Awards Season 2014: BAFTA Nominations

For those who may have been wondering (not very many of you, I expect), the slight delay in putting up this post comes from a move of house. But fear not, trusty award season aficionados (all 3 of you), I am now well and truly internet-ted up and can post away. Joy unbounded, eh?

Anyway, Awards Season is well and truly in full swing: it's Golden Globes weekend, and the nominations have been announced for the Producers Guild Awards, the Directors Guild Awards, and the Writers Guild Awards. Next week will see the announcement of the Razzies (on Wednesday 15th) before the Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday 16th. I will, as last year, put my official Oscar nomination predictions up the day before the announcement.

My main reason for posting, though, is that earlier this week- Wednesday 8th January, to be precise- the nominations were announced for this years BAFTA Film Awards. Here's a selection of the nominations:

BEST FILM

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Philomena

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Gravity

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

Philomena

Rush

Saving Mr. Banks

The Selfish Giant

LEADING ACTOR

Christian Bale (American Hustle)

Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)

Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

LEADING ACTRESS

Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Judi Dench (Philomena)

Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Daniel Bruhl (Rush)

Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)

Matt Damon (Behind The Candelabra)

Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)

Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)

Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)

David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Martin Scorsese (The Wolf Of Wall Street)

A full list can be found here.

There's a few interesting additions and omissions here, mostly Matt Damon's nomination for Behind The Candelabra. Both he and Michael Douglas gave great performances but, as it didn't get a cinema release in the US, it's ineligible for a lot of the major awards. However, it was released in the cinema here. A lot of the usual names have been mentioned, but in some categories- mostly Leading Actor and Supporting Actress- there are a few lesser mentioned names which could make for an interesting curve-ball or two come the Oscar nominations. I'd absolutely love to see Sally Hawkins get an Oscar nod for Blue Jasmine.

Interestingly, the five nominations for Best Director tally directly with the Directors Guild Awards so I would expect to see all five names mentioned on Thursday. 

Next up for Awards Season will be Golden Globe results on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Tez