British Independent Film Award for Best Director

The British Independent Film Award for Best Director is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) to recognize the best directing in a British independent film. The award was first presented in the 1998 ceremony being Ken Loach the first recipient of this award for his work in the film My Name is Joe.

British Independent Film Award for Best Director
Awarded for	Best Directing
Country	United Kingdom
Presented by	BIFA
First award	1998
Currently held by	Rungano Nyoni – On Becoming a Guinea Fowl (2024)
Website	www.bifa.org.uk

Andrea Arnold is the only director who has received this award more than once, with two wins, for Fish Tank in 2009 and American Honey in 2016. Ken Loach holds the record of most nominations for this category with five, followed by Mike Leigh, Shane Meadows, and Michael Winterbottom, all with four each.

Winners and nominees

1990s

Year	Director(s)	Film
1998 (1st) [1]	Ken Loach	My Name is Joe
	Carine Adler	Under the Skin
	Gillies MacKinnon	Regeneration
	Gary Oldman	Nil by Mouth
	Guy Ritchie	Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels
1999 (2nd) [2]	Anand Tucker	Hilary and Jackie
	Bill Condon	Gods and Monsters
	Shane Meadows	A Room for Romeo Brass
	Tim Roth	The War Zone
	Michael Winterbottom	Wonderland

2000s

Year	Director(s)	Film
2000 (3rd) [3]	Stephen Daldry	Billy Elliot
	Nigel Cole	Saving Grace
	Terence Davies	The House of Mirth
	Mike Leigh	Topsy-Turvy
	Paweł Pawlikowski	Last Resort
2001 (4th) [4]	Jonathan Glazer	Sexy Beast
	Michael Apted	Enigma
	Ken Loach	Bread and Roses
	Michael Winterbottom	The Claim
2002 (5th) [5][6]	Paul Greengrass	Bloody Sunday
	Neil Hunter and Tom Hunsinger	Lawless Heart
	Ken Loach	Sweet Sixteen
	Lynne Ramsay	Morvern Callar
2003 (6th) [7][8]	Stephen Frears	Dirty Pretty Things
	Danny Boyle	28 Days Later
	David Mackenzie	Young Adam
	Jim Sheridan	In America
	Michael Winterbottom	In This World
2004 (7th) [9]	Mike Leigh	Vera Drake
	Kevin Macdonald	Touching the Void
	Shane Meadows	Dead Man's Shoes
	Roger Michell	Enduring Love
	Paweł Pawlikowski	My Summer of Love
2005 (8th) [10]	Neil Marshall	The Descent
	Laurence Dunmore	The Libertine
	Stephen Frears	Mrs Henderson Presents
	Fernando Meirelles	The Constant Gardener
	Michael Winterbottom	A Cock and Bull Story
2006 (9th) [11][12]	Kevin Macdonald	The Last King of Scotland
	Michael Caton-Jones	Shooting Dogs
	Stephen Frears	The Queen
	Ken Loach	The Wind That Shakes the Barley
	Shane Meadows	This Is England
2007 (10th) [13][14]	Anton Corbijn	Control
	David Cronenberg	Eastern Promises
	Sarah Gavron	Brick Lane
	David Mackenzie	Hallam Foe
	Anand Tucker	And When Did You Last See Your Father?
2008 (11th) [15][16]	Danny Boyle	Slumdog Millionaire
	Mark Herman	The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas
	Garth Jennings	Son of Rambow
	Steve McQueen	Hunger
	Shane Meadows	Somers Town
2009 (12th) [17][18]	Andrea Arnold	Fish Tank
	Jane Campion	Bright Star
	Armando Iannucci	In the Loop
	Duncan Jones	Moon
	Lone Scherfig	An Education

2010s

Year	Director(s)	Film
2010 (13th) [19][20]	Gareth Edwards	Monsters
	Tom Hooper	The King's Speech
	Mike Leigh	Another Year
	Mark Romanek	Never Let Me Go
	Matthew Vaughn	Kick-Ass
2011 (14th) [21][22]	Lynne Ramsay	We Need to Talk About Kevin
	Tomas Alfredson	Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
	Paddy Considine	Tyrannosaur
	Steve McQueen	Shame
	Ben Wheatley	Kill List
2012 (15th) [23][24]	Peter Strickland	Berberian Sound Studio
	Bart Layton	The Imposter
	John Madden	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
	Rufus Norris	Broken
	Ben Wheatley	Sightseers
2013 (16th) [25][26]	Sean Ellis	Metro Manila
	Jon S. Baird	Filth
	Clio Barnard	The Selfish Giant
	Jonathan Glazer	Under the Skin
	David Mackenzie	Starred Up
2014 (17th) [27][28]	Yann Demange	'71
	Lenny Abrahamson	Frank
	Mike Leigh	Mr. Turner
	John Michael McDonagh	Calvary
	Matthew Warchus	Pride
2015 (18th) [29][30]	Alex Garland	Ex Machina
	Andrew Haigh	45 Years
	Asif Kapadia	Amy
	Justin Kurzel	Macbeth
	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Lobster
2016 (19th) [31][32]	Andrea Arnold	American Honey
	Babak Anvari	Under the Shadow
	Ken Loach	I, Daniel Blake
	James Spinney and Pete Middleton	Notes on Blindness
	Ben Wheatley	Free Fire
2017 (20th) [33][34]	Rungano Nyoni	I Am Not a Witch
	Armando Iannucci	The Death of Stalin
	Francis Lee	God's Own Country
	Martin McDonagh	Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
	William Oldroyd	Lady Macbeth
2018 (21st) [35][36]	Yorgos Lanthimos	The Favourite
	Andrew Haigh	Lean on Pete
	Bart Layton	American Animals
	Michael Pearce	Beast
	Lynne Ramsay	You Were Never Really Here
2019 (22nd) [37][38]	Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts	For Sama
	Oliver Hermanus	Moffie
	Joanna Hogg	The Souvenir
	Mark Jenkin	Bait
	Asif Kapadia	Diego Maradona

2020s

Year	Director(s)	Film
2020 (23rd) [39][40]
	Remi Weekes	His House
	Sarah Gavron	Rocks
	Rose Glass	Saint Maud
	Nick Rowland	Calm with Horses
	Florian Zeller	The Father
2021 (24th) [41]
	Aleem Khan	After Love
	Philip Barantini	Boiling Point
	Clio Barnard	Ali & Ava
	Sean Durkin	The Nest
	Joanna Hogg	The Souvenir Part II
2022 (25th) [42]
	Charlotte Wells	Aftersun
	Oliver Hermanus	Living
	Sophie Hyde	Good Luck to You, Leo Grande
	Sebastián Lelio	The Wonder
	Georgia Oakley	Blue Jean
2023 (26th) [43]
	Andrew Haigh	All of Us Strangers
	Raine Allen-Miller	Rye Lane
	Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping	Femme
	Molly Manning Walker	How to Have Sex
	Charlotte Regan	Scrapper
2024 (27th) [44]
	Rungano Nyoni	On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
	Andrea Arnold	Bird
	Nora Fingscheidt	The Outrun
	Rose Glass	Love Lies Bleeding
	Rich Peppiatt	Kneecap

Multiple nominations

5 nominations Ken Loach 4 nominations Mike Leigh Shane Meadows Michael Winterbottom 3 nominations Andrea Arnold Stephen Frears Andrew Haigh David Mackenzie Lynne Ramsay Ben Wheatley

2 nominations Clio Barnard Danny Boyle Sarah Gavron Jonathan Glazer Oliver Hermanus Joanna Hogg Armando Iannucci Asif Kapadia Yorgos Lanthimos Bart Layton Kevin Macdonald Steve McQueen Paweł Pawlikowski Anand Tucker

Multiple wins

2 wins Andrea Arnold