Awards Season 2021: BAFTA Film Awards Nominations

Afternoon all!

Bit of a surprise to find that the announcement of this year's BAFTA Film Awards nominations was not done at 7:30am, but at the more sedate time of 2:00pm. This year, it was Aisling Bea (This Way Up, Live At The Apollo) and Susan Wokoma (Enola Holmes, Chewing Gum) who did the honours, at the Royal Albert Hall.  

Here's a selection of the nominees:

BEST FILM

The Father

The Mauritanian

Nomadland

Promising Young Woman

The Trial Of The Chicago 7

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Calm With Horses

The Dig

The Father

His House

Limbo

The Mauritanian

Mogul Mowgli

Promising Young Woman

Rocks

Saint Maud

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)

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)

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)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Niamh Alger (Calm With Horses)

Kosar Ali (Rocks)

Maria Balakova (Borat Subsequent Moviefilm)

Dominique Fishback (Judas And The Black Messiah)

Ashley Madekwe (County Lines)

Youn Yuh-jung (Minari)

DIRECTOR

Lee Isaac Chung (Minari)

Sarah Gavron (Rocks)

Shannon Murphy (Babyteeth)

Thomas Vinterberg (Another Round)

Jasmila Žbanić (Quo Vadis, Aida?)

Chloé Zhao (Nomadland)

A full list of nominees can be found here.

This year, BAFTA announced longlists for all categories, so you can see what was in contention for nominations here. 

Nomadland and Rocks- a drama about a teenage girl forced to take care of herself and her younger brother when they are abandoned by their mother- lead the nominations with seven apiece, with The Father, Mank, Minari, and Promising Young Woman gaining six nods each (although that one of Promising Young Woman's nominations did not come for Carey Mulligan's central performance will no doubt raise a few eyebrows). 

A lot of the more common names thrown around this awards season- such as David Fincher, Regina King, Viola Davis, and Glenn Close- haven't shown up at the BAFTAs, although this is not necessarily a surprise; BAFTA has always skewed towards British talent and British films, so the absence of shouldn't necessarily concern anyone for next week's Oscar nods. 

Along with Carey Mulligan's non-inclusion, it is also surprising not to see nominations for Olivia Colman (The Father), Sacha Baron Cohen (The Trial Of The Chicago 7) or Gary Oldman (Mank). They're all likely to get Oscar nominations next week, and each of their respective films are eligible and in contention. That said, there's been a wide selection of very diverse films that have been honoured this year (50 films in total across all categories). 

The nominees for the 2021 Rising Star award - the only BAFTA awarded by public vote- have also been announced: Bukky Bakray, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Morfydd Clark, Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù, and Conrad Khan. Find out more about them, and cast your vote here. 

This year's BAFTAs will be given out in two separate, virtual ceremonies: the craft awards (cinematography, production design, sound etc.) will be given out on Saturday 10th April 2021, whilst the more mainstream categories (acting categories, director, Best Film etc.) get awarded on Sunday 11th April 2021. Further news on how the ceremonies will work will be forthcoming. 

Congratulations to all nominees!

There'll be another (short) post later with the nominees for this year's Directors' Guild Awards.