‘Budapest Hotel’ cracks 11 Bafta nods

THE Grand Budapest Hotel, an offbeat comedy starring Ralph Fiennes as the concierge of a luxury hotel in a bygone Europe, topped the shortlist for Britain’s Bafta awards, with 11 nominations, including for best film.

Nominations were announced yesterday, and the winners will be unveiled by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts on February 8.

● The Grand Budapest Hotel was nominated for best film, best director for American Wes Anderson and original screenplay, original music, cinematography, editing, production design, costume design, make-up and hair and sound. Fiennes was nominated for leading actor.

● Birdman, a satire of show business by Mexican director Alejandro Inarritu, was nominated for best film, best director, original screenplay, original music, cinematography, editing and sound. Star Michael Keaton is nominated for leading actor, while co-star Edward Norton is up for best supporting actor and Emma Stone is nominated for supporting actress.

● The Theory of Everything, a biopic of scientist Stephen Hawking by British director James Marsh, received nominations for best film, outstanding British film, director, adapted screenplay, original music, editing, costume design and make-up and hair. English actor Eddie Redmayne was nominated for leading actor.

● The Imitation Game, about World War II codebreaker Alan Turing and directed by Norway’s Morten Tyldum, was nominated for best film, outstanding British film, adapted screenplay, editing, production design, costume design and sound. Benedict Cumberbatch was nominated for leading actor and Keira Knightley for supporting actress.

● US director Richard Linklater’s film Boyhood received five nominations, as did US director Damien Chazelle’s Whiplash, which portrays a music instructor who pushes students beyond their limits.

● There were four nominations each for Mr Turner, British director Mike Leigh’s portrayal of landscape painter JMW Turner, British director Christopher Nolan’s space epic Interstellar, and US film Nightcrawler, about a video cameraman. – Reuters