BAFTA Longlists: "Emilia Pérez" rises, Jolie falls
Friday, January 3, 2025 at 2:00PM
Cláudio Alves in A Complete Unknown, All We Imagine as Light, Angelina Jolie, BAFTA, Emilia Perez, Kneecap, Oscars (24), Punditry, September 5, The Apprentice, The Substance, precursors

by Cláudio Alves

Jacques Audiard's EMILIA PÉREZ scored 15 mentions in the BAFTA longlists.

Just when you think you're starting to get a grip on the season, here come the BAFTAs to throw a wrench into the proceedings. Well, in some cases, they just confirm what most already suspected. Consider the way Emilia Pérez dominates their longlists - an expected outcome if I've ever seen one - as well as the love for Conclave, Anora, The Brutalist, and a few others. The snubs are more glaring, like Angelina Jolie missing in the Best Actress final ten, or the complete shut-out of September 5 which, until now, seemed like a solid contender for at least three Oscar nominations – Picture, Original Screenplay, Editing. Truth be told, it might still get them all, but this is a stumble in their race for gold, nevertheless.

More commentary and the complete BAFTA longlists after the jump…

Please be aware that BAFTA did away with their jury save system for the nominations but not the longlists. Seven slots of each longlist go to the top vote-getters, and three are selected afterward by a jury. In Best Director, there are rules in place to secure gender parity in this phase of the vote.

 

Best Film 

The five to six Best Picture Oscar frontrunners made it as expected. A Complete Unknown continues its ascension, and The Substance proves its strength with more industry honors. Notably, A Real Pain and Sing Sing are absent, though not totally shut out of the longlists. As mentioned before, September 5 is absent altogether, while Nickel Boys managed only one nod down the line, unsurprisingly missing here. The big shockers, if we can call them that, are The Apprentice and Kneecap. I've always had a feeling that Abbasi's film would go down better with folks beyond American borders, and it's nice to be proven right, while Kneecap continues the blaze of glory that started earlier this season with its BIFA victories.

 

Best Director

This feels like the end of the line for Ridley Scott. True, the demand for gender parity might have hurt his chances here, but he's a beloved figure of British cinema with seven BAFTA nominations to his name. On the other hand, you could argue that he was only once nominated for the Best Director BAFTA, so this might mean nothing. We shall see. In other news, due to eligibility rules and release differences worldwide, La Chimera gets a well-deserved mention here. 

 

Best Actress

This race continues to be a volatile concoction, ready to explode at any moment. Angelina Jolie's snub is the big story here. However, it's worth mentioning that Spencer was completely ignored by BAFTA back in 2021, so they don't seem especially fond of Pablo Larraín's diva biopic project. Pamela Anderson's absence is almost as shocking, considering who else they shortlisted from The Last Showgirl. Alas, no Fernanda Torres will be alarming for most I'm Still Here fans, though they should face despair with a tinge of hope. Back in 2021, Penélope Cruz didn't make the BAFTA longlist, yet Sony Pictures Classics secured her that Oscar nomination. The same could happen to the Brazilian thespian. Indeed, since 2020, there has always been at least one acting nomination that materializes on Oscar morning after missing the BAFTA longlists. In Best Actress, those lucky ladies were Andra Day, the aforementioned Cruz, and Andrea Riseborough.

 

Best Actor

I have a feeling Stan just earned himself a BAFTA nomination to match his Globes one, positioning The Apprentice as his main vehicle going into the Oscars. Let's see if the Academy voters bite, despite the controversy that would surely emerge from them doing so. In other news, on account of this race's more stable nature in comparison to Best Actress, there are no snubs to report, just delightful surprises. I'm especially chuffed at Patel and Law's presence. I guess the only significant exclusion is Cillian Murphy, who is even better in Small Things Like These than in the movie that got him the Oscar last season.

 

Best Supporting Actress

At long last, an awards group remembers to honor the actual best performance in Emilia Pérez. Three cheers for Adriana Paz! Besides her inclusion, it's worth pointing out Curtis, who seemed like she could ride the coattails of her leading lady earlier in the season but now gets longlisted without Anderson to match. Danielle Deadwyler and Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor's absence would be more meaningful if not for the BAFTAs' history. Ronan missing out with Blitz is compensated by her presence in the Best Actress longlist.

 

Best Supporting Actor

Is this the year Denzel Washington finally gets nominated for a BAFTA? We'll have to wait and see, but his chances seem higher than usual. It's also worth pointing out that this is the BAFTA category where an Oscar contender often gets snubbed yet still shows up in the Academy's lineup. In recent years, this has happened to Sterling K. Brown, Brian Tyree Henry, Judd Hirsch, and Lakeith Stanfield. So, if you're hoping for a surprise nod for the September 5 men, Adam Pearson or others, don't despair. Hope is everlasting...well, until January 17th.

 

Best Casting

Where is Sing Sing? Anyway, Kneecap ending up here despite casting its real-life subjects as themselves feels like a ballsy move, but I don't hate it. Saturday Night found dead in a ditch.

 

Best Original Screenplay

This is a big get for All We Imagine as Light, and it's notable how Challengers still shows up despite an overall disappointing BAFTA longlist performance. Mike Leigh's Hard Truths is a noteworthy absence though, weirdly enough, AMPAS' writers branch is much fonder of the auteur than the British Academy. He wasn't BAFTA-nominated for either Another Year or Happy-Go-Lucky, for example.

 

Best Adapted Screenplay

Nickel Boys gets its only mention here, which might mean nothing considering some of the BAFTAs' history. Indeed, Sing Sing is something of a surprise despite being well-positioned to get that Oscar nomination. That said, such fates might result from an exceptionally shallow pool of contenders. After all, Lee and Nightbitch made it, too. And yet, where is The Room Next Door?

 

Best Editing

Kneecap would make such a fun nominee that I'm actually rooting for it at this point. September 5 would be the big snub here, if not for the fact it was shut out by the British Academy. Still, it's a likely Oscar contender, and its absence on nomination morning would be genuinely shocking.

 

Best Cinematography

A list so baffling, I'm surprised they didn't find space for Wicked's lousy lensing. Gladiator II? Really? Anyway, Nickel Boys misses here, which should ring alarm bells for those invested in that campaign. That said, I'm more surprised to see Blitz missing the longlist.

 

Best Production Design

A spectacular longlist, even with the Romans and folk singers included. Honestly, with how much they adored Emilia Pérez, it's notable that they didn't list it here. After all, despite its contemporary setting, the entire thing depends on studio-bound sets, actual Mexico a faraway mirage for the French filmmakers.

 

 

Best Costume Design 

Sad to see The Substance get ignored again, especially when they still found space to longlist Emilia Pérez. If that damned red suit earns it a Best Costume Design Oscar nomination, I might self-combust from outrage. Then again, it'd be nice to see more contemporary-set narratives triumph in this particular race.

 

Best Make-Up & Hair

Damn, the BAFTAs were truly uninterested in A Different Man. How you can look at both Stan vehicles and think The Apprentice has the best makeup is baffling to me, but the British Academy is accustomed to such bouts of insanity. Raise a glass to the handful of Joker: Folie à Deux fans out there. They got a rare win today.

 

Best Special Visual Effects

So many CGI simians vying for gold this year, a strange but not unwelcome trend. In other news, I'm starting to wonder about Alien: Romulus which keeps popping up in these effects' categories, even when other, somewhat buzzier flicks, miss out.

 

Best Original Score 

Seeing The Substance here feels like the biggest indicator of how much the British Academy fell for Fargeat's body horror fantasia. Glad to see Blitz recognizd and the nightmarish howls of Nosferatu, too. Also, Wicked is notably absent after nabbing a surprise place in the Oscar shortlist, somehow meeting eligibility rules despite so much of John Powell's work being derived from the pre-existing songs and overture.

 

 

Best Sound

Congrats to the British Academy for being better judges of sonic excellence than their American counterparts. This list is much more interesting than AMPAS', even as both skew toward music-centered pictures. I especially love the Civil War and Substance mentions. Talk about some sickening sound effects in the latter's case, so queasy that merely thinking about them might make your stomach churn uneasily.

 

Outstanding British Film 

All the usual suspects are accounted for, except for Better Man. I must also confess that I continue to be mystified by every bit of acclaim Back to Black manages to scrounge up. That misbegotten biopic might be my pick for worst of the year.

 

Best Animated Film 

No notable absences, though it's always sad to see how resistant the British Academy is to non-Anglophone animation. I imagine Flow got here through its overwhelming buzz and the fact it's silent rather than in a "foreign" language. This race needs more variety and fewer sequels.

 

Best Documentary

It's always worth remembering just how unique the Academy's documentary branch truly is. They're almost alone in their rejection of celebrity-focused bio-like docs, as we can attest by comparing this list to the Oscar shortlist. That only makes the repeated titles all the more notable.

 

Best Film Not in the English Language

All We Imagine as Light, Black Dog, The Count of Monte Cristo, and La Chimera never got to compete for the Best International Film Oscar because their countries decided to submit other movies instead. The BAFTAs aren't ruled by the same process as AMPAS, so they're freer to recognize such works. For those hoping for world cinema to make a stronger impression this season, the way I'm Still Here and Seed of the Sacred Fig were only longlisted here is discouraging.

 

Outstanding Children's and Family Film

This is a new category, making for a fascinating case study. Personally, I wager that if this race is to be dominated by animated films also vying for the other specialized awards, is it even worth the trouble? So far, it feels redundant.

 

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

I'm overjoyed to see On Falling secure a mention from the BAFTAs, even if it doesn't go beyond this longlist stage. Same goes for Dev Patel's directorial debut, Monkey Man, whose merits were ignored by the British Academy apart from that Best Actor mention.

 

Outstanding British Short Animation

It's always to see which shorts that compete for BAFTAs are also among the Oscar shortlists. In this case, we only find one point of overlap in Wander to Wonder.

 

Outstanding British Short Film

We find another connection between the Oscar shortlists and BAFTA longlists. AMPAS tends to like short films from the British Isles, which could spell good fortune in Clodagh's future.

 

What do you make of the BAFTA longlists? Tell us your favorite surprise inclusion and the snub that most saddened you.

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