«The Power of the Dog» and «Belfast» also scored multiple noms in voting designed to «level the playing field»
“Dune” led all films in nominations for the 2022 EE British Academy Film Awards, which were announced on Thursday by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Denis Villeneuve’s sci-fi epic received 11 nominations, with Jane Campion’s “The Power of the Dog” receiving eight, Kenneth Branagh’s “Belfast” landing six and Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Licorice Pizza,” Cary Joji Fukunaga’s “No Time to Die” and Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” receiving five each. In the Best Film category, “Dune,” “The Power of the Dog,” “Belfast” and “Licorice Pizza” will compete with Adam McKay’s “Don’t Look Up.” As usual for BAFTA since rule changes last year designed to make the nominations more diverse and give smaller films a chance, the director and acting categories were long on indie films and diverged wildly from the favorites expected to receive Oscar nominations on Feb.8. In Best Director, for instance, Villeneuve was not nominated despite his film leading in nominations, and neither was Branagh or Spielberg. Nominations went to Campion, Anderson, Aleem Khan for “After Love,” Ryusuke Hamaguchi for “Drive My Car,” Audrey Diwan for “Happening” and Julia Ducournau for “Titane.” In the Leading Actress category, Lady Gaga (“House of Gucci”) was nominated alongside Alana Haim (“Licorice Pizza”), Emilia Jones (“CODA”), Renate Reinsve (“The Worst Person in the World”), Joanna Scanlan (“After Love”) and Tessa Thompson (“Passing”), while contenders who were not nominated included Nicole Kidman (“Being the Ricardos”), Olivia Colman (“The Lost Daughter”), Penelope Cuz (“Parallel Mothers”) and Kristen Stewart (“Spencer”). In Leading Actor, Denzel Washington, Andrew Garfield, Bradley Cooper and Javier Bardem were bypassed in favor of a lineup of Adeel Akhtar for “Ali & Ava,” Mahershala Ali for “Swan Song,” Benedict Cumberbatch for “The Power of the Dog,” Leonardo DiCaprio for “Don’t Look Up,” Stephen Graham for “Boiling Point” and Will Smith for “King Richard.” In the supporting categories, nominees included Ann Dowd from “Mass,” Mike Faist from “West Side Story” and Jesse Norman from “C’mon C’mon,” but not Kirsten Dunst from “The Power of the Dog” (even though three of her co-stars – Cumberbatch, Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons — were nominated). Last year’s voting changes added juries to the longlist and nomination rounds, chose the directing nominees from a list composed of an equal number of men and women and produced a slate of nominees long on indie films and acting nominees of color. This year’s nominations were made similarly, using a combination of methods. Juries chose all the nominees in the directing, acting and short-film categories and some of the nominees in the Outstanding British Film and documentary categories; opt-in voters made all the nominations for animated features and films not in English and some of the noms for Outstanding British Film; individual BAFTA chapters voted in the below-the-line categories; and the entire membership cast ballots only in the Best Film category. To ensure that each eligible film was seen by a significant number of voters, every BAFTA member was given a list of 15 films that they were required to see. “The goal was to level the playing field and ensure that more films were seen and considered, and we think we did that,” BAFTA CEO Amanda Berry told TheWrap on Thursday morning. “We’re very proud of the list, of the mixture of films from high budget to low budget, and of the mix of American, British and international films.
