‘Long Walk’ stars cold-shouldered at Bafta nominations
Three other top contenders promise stiff competition
IT SEEMS the Brits are not big on sentiment. At yesterday’s announcement of the nominees for this year’s British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards (Baftas), honorary South Africans Idris Elba and Naomie Harris were snubbed. The two En- glish actors are the faces of Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom.
The film, however, was nominated in the outstanding film category alongside Gravity, Philomena, Rush, Saving Mr Banks and The Selfish Giant.
But all prior predictions suggest Elba and Harris were always outsiders in the big individual categories any- way. A lot of noise is being made of Chiwetel Ejiofor’s performance on 12 Years a Slave, as the probable best actor winner, while Sandra Bullock (Gravity) is creating an equal amount for the best actress award.
Elba (and perhaps Long Walk to Freedom producer Anant Singh and director Justin Chadwick) will hope for better luck at the announcement of the Oscar nominees next week.
The Golden Globes are cited as the Oscar’s most reliable indicator, but the UK’s Telegraph newspaper reported yesterday the Baftas “closely resemble the Oscars, as voters are drawn from a wide cross-section of the film industry”. ý
GRAVITY , the space thriller starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, has been nominated for 11 Bafta film awards, including best film, outstanding British film, best director, original screenplay and original music. The next most successful films were 12 Years a Slave, a brutal account of one man’s experience of slavery, and crime comedy-drama American Hustle, each nominated in 10 categories. Captain Phillips, the true story of a merchant mariner taken hostage by Somali pirates in 2009, received nine nominations.
Each of the four films also received a best film nomination and so will undoubtedly feature strongly at the Oscars on March 2.
The Baftas – formally known as the EE British Academy Film Awards – were announced yesterday and the event will take place in London on February 16.
Twelve Years A Slave star Chiwetel Ejiofor has been nominated for the best actor Bafta, while the film’s director, Steve McQueen, was also recognised with a nomination.
Ejiofor faces competition for the leading actor gong from veteran Bruce Dern for his role in Nebraska and Hollywood stars Christian Bale ( American Hustle), Leonardo DiCaprio ( The Wolf of Wall Street) and Tom Hanks ( Captain Phillips).
Dame Judi Dench is nominated for the leading actress award for Philomena – the affectionately regarded British entry directed by Stephen Frears – along with American Hustle’s Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett ( Blue Jasmine), Emma Thompson ( Saving Mr Banks) and Sandra Bullock ( Gravity).
Best supporting actor nominees are Bradley Cooper ( American Hustle), Daniel Brühl ( Rush), Matt Damon ( Behind the Candelabra), Michael Fassbender ( 12 Years a Slave) and Barkhad Abdi ( Captain Phillips).
The best supporting actress category sees Jennifer Lawrence and Julia Roberts nominated for American Hustle and August: Osage County respectively, along with Sally Hawkins for Woody Allen’s Blue Jasmine and 12 Years A Slave star Lupita Nyong’o. Also nominated is US chat show host Oprah Winfrey for her role in The Butler, a historical fiction drama about a butler’s 34-year tenure at the White House.
Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra and Saving Mr Banks (which dealt with the tussle between Walt Disney and author PL Travers over the filming of Mary Poppins) are each nominated five times. Philomena, Rush and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street have four nominations. Blue Jasmine, The Great Gatsby, Inside Llewyn Davis and Nebraska have each been nominated three times. The Act of Killing, The Butler and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug have two nominations apiece. – The Telegraph