BAFTA only has eyes for "Oppenheimer, "Poor Things," and "The Zone of Interest"
Monday, February 19, 2024 at 5:05PM
NATHANIEL R in BAFTA

by Nathaniel R

The Great Samantha Morton receives a BAFTA Fellowship

The last chance for "upsets" this awards season, is SAG next weekend. The BAFTAs came and went with the usual suspects taking just the prizes you'd expect them, too. Which is not to say there weren't any arguable surprises... albeit in lower profile categories. A complete list of winners and nominees are after the jump...

 

BEST FILM

Chris Nolan's science thriller / biopic is a slam dunk to take the Oscar, too. It's hard enough to beat something that reeks of prestige and perfect timing for a lauded underawarded director but add in the blockbuster box office and you have a lock for the whole awards season.

BRITISH FILM

Despite Poor Things appearing on both lists, it lost this prize to The Zone of Interest -- a slight but not major surprise.

LEAD ACTRESS

It's surely between Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone for the Oscar. Since Lily was left out here Stone only had to fend off everyone's favourite dark horse this season, Sandra Hüller. 

LEAD ACTOR 

Around Golden Globe time it looked like Paul Giamatti and Cillian Murphy were running neck-and-neck for the Oscar. Is that still the case or will Oscar revert to their time-honored statistic of loving to pair Best Picture with a Best Actor prize ?  

SUPPORTING ACTRESS 

Da'Vine Joy has basically swept the season. She has a slightly different competitive set at the Oscars but it won't matter. People love the person AND, as we've seen all throughout Oscar history, the supporting categories are a place voters often reward films that they really love that have little chance of winning elsewhere.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Someday, ten years from now, people might wonder why Robert Downey Jr had such an easy cakewalk to the Oscar ... but award seasons are like that, aren't they?

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH, WRITER, DIRECTOR, OR PRODUCER

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 

The Zone of Interest pulls off a double win for British Film and Film Not in the English Language. 

DOCUMENTARY

Only one of these is also nominated at the Oscars, and that's the winner. 

ANIMATED FILM 

Miyazaki is headed for his second Oscar. That did not seem a foregone conclusion much earlier in the year when people still thought Across the Spider-Verse could appear in Best Picture. Remember that? The wind totally went out of those sails but this is fine. The original Spider-Verse already took the Oscar and the BAFTA and there's still a third installment coming. 

DIRECTOR 

It's easy to believe that Chris Nolan had not suffered the same fate in his home country as he had at the Oscars previously. But he had. This is his first win at BAFTA though he's been nominated for his direction ever so slightly more at the BAFTAs than at the Oscars (thrice versus twice). 

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Anatomy of a Fall just keeps winning screenplay prizes. Is Oscar next for Justine Triet or will The Holdovers or Past Lives manage an upset? 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

In an interesting twist -- the only major twist at the BAFTAs -- they gave this prize to American Fiction even though they otherwise didn't love the film (this was its only nomination) and their three favourites Oppenheimer (seven prizes), Poor Things (five prizes) and The Zone of Interest (three prizes) were all on the ballot)

CASTING 

Even though we're absolutely certain the Academy would have terrible nominations in a Casting category, it's silly that they don't have one. 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

It's the ASC list with the exception of The Zone of Interest taking the 'art film' slot that went to El Conde in the Guild's parallel let. I could see BAFTA's list easily translating to Oscar but you never know and there are definitely several worthy candidates. 

EDITING

 

COSTUME DESIGN 

We suspected Barbie would be weak at the BAFTAs given its relatively low nomination count but this does make us wonder if it could lose the Oscars everyone expected it to win (Costume / Production Design) on Oscar night.

MAKEUP AND HAIR 

ORIGINAL SCORE 

PRODUCTION DESIGN 

 

SOUND

We couldn't be happier about this win. It's so unusual for Sound Design rather than Flashy Soundscape to win prizes. 

VISUAL EFFECTS

They really loved Poor Things! 

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

BRITISH SHORT FILM

EE RISING STAR AWARD 

The actor we're least familiar with here won in this public voting prize. How to Have Sex has yet to open in the US. 

Did you watch BAFTA this year? It's the only major awards show we routinely skip since tape-delay feels so antithetical to the very essence of awards shows. But there's always the speeches to enjoy and one-offs like this performance of 'Murder on the Dancefloor' -- the Aughts hit is having a mini-revival via Saltburn. 

 

 

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
See website for complete article licensing information.