BIFA Breakthrough Performance Nominees on Their ‘Absolutely Mad’ Year

Since bursting on the scene in 1998 as a scruffier and scrappier distant cousin to the BAFTAs, the British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) have been an early bellwether for future talent in front of and behind the camera. Giving a very early shout out to some of the biggest stars working today is the BIFAs breakthrough performance award (formerly the most promising newcomer award).

Jamie Bell and Ben Whishaw were recipients more than 20 years ago, while other winners have included Dev Patel, Naomi Ackie and Jessie Buckley. As for Emily Blunt, John Boyega, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Mia Goth, Andrea Riseborough, Will Poulter, George MacKay, Jodie Whittaker and Cosmo Jarvis, they’re among a formidable lineup of names who only managed a nomination.

So it’s only natural that this year’s crop of nominees are perhaps a little excited about what lies ahead. Speaking to Variety ahead of the awards ceremony on Dec. 8, Nykiya Adams (“Bird”), Susan Chardy (“On Becoming a Guinea Fowl”), Ruaridh Mollica (“Sebastian”), Saura Lightfoot-Leon (“Horde”) and Jason Patel (“Unicorns”) discuss almost giving up, first-time festival visits, upcoming projects and the year in which everything kicked off.

Nykiya Adams

When casting director Lucy Pardee came to Nykiya Adams’ London school to find a suitable youngster to play the key part of Bailey in Andrea Arnold’s drama “Bird” — and star alongside Barry Keoghan, Franz Rogowski and Jasmine Jobson — she was at first directed towards Adams’ older sister. “She was always the actor,” she says. She was also too old, so the attention then turned to Nykiya (now 14 years old, but 12 at the time). 

“Bird,” her debut acting role, would take Adams to Cannes this year, where the film was in the main competition. The red carpet experience she describes as…