# British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary

The British Independent Film Award for Best Documentary is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) to recognize the best documentary.
The award was first presented in the 2003 ceremony, with the film Bodysong, directed by Simon Pummell and Janine Marmot, being the first recipient of the award.

## Winners and nominees
### 2000s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 2003 (6th) | Bodysong | Simon Pummell, Janine Marmot |
| 2003 (6th) | 100 Doors | Kerri Davenport-Burton |
| 2003 (6th) | Bugs | Mike Slee |
| 2003 (6th) | The Game of Their Lives | Daniel Gordon |
| 2003 (6th) | Hoover Street Revival | Sophie Fiennes |
| 2004 (7th) | Touching the Void | Kevin Macdonald, John Smithson |
| 2004 (7th) | Aileen: Life and Death of a Serial Killer | Nick Broomfield, Joan Churchill, Jo Human |
| 2004 (7th) | Drowned Out | Franny Armstrong |
| 2004 (7th) | Peace One Day | Jeremy Gilley |
| 2004 (7th) | Trollywood | Madeleine Farley, Philip Moross, Nick Nahum, Simon White |
| 2005 (8th) | The Liberace of Baghdad | Sean McAllister, Nick Fraser, Mette Heide, Mette Hoffman Meyer |
| 2005 (8th) | Andrew and Jeremy Get Married | Don Boyd |
| 2005 (8th) | Black Sun | Gary Tarn, John Battsek |
| 2005 (8th) | McLibel | Franny Armstrong, Ken Loach |
| 2005 (8th) | Sisters in Law | Florence Ayisi, Kim Longinotto |
| 2006 (9th) | The Road to Guantánamo | Michael Winterbottom, Melissa Parmenter |
| 2006 (9th) | Blindsight | Lucy Walker, Sybil Robson Orr |
| 2006 (9th) | The Great Happiness Space | Jake Clennell |
| 2006 (9th) | The Pervert's Guide to Cinema | Sophie Fiennes, Slavoj Žižek |
| 2006 (9th) | Unknown White Male | Rupert Murray |
| 2007 (10th) | Joe Strummer: The Future Is Unwritten | Julien Temple, Anna Campeau, Alan Moloney, Amanda Temple |
| 2007 (10th) | Black Gold | Marc Francis, Nick Francis, Christopher Hird |
| 2007 (10th) | Deep Water | Louise Osmond, Jerry Rothwell, Alison Morrow, Jonny Persey, John Smithson |
| 2007 (10th) | Garbage Warrior | Oliver Hodge, Rachel Wexler |
| 2007 (10th) | In the Shadow of the Moon | David Sington, Christopher Riley, Duncan Copp, Sarah Kinsella, John Battsek, Julie Goldman |
| 2008 (11th) | Man on Wire | James Marsh, Simon Chinn |
| 2008 (11th) | A Complete History of My Sexual Failures | Chris Waitt, Henry Trotter, Mary Burke |
| 2008 (11th) | Derek | Isaac Julien |
| 2008 (11th) | Of Time and the City | Terence Davies, Solon Papadopoulos, Roy Boulter |
| 2008 (11th) | Three Miles North of Molkom | Robert Cannan, Corinna McFarlane |
| 2009 (12th) | Mugabe and the White African | Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, David Pearson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock |
| 2009 (12th) | The Age of Stupid | Franny Armstrong, Lizzie Gillett |
| 2009 (12th) | The End of the Line | Rupert Murray, George Duffield, Claire Lewis |
| 2009 (12th) | Sons of Cuba | Andrew Lang, Francine Heywood, Laura Giles |
| 2009 (12th) | Sounds Like Teen Spirit | Jamie Jay Johnson, Simon Fawcett, Maxyne Franklin, Jess Search, Paul White |

### 2010s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 2010 (13th) | Enemies of the People | Thet Sambath, Rob Lemkin |
| 2010 (13th) | The Arbor | Clio Barnard |
| 2010 (13th) | Exit Through the Gift Shop | Banksy, Jaimie D'Cruz |
| 2010 (13th) | Fire in Babylon | Stevan Riley |
| 2010 (13th) | Waste Land | Lucy Walker, João Jardim, Karen Harley, Angus Aynsley, Hank Levine |
| 2011 (14th) | Senna | Asif Kapadia, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, James Gay-Rees, Manish Pandey |
| 2011 (14th) | Hell and Back Again | Danfung Dennis, Martin Herring, Mike Lerner |
| 2011 (14th) | Life in a Day | Kevin Macdonald, Liza Marshall |
| 2011 (14th) | Project Nim | James Marsh, Simon Chinn |
| 2011 (14th) | TT3D: Closer to the Edge | Richard De Aragues, Steve Christian, Marc Samuelson |
| 2012 (15th) | The Imposter | Bart Layton, Dimitri Doganis |
| 2012 (15th) | Dreams of a Life | Carol Morley, Cairo Cannon |
| 2012 (15th) | London: The Modern Babylon | Julien Temple |
| 2012 (15th) | Marley | Kevin Macdonald, Charles Steele |
| 2012 (15th) | Roman Polanski: A Film Memoir | Laurent Bouzereau, Luca Barbareschi, Andrew Braunsberg, Christoph Fisser, Henning Molfenter, Charlie Woebcken |
| 2013 (16th) | Pussy Riot: A Punk Prayer | Mike Lerner, Maxim Pozdorovkin, Havana Marking |
| 2013 (16th) | The Great Hip Hop Hoax | Jeanie Finlay |
| 2013 (16th) | The Moo Man | Andy Heathcote, Heike Bachelier |
| 2013 (16th) | The Spirit of '45 | Ken Loach, Rebecca O'Brien, Kate Ogborn, Lisa Marie Russo |
| 2013 (16th) | The Stone Roses: Made of Stone | Shane Meadows, Mark Herbert, Libby Durdy |
| 2014 (17th) | Next Goal Wins | Mike Brett, Steve Jamison, Kristian Brodie |
| 2014 (17th) | 20,000 Days on Earth | Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard |
| 2014 (17th) | Night Will Fall | André Singer, Sally Angel, Brett Ratner |
| 2014 (17th) | The Possibilities are Endless | James Hall, Edward Lovelace |
| 2014 (17th) | Virunga | Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara |
| 2015 (18th) | Dark Horse: The Incredible True Story of Dream Alliance | Louise Osmond |
| 2015 (18th) | Amy | Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees |
| 2015 (18th) | How to Change the World | Jerry Rothwell, Al Morrow, Bous de Jong |
| 2015 (18th) | Palio | Cosima Spender |
| 2015 (18th) | A Syrian Love Story | Sean McAllister, Elhum Shakerifar |
| 2016 (19th) | Notes on Blindness | Peter Middleton, James Spinney, Mike Brett, Jo-Jo Ellison, Steve Jamison, Alex Usborne |
| 2016 (19th) | Dancer | Steven Cantor, Gabrielle Tana |
| 2016 (19th) | The Confession: Living the War on Terror | Ashish Ghadiali, James Rogan |
| 2016 (19th) | The Hard Stop | George Amponsah, Dionne Walker |
| 2016 (19th) | Versus: The Life and Films of Ken Loach | Louise Osmond, Rebecca O'Brien |
| 2017 (20th) | Almost Heaven | Carol Salter |
| 2017 (20th) | Half Way | Daisy-May Hudson |
| 2017 (20th) | Kingdom of Us | Lucy Cohen, Julia Nottingham, Lucas Ochoa, Thomas Benski, Bill Rudgard |
| 2017 (20th) | Uncle Howard | Aaron Brookner, Paula Alvarez Vaccaro |
| 2017 (20th) | Williams | Morgan Matthews, Hayley Reynolds, Sarah Hamilton |
| 2018 (21st) | Evelyn | Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara |
| 2018 (21st) | Being Frank: The Chris Sievey Story | Steve Sullivan |
| 2018 (21st) | Island | Steven Eastwood, Elhum Shakerifar |
| 2018 (21st) | Nae Pasaran | Felipe Bustos Sierra |
| 2018 (21st) | Under the Wire | Chris Martin, Tom Brisley |
| 2019 (22nd) | For Sama | Waad Al-Kateab, Edward Watts |
| 2019 (22nd) | Coup 53 | Taghi Amirani, Walter Murch, Paul Zaentz |
| 2019 (22nd) | Diego Maradona | Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Paul Martin |
| 2019 (22nd) | Seahorse | Jeanie Finlay, Andrea Cornwell |
| 2019 (22nd) | Tell Me Who I Am | Ed Perkins, Simon Chinn |

### 2020s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 2020 (23rd) | The Reason I Jump | Jerry Rothwell, Jeremy Dear, Stevie Lee, Al Morrow |
| 2020 (23rd) | The Australian Dream | Daniel Gordon, Stan Grant, Sarah Thomson |
| 2020 (23rd) | Being a Human Person | Fred Scott, Mike Brett, Seve Jamisonand, Jo Jo Ellison |
| 2020 (23rd) | Rising Phoenix | Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui, John Battsek, Greg Nugent, Tatyana McFadden |
| 2020 (23rd) | White Riot | Rubika Shah, Ed Gibbs |
| 2021 (24th) | Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché | Paul Sng, Celeste Bell, Zoë Howe, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Matthew Silverman, Daria Mitsche |
| 2021 (24th) | Cow | Andrea Arnold, Kat Mansoor |
| 2021 (24th) | Dying to Divorce | Chloe Fairweather, Sinead Kirwan |
| 2021 (24th) | I Am Belmaya | Sue Carpenter, Christopher Hird |
| 2021 (24th) | Keyboard Fantasies | Posy Dixon, Liv Proctor |
| 2022 (25th) | Nothing Compares | Kathryn Ferguson, Eleanor Emptage, Michael Mallie |
| 2022 (25th) | My Childhood, My Country – 20 Years in Afghanistan | Phil Grabsky, Shoaib Sharifi, Amanda Wilkie |
| 2022 (25th) | My Old School | Jono McLeod, John Archer, Olivia Lichtenstein |
| 2022 (25th) | Nascondino | Victoria Fiore, Jennifer Corcoran, Aleksandra Bilić |
| 2022 (25th) | Young Plato | Neasa Ní Chianáin, Declan McGrath, David Rane |
| 2023 (26th) | If the Streets Were on Fire | Alice Russell and Gannesh Rajah |
| 2023 (26th) | Bobi Wine: The People's President | Christopher Sharp, Moses Bwayo, and John Battsek |
| 2023 (26th) | Another Body | Sophie Compton, Reubyn Hamlyn, Isabel Freeman, and Elizabeth Woodward |
| 2023 (26th) | Lyra | Alison Millar and Jackie Doyle |
| 2023 (26th) | Occupied City | Steve McQueen, Bianca Stigter, Anna Smith-Tenser, and Floor Onrust |
| 2024 (27th) | The Contestant | Clair Titley, Megumi Inman, Andee Ryder, Amit Dey and Ian Bonhôte |
| 2024 (27th) | Grand Theft Hamlet | Pinny Grylls, Sam Crane, Julia Ton and Rebecca Wolff |
| 2024 (27th) | Super/Man: The Christopher Reeve Story | Ian Bonhôte, Peter Ettedgui, Lizzie Gillett and Robert Ford |
| 2024 (27th) | Two Strangers Trying Not to Kill Each Other | Jacob Perlmutter, Manon Ouimet and Signe Byrge Sørensen |
| 2024 (27th) | Witches | Elizabeth Sankey, Jeremy Warmsley, Chiara Ventura and Manon Ardisson |