Last week’s Oscars nominations saw Ryan Coogler’s period vampire flick Sinners score a record-breaking 16 nominations, with the Leonardo DiCaprio-led One Battle After Another in second on 13. Yet the critically acclaimed pair of movies have switched places at the BAFTAs, as Leo’s action thriller from Paul Thomas Anderson tops the nods at 14, while Michael B Jordan’s bloodsuckers are on 13. Much like their Golden Globes wins, most of the acting categories are expected shoo-ins at the BAFTAs and Oscars too, with Timothée Chalamet (Marty Supreme), Jesse Buckley (Hamnet) and Stellan Skarsgård (Sentimental Value) set to take home golden gongs. Unless there’s a huge upset, of course.
The 11-time nominated (with no Oscar wins) Paul Thomas Anderson is the bookies’ favourite for three Academy Awards in the Best Picture, Best Director and Best Adapted Screenplay. However, over at BAFTA, he’s got tough competition for Best Film with Hamnet, which has 11 nominations. The Steven Spielberg and Sam Mendes-produced “Shakespeare in Grief” drama may be boring audiences and causing walk-outs, but it has clearly impressed the British Academy voters. Having been snubbed of an Oscar nod, Paul Mescal (who previously won a BAFTA for TV’s Normal People) has bagged one in the Best Actor category.
British voters tend to go for darker, weirder films than our American cousins, hence absurdist director Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia, in which Emma Stone is abducted as a suspect alien, has more recognition than at the Academy Awards, with nods for the filmmaker and co-star Jesse Plemons. Meanwhile, it was great to see my Best Film of 2025, Danny Boyle’s zombie horror 28 Years Later, get a nod in the Outstanding British Film category alongside I Swear and The Ballad of Wallis Island, with five and three nominations, respectively.
As for the biggest snub, that goes to the Oscar-nominated Amy Madigan, who missed out on a BAFTA nod for her terrifying role as Gladys in Weapons. Additionally, Wicked: For Good managed to bag two BAFTA nominations for Costume Design and Makeup and Hair, having been totally snubbed from the Oscars after Wicked Part 1 bagged 10 the year before. And on a brighter note, Leonardo DiCaprio has his seventh BAFTA nomination for Best Actor, a joint record with the likes of Sir Michael Caine and Sir Daniel Day-Lewis.
The 79th British Academy Film Awards, hosted by Alan Cumming, will take place on February 22 and will be broadcast that evening on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
