Here's Murtada with many questions about this year's possible BAFTA nominations.
The first indication that the BAFTA nominations are upon us - besides Awards announcements every two seconds - is the nominations for the Rising Star Award. This year’s crop include two 2015 British breakthroughs in Bel Powley (Diary of A Teenage Girl) and Taron Egerton (Kingsman), two stars of major blockbusters in John Boyega (Star Wars:The Force Awakens) and Dakota Johnson (50 Shades of Grey) and one Oscar front runner in Brie Larson (Room). Their usual eclectic mix for this voted by the public award. Vote now if you are a UK resident.
But more importantly let's look at what Friday morning may bring by examining some trends from the last few years of BAFTA and what they could mean after the jump......
The Brits are coming!
Of course there are always a few British nominees that appear at BAFTA and BAFTA only. Whether from a best picture nominee (Ralph Fiennes in The Grand Budapest Hotel) or just a really well loved Brit (Imelda Staunton in Pride).
Brits who may appear this year include Ian Mckellen for Mr Holmes and Julie Walters for Brooklyn. Sicario just nabbed a PGA nomination and Emily Blunt is a 2 time nominee so is 3 the charm? Doubtful. However watch out for Carey Mulligan since Suffragette was a substantial hit in the UK. Might Powley be a double nominee? Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) is not yet a Dame so who knows. She might only get nominated for the big one next Thursday. Dame Maggie Smith though could get one of the slots in best actress for The Lady in the Van.
Late UK Releases
BAFTA mostly ignored American Sniper and Dallas Buyers Club because of their late releases in the UK. That doesn’t always happen though. Julianne Moore won last year before Still Alice made it to UK cinemas.
The Big Short seems very strong and will get nominations across the board. Room won the British Independent International Award film over Carol and Son of Saul. It definitely has a high profile in UK so Brie Larson is safe, but beyond that we will have to see.
Creed will be released next week in so we will have to do with it missing another best picture lineup. Can Helen Mirren pull Trumbo through despite its February release? So many questions.
Anomalies
Do you remember that last year Damien Chazelle (Whiplash) was nominated for best director? No. How about Rene Russo (Nightcrawler) for supporting actress? Who will BAFTA fall in love with out of nowhere this year.
John Crawley for direction and Emory Cohen for supporting actor could join surefire nominee Saoirse Ronan for Brooklyn. Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot) famously got in for best actor despite his young age. Could it happen for Abraham Attah (Beasts of No Nation)? He’s not British but very popular Brit co-star Idris Elba could pull him along if they want a pair. Also watch out for Macbeth, it was released in October and led the BIFAs, although it didn’t win a single award. A best supporting actress nod for Marion Cotillard or a costume nomination for Jacqueline Durran will not be huge surprises.
Category Placement
Everyone is bored with the Rooney Mara / Alicia Vikander category placement conversation but an indication for which category they might appear in will be BAFTA. Or not. Last year they nominated Steve Carell (Foxcatcher) in supporting and he was in lead for all other awards including Oscar. BAFTA marches to their own drum. Go ahead guess on some category surprises we might see.
Who do you think will be happy on BAFTA morning? Who will be the late surging contender appearing first at BAFTA before Oscar's coveted shortlist announcements?