Aussie trio backs up Oscar nominations with BAFTA nods

London: Actors Rose Byrne and Jacob Elordi and production designer Fiona Crombie have backed up their Oscar nods with nominations in this year’s British Academy Film Awards.

Byrne was nominated in the leading actress category for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Elordi was nominated as best supporting actor for Frankenstein, and Crombie’s work on Hamnet was nominated in the best production design category.

However Paul Thomas Anderson’s politically charged action thriller One Battle After Another leads the race, securing 14 nominations on Tuesday, including acting nods for five of its cast.

Ryan Coogler’s blues-steeped vampire epic Sinners is close behind with 13 nominations for Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars, while Chloé Zhao’s Shakespearean family tragedy Hamnet and Josh Safdie’s ping-pong odyssey Marty Supreme have 11 apiece.

Guillermo del Toro’s reimagining of Frankenstein and Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value each got eight nominations, rounding out a six-pack of leading contenders for both the British and Hollywood Academy Awards.

The best film nominees are One Battle After Another, Hamnet, Marty Supreme, Sinners and Sentimental Value.

BAFTA Chief Executive Jane Millichip said the nominations recognised “films like One Battle After Another, Sinners, tackling really big societal issues — the moral ambiguity of activism, Black identity,” alongside films exploring “the most intimate side of family relationships”.

“They’re all doing it in quite different ways: Strong flavours, really bold storytelling,” she said.

Hollywood heavyweights and rising stars

Best leading actor contenders are Timothée Chalamet for Marty Supreme, Leonardo DiCaprio for One Battle After Another, Ethan Hawke for Broadway biopic Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan for Sinners, Jesse Plemons for Bugonia and British actor Robert Aramayo for playing a man with Tourette’s syndrome in biographical drama I Swear.

Aramayo said it was “really crazy” to be nominated alongside Hollywood heavyweights.

“It’s absolutely amazing,” he said. “I admire each and every one of them so much.”

Besides Byrne’s nomination, the leading actress category also includes awards-season favourite Jessie Buckley for her performance as Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet. She’s up against Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You, Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue, Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another, Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value and Emma Stone for dystopian tragicomedy Bugonia.

One Battle actors Teyana Taylor, Benicio del Toro and Sean Penn are all nominated for supporting performances.

Elordi faces tough competition in the supporting actor category with Paul Mescal nominated for Hamnet, Stellan Skarsgård for Sentimental Value, del Toro and Penn for One Battle and Peter Mullan in the race for I Swear.

In the production design category, Crombie’s work on Hamnet will be up against Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another and Sinners.

The Associated Press was recognised in the best documentary category with a nomination for Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing Ukraine war portrait 2000 Meters to Andriivka, co-produced by the AP and PBS Frontline.

The winners will be announced at a February 22 ceremony in London hosted by actor Alan Cumming. The UK prizes — officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards — often provide clues about who will triumph at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held this year on March 15.

This year, unusually, Oscar nominations were announced first, with Sinners securing a record 16 nominations, followed by 13 for One Battle After Another.

The British academy has recognised several performers overlooked by the Oscars, including supporting actor nominees Mescal for Hamnet and Odessa A’zion for Marty Supreme.

The BAFTAs also have a distinctly British accent, with a separate category of best British film. Its 10 nominees include The Ballad of Wallis Island, Pillion, I Swear and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.

Tom Basden, co-writer and star of The Ballad of Wallis Island, the story of a musical duo reluctantly reunited by a superfan, said it was gratifying to receive three nominations for a movie filmed on a tiny budget in 18 days. Carey Mulligan, who spent 10 days on set, is nominated for best supporting actress.

“Sort of against the odds, we managed to create something in those conditions that we’re really proud of and that’s really hit home with people,” Basden said. “So it’s a lovely kind of underdog story in many ways.”

In search of diversity

Most BAFTA winners are chosen by 8,500 members of the UK academy of industry professionals, with one – the Rising Star Award – selected by public vote from a shortlist of nominees. This year’s rising star contenders are Infiniti, Aramayo, Sinners star Miles Caton and British actors Archie Madekwe and Posy Sterling.

Like other major movie awards, Britain’s film academy has introduced changes in recent years to increase diversity, including the addition of a longlist round before the final nominees are selected. Diversity has improved since 2020, when no women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running, and all 20 of the main acting nominees were white.

Still, Zhao is the only female nominee in the best director category, alongside Anderson, Safdie, Cooger, Yorgos Lanthimos for Bugonia and Joachim Trier for Sentimental Value. Across all categories including documentaries and shorts, 25 per cent of the directing nominees are women.

Associated Press writer Hilary Fox contributed to this story.

With AP

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