BAFTA Nominations: 'Dune' has a huge lead while 'West Side Story' struggles
Thursday, February 3, 2022 at 9:25AM
NATHANIEL R in BAFTA, Dune, West Side Story, Worst, precursor awards

by Nathaniel R

Dune has a gargantuan lead at the annual BAFTA awards with 11 nominations. People often look to BAFTA for clues as to last minute shifts in the Oscar voting vibes... but we strongly caution against that now. BAFTA has changed so many of their rules in the past few years and added so many intricacies to their voting (including partially juried fields and 100% juried nominations in some categories) that it's difficult to say what any particular nomination actually means or who it came from. 

Musicals had a rough morning. tick tick BOOM! went without any nominations at all (despite multiple longlistings) while West Side Story struggled. Despite five nominations (including Mike Faist, yay!) it missed in all sorts of crucial places. Nominations and comments are after the jump...

BEST FILM
BELFAST  (6 nominations overall)
DON’T LOOK UP (4 nominations overall)
DUNE (11 nominations overall)
LICORICE PIZZA (5 nominations overall)
THE POWER OF THE DOG (8 nominations overall)

It's a miss for West Side Story here but otherwise that's the DGA five with Don't Look Up popping up instead. This is the only BAFTA category where every round of voting comes from the full membership.

DIRECTOR
AFTER LOVE Aleem Khan
DRIVE MY CAR Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
HAPPENING Audrey Diwan
LICORICE PIZZA Paul Thomas Anderson
THE POWER OF THE DOG Jane Campion
TITANE Julia Ducournau

The Directing list barely lines up at all with Best Film. This category is entirely juried for the nominations which explains that divide. 

LEADING ACTRESS
LADY GAGA House of Gucci
ALANA HAIM Licorice Pizza
EMILIA JONES CODA
RENATE REINSVE The Worst Person in the World
JOANNA SCANLAN After Love
TESSA THOMPSON Passing

Another juried category (once the long list is determined by a mix of a jury and the acting branch). Joanna Scanlan squeezed in as the British critical darling this year. The rest of them are a surprising combo with all but one of the SAG nominees (Lady Gaga) missing. Still we always love a spread of wealth so it's nice to see a different lineup, especially one that includes both Reinate Reinsve and Tessa Thompson. As a reminder Penélope Cruz did not even make their longlist for Parallel Mothers so the jury could not vote on her. That said the longlisting jury could have forced her in, since they get to choose three nominees apart from the 12 the acting branch chooses. 

* one confusing note on the BAFTA acting categories is that two of these nominees in each category were decided in early January when we got the longlists (just not announced). So technically the juries determining the nominees in each acting field are only voting for 4 nominations from 13 finalists, NOT 6 from 15.

LEADING ACTOR
ADEEL AKHTAR Ali & Ava
MAHERSHALA ALI Swan Song
BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH The Power of the Dog
LEONARDO DICAPRIO Don’t Look Up
STEPHEN GRAHAM Boiling Point
WILL SMITH King Richard

Same deal as Best Actress. Another surprising lineup with only Cumberbatch and Smith representing widely-expected-to-be Oscar nominated performnaces. 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
CAITRÍONA BALFE Belfast
JESSIE BUCKLEY The Lost Daughter
ARIANA DEBOSE West Side Story
ANN DOWD Mass
AUNJANUE ELLIS King Richard
RUTH NEGGA Passing

A much more expected lineup here. A lot of teammates at TFE here have been expecting a last minute Jessie Buckley Oscar surge and if she's nominated, BAFTA will have proved the bellweather for that. Though it's a bit of a shock that she's here since Olivia Colman is not.

The big glaring snub here is Kirsten Dunst in Power of the Dog

SUPPORTING ACTOR
MIKE FAIST West Side Story
CIARÁN HINDS Belfast
TROY KOTSUR CODA
WOODY NORMAN C’mon C’mon
JESSE PLEMONS The Power of the Dog
KODI SMIT-MCPHEE The Power of the Dog

Thrilled to see Mike Faist and Woody Norman FINALLY  get some love. Woody Norman is ridiculous category fraud, of course ,but what can you do.

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
AFTER LOVE Aleem Khan, Matthieu de Braconier
ALI & AVA Clio Bernard, Tracy O’Riordan
BELFAST Kenneth Branagh, Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik, Tamar Thomas
BOILING POINT Philip Barantini, Bart Ruspoli, Hester Ruoff, James Cummings
CYRANO Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Guy Heely, Erica Schmidt
EVERYBODY’S TALKING ABOUT JAMIE Jonathan Butterell, Peter Carlton, Mark Herbert, Tom MacRae
HOUSE OF GUCCI Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, Giannina Scott, Kevin J Walsh, Roberto Bentivegna, Becky Johnston
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Edgar Wright, Tim Bevan & Eric Fellner, Nira Park, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
NO TIME TO DIE Cary Joji Fukunaga, Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, Neal Pervis, Robert Wade, Phoebe Waller-Bridge
PASSING Rebecca Hall, Margot Hand, Nina Yang Bongiovi, Forest Whitaker

Half of these nominees came from a general vote and the other half from a jury.

We've always thought it was odd that the BAFTAs have two film categories and give their own industry the second tier "best picture" prize. No other major country's top film industry award does this. Everyone else (the Goyas, The Golden Horse, Ariels, César, you name it) preference their own country's cinema rather than trying to correlate with American favourites for the top prize.

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
AFTER LOVE Aleem Khan (Writer/Director)
BOILING POINT James Cummings (Writer), Hester Ruoff (Producer) [also written by Philip Barantini and produced by Bart Ruspoli]
THE HARDER THEY FALL Jeymes Samuel (Writer/Director) [also written by Boaz Yakin]
KEYBOARD FANTASIES Posy Dixon (Writer/Director), Liv Proctor (Producer)
PASSING Rebecca Hall (Writer/Director)

But at least they give their own countrymen multiple specific awards like this one. 

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
DRIVE MY CAR Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Teruhisa Yamamoto
THE HAND OF GOD Paolo Sorrentino, Lorenzo Mieli
PARALLEL MOTHERS Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
PETITE MAMAN Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur
THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD Joachim Trier, Thomas Robsahm

Three Oscar finalists and two (Parallel Mothers and Petite Maman) that weren't submitted to the Oscars International category... which is getting very hard to predict! The big misses, given the BAFTA long list, were Flee, A Hero, and Compartment No 6 (all Oscar finalists). This category has no juries, but like the Oscars, it's not voted on by everyone but only those who volunteer to do it.

DOCUMENTARY
BECOMING COUSTEAU Liz Garbus, Dan Cogan
COW Andrea Arnold, Kat Mansoor
FLEE Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Monica Hellström
THE RESCUE Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, John Battsek, P. J. van Sandwijk
SUMMER OF SOUL (OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, Joseph Patel

Documentary is similar to Films not in the English Language (opt-in voting) except that there is also a jury component who picked three of these nominations.

ANIMATED FILM
ENCANTO Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino, Clarke Spencer
FLEE Jonas Poher Rasmussen. Monica Hellström
LUCA Enrico Casarosa, Andrea Warren
THE MITCHELLS VS THE MACHINES Mike Rianda, Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BEING THE RICARDOS Aaron Sorkin
BELFAST Kenneth Branagh
DON’T LOOK UP Adam McKay
KING RICHARD Zach Baylin
LICORICE PIZZA Paul Thomas Anderson

This category has no jury, it's just writers doing the nominating. Very disappointing to see Worst Person in the World left out considering that it scored in Actress.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CODA Siân Heder
DRIVE MY CAR Ryûsuke Hamaguchi
DUNE Denis Villeneuve
THE LOST DAUGHTER Maggie Gyllenhaal
THE POWER OF THE DOG Jane Campion

ORIGINAL SCORE
BEING THE RICARDOS Daniel Pemberton
DON’T LOOK UP Nicholas Britell
DUNE Hans Zimmer
THE FRENCH DISPATCH Alexandre Desplat
THE POWER OF THE DOG Jonny Greenwood

CASTING
BOILING POINT Carolyn McLeod
DUNE Francine Maisler
THE HAND OF GOD Massimo Appolloni, Annamaria Sambucco
KING RICHARD Rich Delia, Avy Kaufman
WEST SIDE STORY Cindy Tolan

CINEMATOGRAPHY
DUNE Greig Fraser
NIGHTMARE ALLEY Dan Laustsen
NO TIME TO DIE Linus Sandgren
THE POWER OF THE DOG Ari Wegner
THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH Bruno Delbonnel

EDITING
BELFAST Úna Ní Dhonghaíle
DUNE Joe Walker
LICORICE PIZZA Andy Jurgensen
NO TIME TO DIE Tom Cross, Elliot Graham
SUMMER OF SOUL (OR, WHEN THE REVOLUTION COULD NOT BE TELEVISED) Joshua L. Pearson

PRODUCTION DESIGN
CYRANO Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
DUNE Patrice Vermette, Zsuzsanna Sipos
THE FRENCH DISPATCH Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo
NIGHTMARE ALLEY Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau
WEST SIDE STORY Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo

COSTUME DESIGN
CRUELLA Jenny Beavan
CYRANO Massimo Cantini Parrini
DUNE Robert Morgan, Jacqueline West
THE FRENCH DISPATCH Milena Canonero
NIGHTMARE ALLEY Luis Sequeira

MAKE UP & HAIR
CRUELLA Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne
CYRANO Alessandro Bertolazzi, Siân Miller
DUNE Love Larson, Donald Mowat
THE EYES OF TAMMY FAYE Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram, Justin Raleigh
HOUSE OF GUCCI Frederic Aspiras, Jane Carboni, Giuliano Mariana, Sarah Nicole Tanno

SOUND
DUNE Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Doug Hemphill, Theo Green, Ron Bartlett
LAST NIGHT IN SOHO Colin Nicolson, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin, Dan Morgan
NO TIME TO DIE James Harrison, Simon Hayes, Paul Massey, Oliver Tarney, Mark Taylor
A QUIET PLACE PART II Erik Aadahl, Michael Barosky, Brandon Proctor, Ethan Van Der Ryn
WEST SIDE STORY Brian Chumney, Tod Maitland, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
DUNE Brian Connor, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Gerd Nefzer
FREE GUY Swen Gillberg, Brian Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis, Daniel Sudick
GHOSTBUSTERS: AFTERLIFE Aharon Bourland, Sheena Duggal, Pier Lefebvre, Alessandro Ongaro
THE MATRIX RESURRECTIONS Tom Debenham, Hew J Evans, Dan Glass, J. D. Schwaim
NO TIME TO DIE Mark Bokowski, Chris Corbould, Joel Green, Charlie Noble

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
AFFAIRS OF THE ART Joanna Quinn, Les Mills
DO NOT FEED THE PIGEONS Jordi Morera
NIGHT OF THE LIVING DREAD Ida Melum, Danielle Goff, Laura Jayne Tunbridge, Hannah Kelso

BRITISH SHORT FILM
THE BLACK COP Cherish Oteka
FEMME Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, Sam Ritzenberg, Hayley Williams
THE PALACE Jo Prichard
STUFFED Theo Rhys, Joss Holden-Rea
THREE MEETINGS OF THE EXTRAORDINARY COMMITTEE Michael Woodward, Max Barron, Daniel Wheldon

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
ARIANA DEBOSE
HARRIS DICKINSON
LASHANA LYNCH
MILLICENT SIMMONDS
KODI SMIT-MCPHEE

We've been schooled online when we bitched about it that most of these are hardly breakthroughs or unknowns but they're not meant to be. The rising star is a loose definition but we still think it's ridiculous to see Kodi Smit-McPhee here given that he has made over 20 films and has been the leading man in several of those. 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
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