There's no such thing as expected at BAFTA," explains Anna Higgs, chair of the film committee, speaking to Variety after the nominees were announced. "I think to play a guessing game with our expert members and where they can go, particularly in a year that's so competitive, is hard."
Whatever happened to "Barbie"? This is likely to be one of the burning topics following the revelation of the 2024 BAFTA Film Awards nominations on Thursday, which saw Greta Gerwig's cultural phenomenon and box office powerhouse go unnominated in the best film and director categories.
While the film's five BAFTA nominations (including leading actress, supporting actor, and original screenplay) are undeniably impressive, the figure is likely to have taken many awards watchers by surprise. The film landed 15 positions on the BAFTA Longlists earlier this month after the first round of voting, tying for top place with "Oppenheimer" (which eventually received 13 nominations) and "Killers of the Flower Moon" (nine nominations). Given its status as the biggest film of 2023, and the fact that it has broken so many key records along the way, many may have felt a best film and director nomination was almost certain.
Higgs notes that both the number of BAFTA film entries and the number of movies voters are watching is up year-on-year, making it “more and more competitive, and more intense.”
While Gerwig may not have landed a director nomination, neither did many female directors, with “Anatomy of a Fall’s” Justine Triet the solitary woman among the six. This is an area that BAFTA sought to improve with the major overhaul of its voting process in 2020 (following a year where zero female directors were nominated), which added the Longlist stage that included an intervention to ensure gender parity.
"But we know it's not a fair race from the start," adds Higgs, citing a recent study that found only 12 female directors among the top 100 grossing films of the previous year. "We only have one female-directed picture for every three films directed by men. So having a woman on that nominee's list is a wonderful thing."
She does, however, highlight four female directors in the category of great British films: Molly Manning Walker ("How to Have Sex"), Raine Allen Miller ("Rye Lane"), Emerald Fennell ("Saltburn"), and Charlotte Regan ("Scrapper").
"We've got lots of women across the board," Higgs says, adding that 11 of the 33 directors nominated in various categories this year are women. "And we're seeing brand new emerging filmmakers with debut films up against legendary filmmakers, which speaks to the excitement and also the range of films that BAFTA celebrates for their excellence on their merit."
BAFTA 2024 NOMINATIONS are as follows:
Outstanding British film
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Blue Bag Life – Lisa Selby (director), Rebecca Lloyd-Evans (director, producer), Alex Fry (producer)
Earth Mama – Savanah Leaf (writer, director, producer), Shirley O’Connor (producer), Medb Riordan (producer)
How to Have Sex – Molly Manning Walker (writer, director)
Is There Anybody Out There? – Ella Glendining (director)
Best film not in the English language
Best animated film
Best director
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Alexander Payne, The Holdovers
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Best original screenplay
Best adapted screenplay
Fantasia Barrino, The Color Purple
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers
Sandra Hüller, The Zone of Interest
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer
Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
Killers of the Flower Moon
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Killers of the Flower Moon
Best special visual effects
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Best British short animation
EE BAFTA Rising Star award (voted for by the public)
