BIFA is proud to announce the 2023 Best British Short Film longlist. The 16 exceptional shorts listed below were chosen by BIFA voters from over 300 entries and showcase some of the best new shorts – and most exciting new and established shorts filmmakers – in the UK today.
The final five nominations in each category will be announced Thursday 2 November across BIFA’s website and social media channels. Winners will be revealed at the 26th BIFA ceremony on Sunday 3 December.
Best British Short Film
THE ARCHIVE: QUEER NIGERIANS Simisolaoluwa Akande, Ermias Asfaw, Maxine Gordon, Joseph Bushell
AREA BOY Iggy London, Lorine Plagnol, Georgia Rose
BIRDSONG Omi Zola Gupta, Sparsh Ahuja, Dorn Bouttasing
CHRISTOPHER AT SEA Tom C J Brown, Laure Desmazières, Emmanuel-Alain Raynal, Pierre Baussaron, Amanda Miller, Hannah Stolarski, Nick Read, Emily-Jane Brown
FESTIVAL OF SLAPS Abdou Cissé, Cheri Darbon, George Telfer
THE GOLDEN WEST Tom Berkeley, Ross White, Jamie Tarr
IF YOU’RE HAPPY Phoebe Arnstein, Sophia Gibber, Myles Payne, Scarlett Barclay
LIONS Beru Tessema, Ama Ampadu
THE MÖBIUS TRIP Simone Smith, Lewis Wardrop, David Neilson
MUNA Warda Mohamed, Angela Moneke, Simon Hatton
OBA Femi Oladigbolu, Ray Okudzeto
ORIGINAL SKIN Mdhamiri Á Nkemi, Eve Hedderwick Turner, Sabina Smitham
PUFFLING Jessica Bishopp, Alice Hughes, Gannesh Rajah,
SHACKLE Ainslie Henderson, Will Anderson
THE TALENT Thomas May Bailey, Emma D’Arcy, Ellen Spence
WHITE ANT Shalini Adnani, Sara Bonakdar, Michael Graf, Kaarthekeyen Santhanam, Mrunalini Havaldar
Notes – BIFA Voting Process
BIFA has over 1500 registered voters (working film industry professionals), of whom over 500 will take part in Nominations Voting in 2023. Subgroups are formed to watch, discuss and vote on groups of categories, with rigorously applied processes to ensure that every film is watched and discussed. Round One voting produces Long Lists (which are published for the new talent categories, plus Shorts, International, Maverick and Feature Documentary). A further round of voting produces the nominations.
In Rounds One and Two, voters must see a minimum proportion of listed films in order to vote and each film must be seen by a minimum number of voters. Votes are calculated taking into account the number of voters who have seen a film. Viewing and voting is supplemented with subgroup meetings in which every entered film is discussed.
The Filmmaker Jury decides the winners of the Director, Debut Director, Debut Director – Feature Documentary, Screenplay, Debut Screenwriter and Breakthrough Producer categories. The Performance Jury decides the winners of all performance awards. The juries also select the recipient of the Special Jury Prize (given to an unsung hero of British independent film). BIFA’s Nomination Committee selects the recipient of The Richard Harris Award. All other winners are decided by a vote amongst all registered BIFA voters (who must see all nominees before voting). All voters and jurors must complete unconscious bias training before voting.
