Cillian tipped as first Irishman to win BAFTA gong for Best Actor
CILLIAN Murphy is being tipped to make history as the first Irishman to win Best Actor at the BAFTA film awards tonight.
The Cork man is the favourite to take the gong for his role in blockbuster Oppenheimer, which has also earned him an Oscar nomination.
Murphy, 47, will go head to head with 31-year-old Dubliner Barry Keoghan, who is shortlisted for Best Actor for his role in Saltburn.
For the first time since 1976 there is no British star nominated in either the Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor category.
Ireland is represented on both shortlists with Paul Mescal nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his role opposite Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers.
A win for Murphy or Keoghan would be historic, but they face stiff competition from Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) and Tee Yoo (Past Lives).
Mescal is in equally good company with Robert De Niro nominated in the same category for his role in Killers of the Flower Moon.
The UK’S tally of five of the 24 acting nominations, or 21% of the total, is one of the lowest in recent years. The average since 2000 has been 33%.
British filmmaker Christopher Nolan could win his first ever BAFTA, for his work on biographical drama Oppenheimer.
Nolan is nominated for best director and best adapted screenplay, besides getting a nod as a producer in the category for best film.
In 2022, women made up half of the six nominees for best director, and in 2021 they outnumbered men by four to two.
This year, as in 2023, just one
Murphy, 47, will go head to head with Dubliner Barry Keoghan
woman has been nominated: Justine Triet, for the film Anatomy Of A Fall.
Female directors overlooked this year include Greta Gerwig (Barbie), Emerald Fennell (Saltburn) and Celine Song (Past Lives). There have been only three female winners of the best director award in Bafta history: Kathryn Bigelow (for The Hurt Locker in 2010), Chloe Zhao (Nomadland in 2021) and Jane Campion (The Power Of The Dog in 2022).
The most BAFTA wins clocked up by a film in a single year is nine, set by Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid in 1971.
Critics predict a good night for any of the 2024 front runners, including Oppenheimer, could see this record broken.