London – The British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) are addressing concerns over the disproportionately male depiction in this year’s performance nominations,despite a voting body comprised of a majority of women.While acknowledging the imbalance, BIFA leadership emphasizes the issue stems from a larger industry trend reflected in submission numbers, not a flaw in the awards process itself.
The 2025 BIFA nominations revealed a notable skew towards male performers, prompting scrutiny similar to the 2020 BAFTA backlash sparked by the #BAFTASoWhite campaign. However, BIFA Director Amy Gustin and BIFA Chair Harriet Wallace point to the source of the problem: the submissions themselves.According to Wallace, the submissions for lead, joint lead, and supporting performance categories were “well over” 60% male.
“it gets us closer to 50/50 over the three years,” Wallace stated,referring to ongoing efforts to achieve gender parity. “But it’s still not there yet.”
The BIFAs, like other film awards bodies, operate at the culmination of the filmmaking process, meaning any gender imbalance largely reflects pre-existing industry patterns. “Who knows weather this is a trend, whether this is because there are more male led films being commissioned,” Wallace added.”But we are slightly able to be a canary in the coal mine for things like that. Where you have the two gender split categories, any trend like that is masked. we’ll have to wait and look back at it over a longer period, but you wouldn’t notice it if it was split.”
Notably, the BIFA voting membership actively counters the narrative of a male-dominated decision-making process. This year, over 600 voters were comprised of 58% women, and within the performance subgroup specifically, 68% identified as women or non-binary. “So it’s not like there are loads of lads making all these decisions,” Wallace asserted.
beyond the performance category concerns, the BIFAs introduced a new “Cinema of the Year” award in 2025, marking their first public vote. The initiative proved unexpectedly popular, with over 130 independent cinemas applying and more than 100,000 votes cast, utilizing a system developed by Print.work. Gustin described the response as “massive,” noting the heartfelt feedback received from cinemas. “People weren’t just voting, but also leaving comments and love letters to their cinemas,” she said.”We’ve been sending all the feedback back to the cinemas and they’re like ‘Oh my god, this is making me cry.’ So it’s been really nice and adorable.”
