BIFA Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film

The British Independent Film Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a British Independent Film is an annual award given by the British Independent Film Awards (BIFA) to recognize the best leading performance by an actress in a British independent film. The award was first presented in the 1998 ceremony with Kathy Burke being the first recipient of the award for her performance as Valerie in Nil by Mouth.

With two wins each, Carey Mulligan and Olivia Colman are the only nominees who have won more than once. Samantha Morton holds the record of most nominations with five, followed by Judi Dench with four.

In July 2022, it was announced that the performance categories would be replaced with gender-neutral categories, with both Best Actor and Best Actress merging into the Best Lead Performance category. Additionally, a category named Best Joint Lead Performance was created for "two (or exceptionally three) performances that are the joint focus of the film, especially where performances share a large number of scenes and screen time".

Multiple nominations

 * 5 nominations
 * Samantha Morton


 * 4 nominations
 * Judi Dench


 * 3 nominations
 * Emily Watson
 * Kate Ashfield
 * Sally Hawkins
 * Andrea Riseborough
 * Carey Mulligan


 * 2 nominations
 * Rachel Griffiths
 * Rachel Weisz
 * Saoirse Ronan
 * Keira Knightley
 * Tilda Swinton
 * Scarlett Johansson
 * Olivia Colman
 * Alicia Vikander
 * Jessie Buckley

Multiple wins

 * 2 wins
 * Carey Mulligan (consecutive)
 * Olivia Colman