Precursor: 63rd British Academy Nominations (2021)

It must first be noted that British films often perform much better with this group than they do with the Academy. This allows the 5 nominations for No Time to Die and 4 for After Love and Boiling Point to be disregarded. What’s most noticeable is the absence of Spencer, which really should have been right up their alley. Was it a result of the committee nature of nomination selection? Possibly. At least this isn’t as imbalanced as it was last year in that regard when Carey Mulligan was unfairly scrubbed from the list. Don’t Look Up looks to be the only really big winner on this list. That Best Picture nomination is golden because no one thought it would make the cut of five with this group. The rest of those citations look expected.

Dune was the most nominated film earning several citations in the craft and writing categories, yet it wasn’t one of the best directed films of the year? Suspicious. The Power of the Dog and Belfast both did well, but each hit some roadblocks that hurt their chances. Belfast wasn’t nominated in most of the craft categories, picking up a lone Editing nomination whereas The Power of the Dog pulled in Original Score and Cinematography, but not Editing. Yet, it did get the two supporting actor nominations, but not supporting actress. West Side Story had a relatively weak day as well. It received two acting nominations, but nothing in Picture or Director. Jane Campion and Paul Thomas Anderson were the only major names in the directing slate, though the appearance of Ryusuke Hamaguchi is a good sign for that film picking up the lone director nomination I was thinking could happen.

The Tragedy of Macbeth took an absolute drubbing, earning a single nomination for Cinematography. Not even Denzel Washington could get into the race over several non-starters. Andrew Garfield and Peter Dinklage could have used Actor citations to pull ahead in the nomination race with the Academy. Lady Gaga was the only frontrunner in the Actress race to score a nomination. Nothing for Jessica Chastain, Olivia Colman (an extreme shocker considering her popularity in Britain), and Nicole Kidman all got taken out by a handful of second stringers. Mike Faist makes a surprise appearance in Supporting Actor, possibly signaling his impending Oscar nomination, but Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons, Bradley Cooper, and Jamie Dornan were ignored. It could also be good news for Jared Leto’s critics that he didn’t land a nomination. Of course, House of Gucci had a bad morning, so there is that. Kirsten Dunst, Rita Moreno, Cate Blanchett, and Marlee Matlin could have used a nomination from here to further their chances at the Academy.

Apart from that, there were a lot of surprise inclusions and a lot of surprise exclusions, but it’s safe to say that other than a handful of selection, BAFTA has set itself up for irrelevance as an Oscar bellwether. Further, its selections coming after Oscar voting has closed means that these aren’t likely to change much of the calculus for our final Oscar predictions.

Nominations Tallies

(11) Dune
(8) The Power of the Dog
(6) Belfast
(5) Licorice Pizza, No Time to Die, West Side Story
(4) After Love, Boiling Point, Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, King Richard, Passing
(3) CODA, Drive My Car, The French Dispatch, House of Gucci, Nightmare Alley

The Nominations

Best Film

Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Dune
Licorice Pizza
The Power of the Dog

Best Animated Film

Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs. the Machines

Best Director

Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
Audrey Diwan – Happening
Julia Ducournau – Titane
Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car
Aleem Khan – After Love

Best Actor

Addel 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

Best Actress

Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones – CODA
Lady Gaga – House of Gucci
Renate Reinsve – The Worst Person in the World
Joanna Scanland – After Love
Tessa Thompson – Passing

Best Supporting Actor

Mike Faist – West Side Story
Ciaran 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

Best Supporting Actress

Caitriona Balfe – Belfast
Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose – West Side Story
Ann Dowd – Mass
Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard
Ruth Negga – Passing

Best Original Screenplay

Being the Ricardos
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
King Richard
Licorice Pizza

Best Adapted Screenplay

CODA
Drive My Car
Dune
The Lost Daughter
The Power of the Dog

Best Original Score

Being the Ricardos
Don’t Look Up
Dune
The French Dispatch
The Power of the Dog

Best Editing

Belfast
Dune
Licorice Pizza
No Time to Die
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Best Cinematography

Dune
Nightmare Alley
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth

Best Production Design

Cyrano
Dune
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story

Best Costume Design

Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley

Best Makeup & Hair

Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci

Best Sound

Dune
Last Night in Soho
No Time to Die
A Quiet Place Part II
West Side Story

Best Special Visual Effects

Dune
Free Guy
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
The Matrix Resurrections
No Time to Die

Best Film Not in the English Language

Drive My Car
The Hand of God
Parallel Mothers
Petite Maman
The Worst Person in the World

Best Documentary

Becoming Cousteau
Cow
Flee
The Rescue
Summer of Soul (…Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised)

Best Casting

Boiling Point
Dune
The Hand of God
King Richard
West Side Story

Best British Short Animation

Affairs of the Art
Do Not Feed the Pigeons
Night of the Living Dead

Best British Short Film

The Black Cop
Femme
The Palace
Stuffed
Three Meetings of the Extraordinary Committee

Rising Star Award

Ariana DeBose
Harris Dickinson
Lashana Lynch
Millicent Simmonds
Kodi Smit-McPhee

Best British Film

After Love
Ali & Ava
Belfast
Boiling Point
Cyrano
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
House of Gucci
Last Night in Soho
No Time to Die
Passing

Outstanding British Debut

Aleem Khan – After Love
James Cummings, Hester Ruoff – Boiling Point
Jeymes Samuel – The Harder They Fall
Posy Dixon, Liv Proctor – Keyboard Fantasies
Rebecca Hall – Passing