Hard Truths, Wicked Little Letters & Love Lies Bleeding win at the British Independent Film Awards

Published: December 8, 2024 — Film4, the feature film division of Channel 4, is celebrating the winners for Film4-backed features at the 2024 British Independent Film Awards, including Best Lead Performance (Marianne Jean-Baptiste) and Best Ensemble Performance (Wicked Little Letters cast).

Hard Truths is Mike Leigh’s thirteenth film with Film4 and reunites him with Marianne Jean-Baptiste and Michele Austin, coming full circle since their collaboration in Secret & Lies nearly thirty years ago. The film premiered at TIFF, San Sebastian, New York and London Film Festivals and will be released in cinemas on 31st January 2025 in the UK. Wicked Little Letters is directed by Thea Sharrock and stars Olivia Colman, Jessie Buckley, Anjana Vasan, Joanna Scanlan, Gemma Jones, Malachi Kirby, Lolly Adefope, Eileen Atkins, Timothy Spall and Hugh Skinner. The film received £9.6m at the UK box office this year. Love Lies Bleeding, directed by Rose Glass and starting Kristen Stewart and Katy O’Brian, premiered at Sundance and Berlinale and received a cult following with audiences and 5-star reviews from the critics earlier this year calling the film “superb” and “jaw-dropping”.

Ollie Madden, Director of Film4 & Channel 4 Drama comments: “Congratulations to Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths, Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters and Rose Glass’ Love Lives Bleeding. These films represent the broad range of bold, original, independent filmmaking coming out of the UK, and Film4 is thrilled to have backed them.

“Mike Leigh is one of the very best filmmakers working today, and it’s wonderful that the incomparable Marianne Jean-Baptiste has been recognised for her tour de force performance.

“Thea Sharrock’s smash hit comedy Wicked Little Letters captivated audiences with its winning ensemble cast, so it’s fabulous news the jury has chosen to reward these expert performances.”

Marianne Jean-Baptiste won Best Lead Performance for Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths and Thea Sharrock’s Wicked Little Letters was also awarded Best Ensemble Performance by the BIFA jury. In November in the craft awards, Ben Fordesman won Best Cinematography for Rose Glass’ Love Lies Bleeding.