. Ramachandran, Naman (2 November 2023). "Jodie Comer, Paul Mescal Score Nods as 'Rye Lane,' 'Scrapper', 'All of Us Strangers' Lead British Independent Film Awards Nominations". Variety . Retrieved 2 November 2023.
44. Shafer, Ellise (2024-11-05). "'Kneecap,' 'Love Lies Bleeding' Lead British Independent Film Awards Nominations". Variety. Retrieved 2024-11-05.
45. Ford, Lily; Szalai, Georg (3 November 2025). "British Independent Film Awards: 'My Father's Shadow' and 'Pillion' Lead Nominations". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 3 November 2025.

External links

• Official website