# British Independent Film Award for Best Screenplay

The British Independent Film Award for Best Screenplay is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) to recognize the best screenplay in a British independent film. The award was first presented in the 1998 ceremony with Paul Laverty being the first recipient of this award for his work in Ken Loach's My Name is Joe.
Steven Knight, Armando Iannucci and Simon Blackwell are the only nominees who have received this award more than once with two wins each while Paul Laverty has received the most nominations for this category with six followed by Lynne Ramsay with four.

## Winners and nominees
### 1990s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 1998 (1st) | My Name is Joe | Paul Laverty |
| 1998 (1st) | Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels | Guy Ritchie |
| 1998 (1st) | My Son the Fanatic | Hanif Kureishi |
| 1998 (1st) | Nil by Mouth | Gary Oldman |
| 1998 (1st) | Orphans | Peter Mullan |
| 1999 (2nd) | East Is East | Ayub Khan-Din |
| 1999 (2nd) | Beautiful People | Jasmin Dizdar |
| 1999 (2nd) | Ratcatcher | Lynne Ramsay |
| 1999 (2nd) | A Room for Romeo Brass | Paul Fraser, Shane Meadows |
| 1999 (2nd) | This Year's Love | David Kane |

### 2000s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 2000 (3rd) | Billy Elliot | Lee Hall |
| 2000 (3rd) | Gangster No. 1 | Johnny Ferguson |
| 2000 (3rd) | Last Resort | Rowan Joffé, Paweł Pawlikowski |
| 2000 (3rd) | Purely Belter | Mark Herman |
| 2000 (3rd) | Saving Grace | Craig Ferguson, Mark Crowdey |
| 2001 (4th) | Sexy Beast | Louis Mellis, David Scinto |
| 2001 (4th) | Bread and Roses | Paul Laverty |
| 2001 (4th) | The Claim | Frank Cottrell Boyce |
| 2001 (4th) | Jump Tomorrow | Joel Hopkins |
| 2002 (5th) | Lawless Heart | Tom Hunsinger, Neil Hunter |
| 2002 (5th) | Bloody Sunday | Paul Greengrass |
| 2002 (5th) | Morvern Callar | Lynne Ramsay, Liana Dognini |
| 2002 (5th) | Sweet Sixteen | Paul Laverty |
| 2003 (6th) | Dirty Pretty Things | Steven Knight |
| 2003 (6th) | Buffalo Soldiers | Gregor Jordan, Eric Weiss, Nora Maccoby |
| 2003 (6th) | Calendar Girls | Tim Firth, Juliette Towhidi |
| 2003 (6th) | The Magdalene Sisters | Peter Mullan |
| 2003 (6th) | Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself | Anders Thomas Jensen, Lone Scherfig |
| 2004 (7th) | Shaun of the Dead | Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg |
| 2004 (7th) | Ae Fond Kiss... | Paul Laverty |
| 2004 (7th) | Dead Man's Shoes | Paddy Considine, Shane Meadows |
| 2004 (7th) | The Life and Death of Peter Sellers | Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely |
| 2004 (7th) | Vera Drake | Mike Leigh |
| 2005 (8th) | Millions | Frank Cottrell Boyce |
| 2005 (8th) | A Cock and Bull Story | Martin Hardy |
| 2005 (8th) | The Constant Gardener | Jeffrey Caine |
| 2005 (8th) | Kinky Boots | Tim Firth, Geoff Deane |
| 2005 (8th) | Mrs Henderson Presents | Martin Sherman |
| 2006 (9th) | The Queen | Peter Morgan |
| 2006 (9th) | The History Boys | Alan Bennet |
| 2006 (9th) | The Last King of Scotland | Jeremy Brock, Peter Morgan |
| 2006 (9th) | This Is England | Shane Meadows |
| 2006 (9th) | Venus | Hanif Kureishi |
| 2007 (10th) | Notes on a Scandal | Patrick Marber |
| 2007 (10th) | And When Did You Last See Your Father? | David Nicholls |
| 2007 (10th) | Control | Matt Greenhalgh |
| 2007 (10th) | Eastern Promises | Steven Knight |
| 2007 (10th) | Hallam Foe | David Mackenzie, Ed Whitmore |
| 2008 (11th) | In Bruges | Martin McDonagh |
| 2008 (11th) | Hunger | Enda Walsh, Steve McQueen |
| 2008 (11th) | Slumdog Millionaire | Simon Beaufoy |
| 2008 (11th) | Somers Town | Paul Fraser |
| 2008 (11th) | Son of Rambow | Garth Jennings |
| 2009 (12th) | In the Loop | Armando Iannucci, Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Tony Roche |
| 2009 (12th) | An Education | Nick Hornby |
| 2009 (12th) | Fish Tank | Andrea Arnold |
| 2009 (12th) | Moon | Nathan Parker |
| 2009 (12th) | Nowhere Boy | Matt Greenhalgh |

### 2010s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 2010 (13th) | The King's Speech | David Seidler |
| 2010 (13th) | Four Lions | Jesse Armstrong |
| 2010 (13th) | Kick-Ass | Jane Goldman |
| 2010 (13th) | Made in Dagenham | William Ivory |
| 2010 (13th) | Never Let Me Go | Alex Garland |
| 2011 (14th) | Submarine | Richard Ayoade |
| 2011 (14th) | The Guard | John Michael McDonagh |
| 2011 (14th) | Kill List | Ben Wheatley |
| 2011 (14th) | Shame | Steve McQueen, Abi Morgan |
| 2011 (14th) | We Need to Talk About Kevin | Lynne Ramsay, Rory Stewart Kinnear |
| 2012 (15th) | Sightseers | Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Amy Jump |
| 2012 (15th) | Berberian Sound Studio | Peter Strickland |
| 2012 (15th) | Broken | Mark O'Rowe |
| 2012 (15th) | The Iron Lady | Abi Morgan |
| 2012 (15th) | Song for Marion | Paul Andrew Williams |
| 2013 (16th) | Locke | Steven Knight |
| 2013 (16th) | Le Week-End | Hanif Kureishi |
| 2013 (16th) | Philomena | Jeff Pope, Steve Coogan |
| 2013 (16th) | The Selfish Giant | Clio Barnard |
| 2013 (16th) | Starred Up | Jonathan Asser |
| 2014 (17th) | Frank | Jon Ronson, Peter Straughan |
| 2014 (17th) | '71 | Gregory Burke |
| 2014 (17th) | Calvary | John Michael McDonagh |
| 2014 (17th) | The Imitation Game | Graham Moore |
| 2014 (17th) | Pride | Stephen Beresford |
| 2015 (18th) | Ex Machina | Alex Garland |
| 2015 (18th) | 45 Years | Andrew Haigh |
| 2015 (18th) | Brooklyn | Nick Hornby |
| 2015 (18th) | High-Rise | Amy Jump |
| 2015 (18th) | The Lobster | Yorgos Lanthimos, Efthimis Filippou |
| 2016 (19th) | Under the Shadow | Babak Anvari |
| 2016 (19th) | I, Daniel Blake | Paul Laverty |
| 2016 (19th) | Adult Life Skills | Rachel Tunnard |
| 2016 (19th) | American Honey | Andrea Arnold |
| 2016 (19th) | I Am Not a Serial Killer | Christopher Hyde, Billy O'Brien |
| 2017 (20th) | Lady Macbeth | Alice Birch |
| 2017 (20th) | The Death of Stalin | Armando Iannucci, David Schneider, Ian Martin |
| 2017 (20th) | God's Own Country | Francis Lee |
| 2017 (20th) | I Am Not a Witch | Rungano Nyoni |
| 2017 (20th) | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri | Martin McDonagh |
| 2018 (21st) | The Favourite | Deborah Davis, Tony McNamara |
| 2018 (21st) | American Animals | Bart Layton |
| 2018 (21st) | Beast | Michael Pearce |
| 2018 (21st) | Disobedience | Sebastián Lelio, Rebecca Lenkiewicz |
| 2018 (21st) | You Were Never Really Here | Lynne Ramsay |
| 2019 (22nd) | The Personal History of David Copperfield | Armando Iannucci, Simon Blackwell |
| 2019 (22nd) | In Fabric | Peter Strickland |
| 2019 (22nd) | Sorry We Missed You | Paul Laverty |
| 2019 (22nd) | The Souvenir | Joanna Hogg |
| 2019 (22nd) | Wild Rose | Nicole Taylor |

### 2020s

| Year | Film | Recipient(s) |
| 2020 (23rd) | The Father | Florian Zeller, Christopher Hampton |
| 2020 (23rd) | His House | Remi Weekes |
| 2020 (23rd) | Mogul Mowgli | Bassam Tariq, Riz Ahmed |
| 2020 (23rd) | Rocks | Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson |
| 2020 (23rd) | Saint Maud | Rose Glass |
| 2021 (24th) | After Love | Aleem Khan |
| 2021 (24th) | Ali & Ava | Clio Barnard |
| 2021 (24th) | Benediction | Terence Davis |
| 2021 (24th) | The Nest | Sean Durkin |
| 2021 (24th) | The Souvenir Part II | Joanna Hogg |
| 2022 (25th) | Aftersun | Charlotte Wells |
| 2022 (25th) | Blue Jean | Georgia Oakley |
| 2022 (25th) | Good Luck to You, Leo Grande | Katy Brand |
| 2022 (25th) | Living | Kazuo Ishiguro |
| 2022 (25th) | The Wonder | Sebastián Lelio, Alice Birch and Emma Donoghue |
| 2023 (26th) | All of Us Strangers | Andrew Haigh |
| 2023 (26th) | Femme | Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping |
| 2023 (26th) | How to Have Sex | Molly Manning Walker |
| 2023 (26th) | Rye Lane | Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia |
| 2023 (26th) | Scrapper | Charlotte Regan |
| 2024 (27th) | Santosh | Sandhya Suri |
| 2024 (27th) | The Outrun | Nora Fingscheidt and Amy Liptrot |
| 2024 (27th) | Love Lies Bleeding | Rose Glass and Weronika Tofilska |
| 2024 (27th) | On Becoming a Guinea Fowl | Rungano Nyoni |
| 2024 (27th) | Kneecap | Rich Peppiatt |