AFP
Germany, Ireland and Chinese martial arts loomed large as British cinema handed out its BAFTA awards on Sunday, with less than a month to go to the Oscars.
With 14 nods, German director Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the joint most-nominated foreign-language film in the BAFTA academy’s 76-year history.
It made the early running with five awards, including for “best film not in English” and for cinematography, in the buildup to the main gongs later at what is a key indicator to the Oscars on March 12.
It has tied with Ang Lee’s martial arts drama “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, co-starring Michelle Yeoh, which also earned 14 BAFTA nominations in 2001.
Yeoh was nominated for best actress this year as a worn-down laundromat owner who transforms into a high-kicking heroine, in the wildly inventive “Everything Everywhere All At Once”.
Yeoh’s kung-fu science-fiction film received 10 BAFTA nominations, as did the pitch-black Irish comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” co-starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
“Banshees” also did well in the early awards, winning best original screenplay along with best supporting actor for Barry Keoghan and best supporting actress for Kerry Condon — who at first was not given the prize after a miscommunication on stage.
The US co-directors of “Everything Everywhere All At Once”, Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, are up jointly for the best director prize, as are Berger and Martin McDonagh for “Banshees”.
McDonagh is one of the rare British nominees for this year’s top gongs. But the “Daniels”, as they are known in the industry, will be hoping to build on their success at the Directors Guild of America awards on Saturday.
“Elvis”, Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of the king of rock and roll, is on nine BAFTA nominations, with classical music psychological drama “Tar” in line for five awards including best actress for Cate Blanchett.
The awards suffered controversy two years ago when BAFTA gave a lifetime achievement award to British actor and producer Noel Clarke, only for a series of sexual misconduct allegations to emerge against him.
This time, Bulgarian investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Christo Grozev said he has was “banned” from attending the awards, where a film about dissident Alexei Navalny won best documentary.
Grozev, who is credited with helping to reveal a plot to kill Navalny, appears in the documentary. He tweeted “wow” after the prize was announced.
“He is such an important part of this film, so it’s very sad for us that he is not here,” producer Odessa Rae told reporters at the awards.
London’s Metropolitan police said only that “some journalists face the hostile intentions of foreign states whilst in the UK”, while BAFTA said the safety of its guests and staff was a priority.
And BAFTA has faced criticism for overlooking women.
Only one, Gina Prince-Bythewood, is nominated for best director, for “The Woman King”. That is one more than the Oscars managed in that category this year.
But “Avengers: Endgame” actress Hayley Atwell, who co-announced the BAFTA nominations, praised the “variety in genre” this year.
“It shows that there is the audience, and they’re diverse in what they want. And so there is room for lots of different kinds of story-telling,” she told AFP.
For best actress, along with Yeoh and Blanchett, the competition is among Ana de Armas (“Blonde”), Emma Thompson (“Good Luck to You, Leo Grande”), Danielle Deadwyler (“Till”) and Viola Davis (“The Woman King”).
Other best director nominees include Todd Field (“Tar”) and Park Chan-wook (“Decision to Leave”).
Berger, Farrell, Blanchett and Jamie Lee Curtis were among many attendees who wore blue ribbons on their suits and gowns in support of refugees.
The gesture came after many more people were displaced by earthquakes in Turkey and Syria, and just ahead of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.
AFP
