So, the BAFTA nominations are out, and what a strikingly diverse set they are! I have to admit to being sideswiped here with a whole lot of films that I haven’t seen yet, and a whole bunch that I’ve never heard of! The selection panel was apparently very restricted in number, and from a diverse range of backgrounds. And it shows! I think there might be some flac levelled against BAFTA for some of the choices made.
So, here is the list of nominations. (Pictures source: the BAFTA web site). By the way, I’ve ordered these in the order that they are of most personal interest to me.
Best Film
- THE FATHER Philippe Carcassonne, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt (Due for release in the UK on March 12th)
- THE MAURITANIAN Nominees TBC (Due for streaming release on April 1st)
- NOMADLAND Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao (Due for release on Disney Star on April 30th)
- PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara (Release date tbc)
- THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Stuart Besser, Marc Platt
So, due to the lack of release in the UK, I’ve only seen “the Chicago 7”. Not sure I have ever been in a position where I’ve seen so few of the nominated films before… thanks Covid!
Outstanding British Film
- CALM WITH HORSES Nick Rowland, Daniel Emmerson, Joe Murtagh
- THE DIG Simon Stone, Gabrielle Tana, Moira Buffini
- THE FATHER Florian Zeller, Philippe Carcassone, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Christopher Hampton
- HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes, Martin Gentles, Edward Kings, Roy Lee
- LIMBO Ben Sharrock, Irune Gurtubai, Angus Lamont
- THE MAURITANIAN Kevin Macdonald, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
- MOGUL MOWGLI Bassam Tariq, Riz Ahmed, Thomas Benski, Bennett McGhee
- PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara
- ROCKS Sarah Gavron, Ameenah Ayub Allen, Faye Ward, Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
- SAINT MAUD Rose Glass, Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman
Again, I’ve only seen 2 out of the 10! (“The Dig” and “Saint Maud”). Whilst I thought “The Dig” was great, my heart would be with “Saint Maud” for this one (but that’s probably vastly unfair on the other eight).
Leading Actress
- BUKKY BAKRAY Rocks
- RADHA BLANK The Forty-Year-Old Version
- VANESSA KIRBY Pieces of a Woman
- FRANCES McDORMAND Nomadland
- WUNMI MOSAKU His House
- ALFRE WOODARD Clemency
Great to see Vanessa Kirby in this list, for a spectacular performance in “Pieces of a Woman”. But perhaps more surprising is the absence of Carey Mulligan, for either “The Dig” or (I hear) “Promising Young Woman”. But again, I’m completely unsighted on 5 out of the 6 movies.
Leading Actor
- RIZ AHMED Sound of Metal
- CHADWICK BOSEMAN Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
- ADARSH GOURAV The White Tiger
- ANTHONY HOPKINS The Father
- MADS MIKKELSEN Another Round
- TAHAR RAHIM The Mauritanian
This is getting to be repetitive! But again, only seen one of these (“The White Tiger”). Must watch “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” since there’s no excuse! Great to see Adarsh Gourav nominated though: it was a stellar performance in a movie I really rated.
Supporting Actress
- NIAMH ALGAR Calm With Horses
- KOSAR ALI Rocks
- MARIA BAKALOVA Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
- DOMINIQUE FISHBACK Judas and the Black Messiah
- ASHLEY MADEKWE County Lines
- YUH-JUNG YOUN Minari
One out of 6 again! (“Borat”). Bakalova deserves a huge amount of credit for that performance though, making worldwide news with Rudi Giuliani!
Supporting Actor
- DANIEL KALUUYA Judas and the Black Messiah
- BARRY KEOGHAN Calm With Horses
- ALAN KIM Minari
- LESLIE ODOM JR. One Night in Miami…
- CLARKE PETERS Da 5 Bloods
- PAUL RACI Sound of Metal
One out of 6! But I whooped with joy when I saw that Leslie Odom Jnr had been nominated. He WAS Sam Cooke in that film, doing all his own singing too.
Director
- ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg
- BABYTEETH Shannon Murphy
- MINARI Lee Isaac Chung
- NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
- QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbanić
- ROCKS Sarah Gavron
Another surprise here in having four out of the six slots taken by woman directors. What do you bet though that it goes to one of the blokes in the end!? Of this list, I’ve only seen (and not particularly liked) “Babyteeth”. I’d personally put “Saint Maud” in this list. And a bit of a surprise that Viola Davis didn’t make the cut for “One Night in Miami”. And no Autumn de Wilde for “Emma”!
Original Screenplay
- ANOTHER ROUND Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg
- MANK Jack Fincher
- PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell
- ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
- THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Aaron Sorkin
I’ve seen two of these – “Mank” and “The Trial of the Chicago 7”, and both were great movies. Of the two, I’d probably give it to “Trial”. But again, it’s not fair to suggest that against the other three.
Adapted Screenplay
- THE DIG Moira Buffini
- THE FATHER Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
- THE MAURITANIAN Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
- NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
- THE WHITE TIGER Ramin Bahrani
As for being roundly snubbed in the acting nominations, there might be some love towards “The Dig” in this category. But from what I hear about “The Mauritanian” and “Nomadland”, they might be the ones to beat in this category. Nice to see “The White Tiger” being recognized: I thought it was great!
Original Score
- MANK Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
- MINARI Emile Mosseri
- NEWS OF THE WORLD James Newton Howard
- PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Anthony Willis
- SOUL Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Of these, the score I have on loop repeat on Spotify at the moment is “News of the World”… but it’s a very ‘traditional’ sound compared to many of the soundtracks that Mark Kermode tends to like!
Outstanding debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
- HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes (Writer/Director)
- LIMBO Ben Sharrock (Writer/Director), Irune Gurtubai (Producer) [also produced by Angus Lamont]
- MOFFIE Jack Sidey (Writer/Producer) [also written by Oliver Hermanus and produced by Eric Abraham]
- ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (Writers)
- SAINT MAUD Rose Glass (Writer/Director), Oliver Kassman (Producer) [also produced by Andrea Cornwell]
One out of 5 for this one (“Saint Maud”). What’s surprising is that some of these are TINY films. IMDB, for example, reports “Moffie” as having had a box office of under $5K worldwide! Others like “Limbo” are not due to be released in the UK until July. So, difficult to judge again, although “Saint Maud” was such a spectacular debut that surely Rose Glass is in with a shot here.
EE Rising Star Award
- BUKKY BAKRAY
- CONRAD KHAN
- KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR
- MORFYDD CLARK
- ṢỌPẸ DÌRÍSÙ
Again, I’m not sighted on the work of Bakray, Khan or Dírísú, but as this is a “peoples vote” then I suspect most of the UK public will be in a similar boat. For that reason, I think the money will be on Morfydd Clark for her mesmeric performance in “Saint Maud” and on Kingsley Ben-Adir for his astonishing performance as Malcolm X in “One Night in Miami”. And it could be a tight run thing: the former is developing a cult following among fans; but the latter has probably had the more “populist” exposure via Amazon Prime streaming. I think by a short head, Clark will get my vote (and, indeed, she just has!).
Cinematography
- JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Sean Bobbitt
- MANK Erik Messerschmidt
- THE MAURITANIAN Alwin H. Küchler
- NEWS OF THE WORLD Dariusz Wolski
- NOMADLAND Joshua James Richards
I’ve only seen “Mank” and “News of the World” in this list, and although the latter was superb, I’d probably pick “Mank” over it: there was something brilliantly crisp and other-worldly about the photography in that movie that I can’t put my finger on. Even the opening titles are breathtaking.
Editing
- THE FATHER Yorgos Lamprinos
- NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
- PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Frédéric Thoraval
- SOUND OF METAL Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
- THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Alan Baumgarten
Disappointed that Mark Towns isn’t on this list for “Saint Maud”!
Production Design
- THE DIG Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
- THE FATHER Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
- MANK Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale
- NEWS OF THE WORLD David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan
- REBECCA Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
At last! A category I can say I have seen “all but one” of! All worthy contenders, but I thought the production design for “Rebecca” (which I never got to write the review for, but liked a lot) was outstanding.
Sound
- GREYHOUND Nominees TBC
- NEWS OF THE WORLD Michael Fentum, William Miller, Mike Prestwood Smith, John Pritchett, Oliver Tarney
- NOMADLAND Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, M. Wolf Snyder
- SOUL Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker
- SOUND OF METAL Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc
Have seen 3 out of these 5. I wondered if “Greyhound” might be nominated for some of the technical categories, since it is an impressive bit of film-making. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that “Soul” might nab this one.
Special Visual Effects
- GREYHOUND Pete Bebb, Nathan McGuinness, Sebastian von Overheidt
- THE MIDNIGHT SKY Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, David Watkins
- MULAN Sean Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury
- THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher
- TENET Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley
“Greyhound” again! But the otherwise snubbed “Tenet” was spectacular in the visual effects department, so might bag this one.
Animated Film
- ONWARD Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae
- SOUL Pete Docter, Dana Murray
- WOLFWALKERS Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young
I’m not normally an “animated” film watcher either, but I did see “Soul” and thought it was great. But I know a lot of folks rave about “Wolfwalkers” too.
Costume Design
- AMMONITE Michael O’Connor
- THE DIG Alice Babidge
- EMMA. Alexandra Byrne
- MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Ann Roth
- MANK Trish Summerville
“Ammonite” seems to have been widely snubbed in these nominations, as indeed has my favourite from last year – “Emma”! I rather assumed that “Emma” might have been in last year’s, but apparently not!
Film not in the English language
- ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen
- DEAR COMRADES! Andrei Konchalovsky, Alisher Usmanov
- LES MISÉRABLES Ladj Ly
- MINARI Lee Isaac Chung, Christina Oh
- QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbanić, Damir Ibrahimovich
Have managed to see none of these, so no comment.
Documentary
- COLLECTIVE Alexander Nanau
- DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes, Keith Scholey
- THE DISSIDENT Bryan Fogel, Thor Halvorssen
- MY OCTOPUS TEACHER Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, Craig Foster
- THE SOCIAL DILEMMA Jeff Orlowski, Larissa Rhodes
Ditto… documentaries are not normally my thing.
Casting
- CALM WITH HORSES Shaheen Baig
- JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Alexa L. Fogel
- MINARI Julia Kim
- PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu
- ROCKS Lucy Pardee
Make up & Hair
- THE DIG Jenny Shircore
- HILLBILLY ELEGY Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle
- MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal
- MANK Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams
- PINOCCHIO Mark Coulier
Have you looked at what I wear? And my lockdown hair!? I am not passing any judgement on this category!
British Short Animation
- THE FIRE NEXT TIME Renaldho Pelle, Yanling Wang, Kerry Jade Kolbe
- THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf
- THE SONG OF A LOST BOY Daniel Quirke, Jamie MacDonald, Brid Arnstein
British Short Film
- EYELASH Jesse Lewis Reece, Ike Newman
- LIZARD Akinola Davies, Rachel Dargavel, Wale Davies
- LUCKY BREAK John Addis, Rami Sarras Pantoja
- MISS CURVY Ghada Eldemellawy
- THE PRESENT Farah Nabulsi
