Bafta nominations dominated by WWI epicon January 19, 2023 at 3:10 pm

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Netflix’s All Quiet On The Western Front receives 14 nominations ahead of the ceremony in February.

Promotional image from All Quiet on the Western FrontImage source, Reiner Bajo/Netflix

Netflix’s All Quiet On The Western Front leads the field at this year’s Bafta Film Awards, with 14 nominations.

The critically-acclaimed World War One epic is a new screen adaptation of the 1928 novel by Erich Maria Remarque.

Its strong showing makes it the first film to score 14 or more Bafta nods since The King’s Speech in 2011.

Elsewhere, The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once get 10 nominations each, with Elvis following closely behind with nine.

The top nominees

  • 14 – All Quiet On The Western Front
  • 10 – Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Banshees of Inisherin
  • 9 – Elvis
  • 5 – Tár
  • 4 – Aftersun, The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick, The Whale and Good Luck to You, Leo Grande

The 14 nods for All Quiet On The Western Front means it ties with 2001’s Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon as the foreign-language film with the most nominations in Bafta’s history

Nominees in the acting categories this year include Cate Blanchett, Emma Thompson, Colin Farrell, Michelle Yeoh, Eddie Redmayne and Viola Davis.

Ke Huy Quan and Michelle Yeoh

Image source, Lionsgate

Several box office smashes have also been recognised in this year’s shortlist, including Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water.

However, all of the nominations scored by both films are for technical prizes. In total, there are 45 films nominated this year across all categories.

There are some notable absences – such as actress Olivia Colman and director Steven Spielberg – neither of whom made the Bafta longlist.

But some omissions are thought to be at least partly due to the new methods the British Academy uses to determine nominees.

The Bafta Film Awards 2023 will take place on 19 February at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London. The ceremony, hosted by Richard E Grant, will air on BBC One.

All Quiet On The Western Front is frontrunner

Austrian actor Felix Kammerer (left) and German actor Albrecht Schuch at the premiere of All Quiet On The Western Front

Image source, Getty Images

All Quiet On The Western Front is a brutally violent but widely praised adaptation of the novel of the same name. It was previously adapted for the screen in 1930 and 1979.

Critics have lavished praise on the latest version, whish is directed by Edward Berger and stars Austrian actor Felix Kammerer.

The film looks at World War One from the German perspective, through the eyes of an idealistic young soldier named Paul Bäumer (Kammerer) who is confronted with the increasingly barbaric realities of war.

The last non-English language film to win the Bafta for best film was Alfonso Cuarón’s Roma in 2019.

In the top Bafta category, best film, it faces competition from Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis Presley biopic, and Todd Field’s psychological drama Tár, which follows a disgraced orchestra conductor.

The other nominees include Martin McDonagh’s comedy The Banshees of Inisherin, which is about two feuding friends in 1920s Ireland. The film did well at the recent Golden Globes.

The madcap sci-fi adventure Everything Everywhere All At Once, which follows a woman who hops through the multiverse exploring different versions of herself, is also in contention.

Which actors are nominated?

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Cate Blanchett is nominated for leading actress for her performance in Tár – in which she plays a renowned orchestra conductor whose career starts to unravel when she is accused of abuse.

The actress has previously been nominated for seven Bafta Film Awards, winning three times for Blue Jasmine, The Aviator and Elizabeth.

Widely seen as one of the frontrunners for the best actress Oscar, Blanchett faces competition in the category at the Baftas from fellow awards favourite Michelle Yeoh (for Everything Everywhere All At Once).

The other nominees are Viola Davis (for The Woman King), Danielle Deadwyler (Till), Ana De Armas (Blonde), and Emma Thompson (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande).

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The leading actor category, meanwhile, sees recognition for all three of the Oscar frontrunners – Austin Butler (for Elvis), Brendan Fraser (The Whale) and Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin).

The other nominees in the category are Bill Nighy (for Living), Daryl McCormack (Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) and Paul Mescal (Aftersun).

Two actors widely considered as Oscar lock ins in the supporting categories receive Bafta nominations – Angela Bassett (for Wakanda Forever) and Ke Huy Quan (Everything Everywhere All At Once).

Across all the acting categories, 40% of the nominees this year are people belonging to ethnic minorities – 10 of the 24 available slots.

Who missed out?

Steven Spielberg

Image source, EPA

There are some notable absences in this year’s Bafta list – Hollywood giants Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans) and James Cameron (Avatar: The Way of Water) were not even longlisted for best director.

However, such absences are thought to be partly due to the relatively new methods Bafta use to compile nominations. Since 2021’s ceremony, juries have been enlisted to determine a certain number of nominees in most categories, as part of a drive to ensure diversity.

The director longlist was required to have an even split of male and female nominees. Eight of each were longlisted earlier this month, but more than twice the number of men had been submitted as women.

Janelle Monáe

Image source, Reuters

However, Spielberg is nominated in the best original screenplay category – marking the only nomination for The Fabelmans, a strong Oscars contender.

In the acting categories, another omission from the longlists was Olivia Colman, usually an awards season favourite. However, her Empire of Light co-star, Michael Ward, is nominated for best supporting actor.

Women Talking, which follows abused women from an isolated Mennonite colony, and the popular Knives Out sequel Glass Onion, have been shut out entirely despite receiving four longlist nominations each.

Rising stars and record breakers

Naomi Ackie

Image source, Reuters

First time nominees feature heavily at this year’s ceremony, with 14 of the 24 nominees in the performance categories receiving their first ever Bafta Film nomination, including Farrell and Fraser.

Mandy Walker is nominated for best cinematographer for her work on Elvis. If she wins, she will become the first ever female winner of the category.

All of the nominees in the category for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer are women.

They are Charlotte Wells (for Aftersun), Georgia Oakley and Hélène Sifre (Blue Jean), Marie Lidén (Electric Malady), Katy Brand (Good Luck To You, Leo Grande) and Maia Kenworthy (Rebellion).

Meanwhile, the nominations for the rising star award, which recognises promising younger talent, announced earlier this week, include Naomi Ackie, who portrayed Whitney Houston in the recent biopic I Wanna Dance With Somebody.

The Woman King’s Sheila Atim, Peaky Blinders star Daryl McCormack, and Sex Education stars Aimee Lou Wood and Emma Mackey are also nominated for rising star.

The Bafta Film Awards are sandwiched between the Golden Globes, which took place last week, and the Oscars, which will be held on 12 March, marking the conclusion of awards season.

Actor Richard E Grant will host this year’s ceremony, stepping into the shoes of last year’s presenter Rebel Wilson.

Grant was most recently nominated for a Bafta himself in 2019, for his performance opposite Melissa McCarthy in Can You Ever Forgive Me?

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