'Oppenheimer' leads BAFTA nominees
“Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan's film about the development of the atomic bomb, received the highest number of nominations Thursday for this year's EE British Academy Film Awards, known as the BAFTAs.
The film received thirteen awards at the British equivalent of the Oscars, including Best Picture, where it competed against four other titles, including 'Killers of The Flower Moon', Martin Scorsese's epic about the Osage killings from the 1920s, and 'Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos' sexually charged version of a Frankenstein story starring Emma Stone. “Poor Things” followed “Oppenheimer” with a total of 11 nominations.
The other titles nominated for best film are Justine Triet's Palme d'Or winner 'Anatomy of a Fall', about a woman accused of murdering her husband, and 'The Holdovers', Alexander's story Payne about a boarding school teacher who has to take care of her students during the holidays.
The nominations for “Oppenheimer” come just days after the film won three of the top awards at this year's Golden Globes, and will be seen by many as further boosting its chances at this year's Oscars; the voting bodies of BAFTA and Oscar overlap. This year's Oscar nominations will be announced on Tuesday.
Although “Oppenheimer” garnered the most nominations, the highest profile categories included a variety of films. In the best director category, Nolan, Triet and Payne were nominated together with Bradley Cooper for 'Maestro', his biopic about Leonard Bernstein; Jonathan Glazer for 'The Zone of Interest', a film about daily life in the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust; and Andrew Haigh for “All of Us Strangers,” a critically acclaimed British film about a lonely gay writer.
“Barbie,” Greta Gerwig's blockbuster about the doll who goes on a journey to discover herself, was not nominated in the best picture or best director categories, but Margot Robbie, its star, did receive a nomination for best leading actress. Robbie will compete for that award alongside the stars of other high-profile films, including Emma Stone (“Poor Things”), Carey Mulligan (“Maestro”) and Fantasia Barrino (“The Color Purple”). Sandra Hüller was also nominated for 'Anatomy of a Fall', as was Vivian Oparah for her role in the British rom-com 'Rye Lane', set in a diverse part of South London.
Lily Gladstone, who earlier this month became the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for best actress for her performance in “Killers of The Flower Moon,” was not nominated for a BAFTA.
Gladstone's co-star Leonardo DiCaprio was also snubbed in the best actor category. Nominees in that category instead included Cillian Murphy for 'Oppenheimer', Cooper for 'Maestro' and Barry Keoghan for 'Saltburn'. They will compete against Paul Giamatti for his leading role in 'The Holdovers', Colman Domingo for 'Rustin' and Teo Yoo for 'Past Lives', Celine Song's melancholic film about two childhood friends who keep reuniting later in life.
In 2020, the organizers of the BAFTAs revised the nomination processes for the awards in an effort to improve the diversity of nominees. The changes included assigning voters fifteen films to watch all before making their selection. Sara Putt, chairman of BAFTA, said in an interview that the inclusion of Oparah among the leading actor nominees showed that the changes were helping to showcase smaller films, but she added that there was “still more to do” to to increase diversity in the film world. industry.
The winners of this year's BAFTAs are expected to be announced on February 18 at a ceremony at London's Royal Festival Hall, hosted by David Tennant. The ceremony will be broadcast on BritBox in the United States.