BIG NAMES LIKELY FOR BAFTA NOMINATIONS
SIR Anthony Hopkins, Carey Mulligan, Daniel Kaluuya and Gary Oldman are among the British actors likely to be nominated for Bafta awards this year.
The contenders for the annual film awards, which were delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, will be announced at 2pm on Tuesday.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has already introduced a raft of changes to its film ceremony — including expanding the nominations for director, actor and actress from five to six — in response to a lack of diversity in last year’s line-up.
Kaluuya has already won a Golden Globe and scored a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination for his role as Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas And The Black Messiah, and is likely to compete in the supporting actor category at the Baftas.
Mulligan is expected to be nominated for her role as a traumatised woman seeking vengeance in Promising Young Woman, while Kirby has won plaudits for her performance in Pieces Of A Woman.
They are likely to be joined in the best actress category by Frances McDormand for her turn as a van-dwelling nomad travelling through the American West in Nomadland.
Black Panther actor Chadwick Boseman is tipped to receive a posthumous Bafta nomination for his performance as an ambitious trumpeter in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.
He died aged 43 last August due to complications related to colon cancer.
He is likely to be joined in the best actor category by Oldman, for his role as the Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz in Mank, and Sir Anthony for his turn in drama The Father, about a man slipping into dementia.
Sir Anthony’s co-star, Olivia Colman, could also pick up a supporting nomination.
Sacha Baron Cohen is also a possible contender for a nomination, for his performance in The Trial Of The Chicago 7, while Riz Ahmed could land a best actor nod for his role as a drummer who loses his hearing in Sound Of Metal.
Female directors were entirely absent from the shortlist in 2020 but this year there are three female film-makers tipped to land nominations – Chloe Zhao for Nomadland, Regina King for One Night In Miami, and British actress Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman.
Bafta has also introduced changes to voting, membership and campaigning processes as a result of controversy last year, while the outstanding British film category will be expanded from six to 10 nominations to increase the focus on British work.
The nominations for the 2020 film awards featured no nonwhite actors in the four main acting categories, and an absence of female directors, and Bafta subsequently announced that it would carry out a “careful and detailed review” of its voting system. Bafta has since introduced a new long-listing round of voting in all categories to achieve greater diversity in nominations. All voters, chapters and juries were required to watch all long-listed films before voting for the nominees. Among the 15 films on the long list for the top prize of best film are Nomadland, The Trial Of The Chicago 7, The Father, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mank and Promising Young Woman. Bafta chairman Krishnendu Majumdar will be joined by actresses Aisling Bea and Susan Wokoma to announce the nominations. The EE British Academy Film Awards is scheduled to take place on April 11.