BAFTA Nominations

The BAFTA announced their nominations yesterday and it seemed like the one question everyone had afterwards was, "Wait, Gravity is British film?" In any case, British or not, it garnered the most nominations including one for Best British Film totaling 11 nods. The rest of nominees are as follows...

Best Film

• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave

Best British Film

• Gravity
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
• Philomena
• Rush
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Selfish Giant

Second to Gravity are its Oscar rivals, American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave, with 10 nominations each. It's a particularly strong showing for the first film and perhaps just very slightly disappointing for the latter to not have more. One of these three films will win here and at the Oscars, the only question is which one? Philomena expectedly gets a boost here doubling up like Gravity while Saving Mr. Banks surprisingly got into the British shortlist, also like Gravity.

Best Director

• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

This lineup matches 100% from the DGA nominations which could mean this is also what we'll see next week during Oscar nomination morning, but I'm hoping there'll be surprises like last year. Scorsese makes it in despite his film not cracking the Best Film category, but at least it received a few nominations which is better than completely snubbed films Dallas Buyers Club and Her, the latter of which saddens me. Now, this will be a battle between Cuaron and McQueen certainly and you'd think the British cred of the latter will give him a leg up, but who knows? Finally, how about Greengrass and his film (9 nominations!), which is having a pretty solid awards season, certainly more than I have it credit for.

Best Actor

• Christian Bale, American Hustle
• Bruce Dern, Nebraska
• Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street
• Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
• Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips

Best Actress

• Amy Adams, American Hustle
• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Judi Dench, Philomena
• Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

Yes, he's English and she plays "British," but nominating Bale and Adams here shows great support for the film which managed to get a nomination in each acting category. This meant that a few big names were left out including Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, and Matthew McConaughey among others. My dark-horse wish of a Julie Delpy nomination though didn't come to fruition. In fact, I'm pretty annoyed Before Midnight didn't register at all. Was it ineligible? Meanwhile, Brit Ejiofor and Australian Blanchett should handily win their respective categories.

Best Supporting Actor

• Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
• Daniel Bruhl, Rush
• Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
• Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
• Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave

Best Supporting Actress

• Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
• Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
• Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
• Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler

The biggest shock here is the absence of Leto who has been dominating this category all season and is the frontrunner to win an Oscar. His replacement is Matt Damon whose film had a theatrical release in Britain and thus qualified the film for the awards. Fassbender should then be seen as the front-runner here. Meanwhile, no shocking things for the actresses with the exception of June Squibb's snub. It's probably between Nyong'o and Lawrence. The BAFTA might be tempted to give Lawrence a make-up win after not giving her the award last year for her Oscar-winning role.

Best Original Screenplay

• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Behind the Candelabra
• Captain Phillips
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

You want to see how much they loved Gravity? Well, they've nominated it for its screenplay. Again, Her and Before Midnight are shockingly left off which I hope won't repeat at the Oscars next week. Good day for Inside Llewyn Davis, 12 Years a Slave, and Philomena who were all passed over for WGA nods for one reason or another. I really hoped though that this group would've picked The World's End, but alas.

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Act of Killing
• Blue is the Warmest Color
• The Great Beauty
• Metro Manila
• Wadjda

Best Documentary

• The Act of Killing
• The Armstrong Lie
• Blackfish
• Tim's Vermeer
• We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Best Animated Film

• Despicable Me 2
• Frozen
• Monsters University

Should be easy wins for Blue is the Warmest Color, The Act of Killing, and Frozen since they've all dominated their respective categories so far this season. It also helps that their toughest opponents were nominated (or eligible) in this case, The Hunt, Stories We Tell, and The Wind Rises respectively.

Best Cinematography

• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Production Design

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• Gravity
• The Great Gatsby
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Costume Design

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• The Great Gatsby
• The Invisible Woman
• Saving Mr. Banks

Best Film Editing

• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Rush
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Makeup and Hair

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• The Great Gatsby
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Lee Daniels' The Butler

Best Music

• The Book Thief
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Saving Mr. Banks
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Sound

• All is Lost
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Rush

Best Visual Effects

• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• Pacific Rim
• Star Trek Into Darkness

Gravity expectedly picked up the most technical nominations with 6 total missing out on two understandable categories (Hair/Makeup and Costumes). Captain Phillips and 12 Years a Slave picked up 4 nominations each with the latter more shockingly missing out on the same two awards Gravity wasn't nominated for.

Best Debut by British Writer, Director or Producer

• Colin Caberry and Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations
• Kelly Msarcel, Saving Mr. Banks
• Kieran Evasns, Kelly + Victor
• Scott Graham, Shell
• Paul Wright and Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril

Rising Star Award

• Dane DeHaan
• George Mackay
• Lupita Nyong'o
• Will Poulter
• Lea Seydoux

Two years ago, I knew almost all of the names in Best Debut, but like last year I'm pretty much flying blind this time around. I do most most of those nominated for the Rising Star Award with the exception of Mackay. Since this category is voted on by the public, it'll be whoever has the biggest fans. So... DeHaan? I mean he is going to be in the new Spider-Man film, but that hasn't come out yet. Any ideas?