BIFA Nominations: Is "Belfast" a David or a Goliath?
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 at 4:47PM by Nathaniel R
In extremely good news for presumed Oscar frontrunner Belfast, they're still running as a "David" rather than a "Goliath" in the Oscar race. That's by way of a leading the British Independent Film Award nominations without truly hogging the spotlight since Kenneth Branagh's charming memoir film missed in the big categories like Film and Director. It still leads the nominations by way of across the board love in the craft categories. It's funny because we initially thought it might have the opposite problem at the Oscar. Yes, it's a period drama but it's not particularly flashy about its craft elements (beyond the black & white cinematography and the Van Morrison songscape). Tying it for most nominations, 9, is a continuous shot movie called Boiling Point by Philip Barantini.
Five other films also scored six or more nominations suggesting the juries had a small pool to choose from or only loved seven films. The Souvenir Part II, Censor, Ali & Ava, The Nest, and After Love were all obviously well regarded, too. A complete list of nominations and more after the jump...
Best British Independent Film
After Love
Ali & Ava
Boiling Point
The Nest
The Souvenir Part II
Best Director
Philip Barantini, Boiling Point
Clio Barnard, Ali & Ava
Sean Durkin, The Nest
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir Part II
Aleem Khan, After Love
The picture and director lists are an exact match this year.
Best Actress
Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Carrie Coon, The Nest
Claire Rushbrook, Ali & Ava
Joanna Scanlan, After Love
Ruth Wilson, True Things
Yay Joanna Scanlan (pictured up top). She plays a woman who is suddenly widowed and realizes her husband has kept a large secret from her. We still fondly recall our interview with her years ago.
It's a surprise to see The Nest resurface again a year after its US indie awards play last season but distribution can vary a lot from country to country.
Potentially muddying the waters for her Supporting Oscar campaign, Balfe is ruled a leading lady here. It's so curious to us when juries take stands against category placements and when they don't. Balfe has a large role in Belfast but it's more of an ensemble picture with little Jude Hill the only constant focal point so the supporting decision doesn't bother us at all (and you know how much of sticklers we are for category fraud each year). Calling Balfe supporting is much less fraudulent and ridiculous than supporting placement for Rachel Weisz in The Favourite or Elizabeth Debicki for Vita & Virginia (titular role!) or Alice Englert for Ginger & Rosa (titular role!) all of whom were placed in the supporting character at BIFA. (sigh)
CLARIFICATION 11/4/21-- I've now heard from a source in London that both Balfe and Dornan were submitted as leads to the BIFA jury. Why they were submitted this way despite an already in-motion Oscar campaign for "supporting" for each of them is a mystery.
Best Actor
Riz Ahmed, Encounter
Adeel Akhtar, Ali & Ava
Stephen Graham, Boiling Point
Jude Law, The Nest
James Norton, Nowhere Special
Riz Ahmed lost this category last year (to Anthony Hopkins in The Father) but he's back again for Encounter which hits Amazon Prime in the US on December 10th.
Best Supporting Actress
Judi Dench, Belfast
Jo Hartley, Sweetheart
Nathalie Richard, After Love
Vinette Robinson, Boiling Point
Tilda Swinton, The Souvenir Part II
Best Supporting Actor
Talid Ariss, After Love
Richard Ayoade, The Souvenir Part II
Lucian-River Chauhan, Encounter
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Ray Panthaki, Boiling Point
Traditionally hunky leading men often have trouble with awards bodies and perhaps BIFA ignoring Jamie Dornan who does very fine work as the dad in Belfast is a sign of Oscar fumbling to come? Or perhaps not. Did they also feel he was a leading man like his screen wife in the ensemble film?
Breakthrough Performance
Jude Hill, Belfast
Max Harwood, Everybody's Talking about Jamie
Lauryn Ajufo, Boiling Point
Ellora Torchia, In the Earth
Nell Barlow, Sweetheart
Ellora Torchia is pictured above in In the Earth a horror film which is currently streaming on Hulu.
The Douglas Hickox Award
(Best Debut Director)
Prano Bailey-Bond, Censor
Celeste Bell, Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché [Also Directed By Paul Sng]
Cathy Brady, Wildfire
Aleem Khan, After Love
Marley Morrison, Sweetheart
Best Screenplay
Clio Barnard, Ali & Ava
Terence Davies, Benediction
Sean Durkin, The Nest
Joanna Hogg, The Souvenir Part II
Aleem Khan, After Love
Breakthrough Producer
Michelle Antoniades, Sweetheart
Helen Jones, Censor
Jessica Malik, She Will [Also Produced By Bob Last]
Hester Ruoff, Boiling Point [Also Produced By Bart Ruspoli]
Rob Watson, The Power [Also Produced By Matthew James Wilkinson]
Best Debut Screenwriter
Prano Bailey-Bond, Censor [Also Written By Anthony Fletcher]
Cathy Brady, Wildfire
Aleem Khan, After Love
Marley Morrison, Sweetheart
Reggie Yates, Pirates
The Raindance Discovery Award
Bank, Job Daniel Edelstyn, Hilary Powell, Christopher Hird
The Bike Thief, Matt Chambers, Pk Fellowes, Sophia Gibber, Lene Bausager
I Am Belmaya, Sue Carpenter, Christopher Hird
Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché, Paul Sng, Celeste Bell, Zoë Howe, Rebecca Mark-Lawson, Matthew Silverman, Daria Nitsche
Rebel Dykes, Harri Shanahan, Siân A. Williams, Siobhan Fahey
Cláudio reviewed Poly Styrene from SXSW earlier this year.
Best British Short Film
Egúngún (Masquerade)
Femme
Night Of The Living Dread
Play It Safe
Precious Hair & Beauty
Best International Independent Film
Compartment No. 6 (Finland)
First Cow (US)
Flee (Denmark)
Petite Maman (France)
Pleasure (US)
Here we have the Finnish and Danish Oscar submissions plus last year's American critical darling and female focused stories from France and the US
Best Casting
Shaheen Baig, After Love
Shaheen Baig, Ali & Ava
Shaheen Baig, Pirates
Lucy Bevan, Emily Brockmann, Belfast
Carolyn Mcleod, Boiling Point
Shaheen Baig continues to kill it across the pond. This marks 9 BIFA nominations across her career, though strangely she hasn't yet won.
Best Cinematography
Mátyás Erdély, The Nest
Magdalena Kowalczyk, Cow
Matthew Lewis, Boiling Point
Annika Summerson, Censor
Haris Zambarloukos, Belfast
It's a bit of a surprise to see a documentary pop up here (Andrea Arnold's Cow - recently discussed)
Best Costume Design
Michael O’Connor, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain
Grace Snell, The Souvenir Part II
Guy Speranza, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Annie Symons, Benediction
Charlotte Walter, Belfast
The Electrical Life of Louis Wain starts streaming Friday on Amazon Prime. It'll be interesting to see whether Oscar loved designers like O'Connor and Sandy Powell (Mothering Sunday) can compete with the less-Oscar-loved designers on more powerhouse across the board contenders this year.
Best Music
Iain Cooke, Pirates
Connie Farr, Harry Escott, Ali & Ava
Jed Kurzel, Encounter
Clint Mansell, In The Earth
Van Morrison, Belfast
I wonder if Morrison will be eligible for an oscar nomination? You have to have a certain number of minutes of an original score for Oscar contention (it's not just called "Music") and, in the memory at least, Belfast plays more like a greatest hits soundtrack film.
Best Effects
Steven Bray, Mike Knights, Dashcam
Gary Brown, István Molnár, Dan Martin, Censor
Rupert Davies, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain
Best Editing
Helle Le Fevre, The Souvenir Part II
Rebecca Lloyd, Jacob Schulsinger, Nicolas Chaudeurge, Cow
Úna Ní Dhonghaíle, Belfast
Mark Towns, Censor
Ben Wheatley, In The Earth
Best Make-Up & Hair
Siobhan Harper-Ryan, The Souvenir Part II
Vickie Lang, Kristyan Mallett, Donald Mcinnes, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain
Ruth Pease, Censor
Nadia Stacey, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
Wakana Yoshihara, Belfast
I have a confession: though we posted a positive review from Chris here I did not like Everybody's Talking about Jamie. Didn't enjoy the tinny songs and had a lot of problems with the lead character.
Best Production Design
Jim Clay, Belfast
Stéphane Collonge, The Souvenir Part II
Suzie Davies, The Electrical Life Of Louis Wain
Aimee Meek, Boiling Point
Paulina Rzeszowska, Censor
Best Sound
Nicolas Becker, Cyril Holtz, Linda Forsen, Cow
James Drake, Boiling Point
Tim Harrison, Jamie Roden, Adele Fletcher, Censor
Martin Pavey, In The Earth
Andrew Stirk, Paul Davies, Morgan Muse, Bernard O’reilly, Julian Howarth, Encounter
The craft winners will be announced in two weeks on November 19th but the actors and directors will have to wait for the in-person ceremony on December 5th to see if they won.
Reader Comments (8)
Personally I find weird to see a film nominated for editing, cinematography , production design and almost all cast and not have a best directing nod ( if not best film ). Who called the shots there? :-)
Surprised at the BELFAST snubs in top categories. I wonder if it's a jury like BAFTA or voters thought it would get enough love and spread their votes elsewhere. At least it's a win for the smaller films that won't get the same recognition at Oscar (hello THE NEST!)
Have not seen "Belfast" yet, but I loved "Boiling point"! The intensity of it kept me breathless from the beginning to the end. I guess I'm a fan overall of continuously shot films, like "1917" and one of my all time favorites "Victoria". This backside of one evening in a top restaurant is truly one of the best films this year :)
Ellora Torchia is very good ina terrible film.
Dornan could be the person who gets all precursors and looses out last minute.
i agree with you on the underwhelming ‘everybody’s talking about jamie’ [although that flashback scene with richard e grant was outstanding]
adelutza -- i can only assume they have different juries for acting than in film.
Glad you called out Shaheen Baig. Her filmography is amazing.
I gave Jamie 3 stars because it WAS underwhelming (still less cringey than The Prom tho), only 4 standout songs, including the new This Was Me. But Max Harwood, in his first ever professional role, was amazing. The camera loves his face. And he didn't annoy me half as much as that kid, Olly, did, the lead in It's A Sin, who's rumored to be the new Doctor Who.
And I LOVE Joanna Scanlan. I'll have to dig out your interview with her. She's equally good in comedy and drama, and can write! Getting On is a lovely piece of work.
Not necessarily related to these nominations but to Belfast in general, I kind of wonder if it might miss out on what would otherwise be a pretty easy Best Original Song nomination due to Van Morrison's very vocal anti-vaccination, anti-mask stance. Even if he does get nominated, I imagine he probably won't even be allowed to attend the ceremony if he refuses to get vaccinated or wear a mask.