“The Favorite Grabs the Spotlight with 12 Nominations” – Update

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have announced their film nominees, and Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite topped all films with an impressive twelve film nominations, including both Best Film and Best British Film, three acting nominations, director, screenplay, and a fair share of technical nods.

Four films tied with second-most nominations: First Man, Bohemian Rhapsody, A Star is Born, and Roma with 7 each. First Man struck back hard after being snubbed by some of the guild awards with nominations for Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay, and a bunch of tech acknowledgements. Bohemian Rhapsody continues to wow after its Golden Globe shocking win with nominations for star Rami Malek and Best British Film in the top categories. Star is Born earned Film, Actor, Actress, Director, and Screenplay nods among the techs. And Roma also fared well with nominations in Director, Film, Foreign Language Film, and Screenplay.

The other two movies selected as Best Film nominees this year were Green Book, which disappointed slightly with four nominations, missing all technical categories and director, and BlacKkKlansman, which is also in for Director, Supporting Actor, Screenplay, and Original Score.

Here is the full list of nominations:

Best Film
A Star is Born
BlacKkKlansman
Green Book
Roma
The Favourite

Best British Film
Beast
Bohemian Rhapsody
McQueen
Stan & Ollie
The Favourite
You Were Never Really Here

Best Director
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War

Best Actor
Christian Bale, Vice
Steve Coogan, Stan & Ollie
Bradley Cooper, A Star is Born
Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

Best Actress
Glenn Close, The Wife
Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Viola Davis, Widows
Lady Gaga, A Star is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Best Supporting Actor
Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Timothee Chalamet, Beautiful Boy
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Richard E. Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Sam Rockwell, Vice

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, Vice
Claire Foy, First Man
Margot Robbie, Mary Queen of Scots
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Rachel Weisz, The Favourite

Best Original Screenplay
Cold War
Green Book
Roma
The Favourite
Vice

Best Adapted Screenplay
A Star is Born
BlacKkKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk

Best Animated Feature
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Best Foreign Language Film
Capernaum
Cold War
Dogman
Roma
Shoplifters

Best Cinematography
Bohemian Rhapsody
Cold War
First Man
Roma
The Favourite

Best Film Editing
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Roma
The Favourite
Vice

Best Production Design
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma
The Favourite

Best Costume Design
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots
The Favourite

Best Original Score
A Star is Born
BlacKkKlansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs
Mary Poppins Returns

Best Makeup and Hair
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mary Queen of Scots
Stan & Ollie
The Favourite
Vice

Best Sound
A Quiet Place
A Star is Born
Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Mission: Impossible-Fallout

Best Visual Effects
Avengers: Infinity War
Black Panther
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
Ready Player One

For a quick analysis of surprise inclusions, this is clearly a step forward for First Man, which has been slipping in a few races. It’s far away from guaranteed to have the same number of nominations at the Oscars as here at BAFTA, but today’s vote helps. The fact that Queen is a British rock band definitely helped Bohemian Rhapsody, which really shook me for its nominations in Editing and Cinematography. Also, good to see Viola Davis acknowledged for her performance in Widows. Steve Coogan also earned his first major accolade of the year for Stan & Ollie, whereas his co-star, John C. Reilly, was nominated at the Globes. Of course, Poland’s foreign language film contender Cold War landing nominations in Screenplay and Director are also shocks, at least for me, today, but understandable.

For the disappointments and missed opportunities, it definitely hurts both Adam McKay and Peter Farrelly, who were both just nominated at the Directors Guild Awards, to miss here at BAFTA. That directors race at the Oscars is going to truly be tricky. Also, you might notice that Black Panther was almost completely snubbed here, only earning one nom for its Visual Effects. Wow, a likely big difference between this vote and the Oscars. Emily Blunt not being in the list of Lead Actresses for Mary Poppins Returns is a big surprise, especially since the film has been a big hit internationally. And for that matter, Mary Poppins only managed three nominations, a smaller number than I anticipated.

Once again, we see Regina King miss out for If Beale Street Could Talk. She will likely replace Margot Robbie at the Oscars, but her Oscar win will be affected here, and she might only walk away with a nomination. Overall, this is another disappointing run for Beale Street, which may only land three or four Oscar noms based on its recent popularity at other awards shows. And now it seems that Sam Elliott is vulnerable for his supporting nomination for A Star is Born, and Sam Rockwell, who was nominated at the Globes over Elliott, repeated that stunt here today. He might land an Oscar nod next.

Through the tech categories, mostly everything that was nominated was in some way anticipated or understandable, though A Star is Born missing out on the Editing nomination is a curious oversight, and its inclusion in the Score category is baffling. There really wasn’t too much of a background score to the film, instead relying on the original songs. Since there isn’t an Original Song category here, I guess this is to make up for that.

BAFTA winners will be announced on Sunday, February 10th.