Within the last couple of days Steven Spielberg‘s The Fabelmans suffered two savage bird pecks, the combination of which may prove fatal. First, Variety‘s Clayton Davis printed a reaction to The Fabelmans from “a prominent member of the [Academy’s] producers’ branch”, to wit: “I really didn’t like it.” And secondly, the five BAFTA nominations for Best Film didn’t include The Fabelmans.
Can you feel it? Can you faintly feel it? Can you sense the velocity of the the furiously beating wings of crows flying above? Can you hear them cawing?…aahhnk! aahrrrk!
Perhaps the biggest shake-and-stir from the BAFTA noms was the 14 nominations that went to All Quiet on the Western Front.
Another noteworthy BAFTA thing was their decision to include The Woman King‘s Gina Prince-bythewood among their five nominees. She was presumably added so the BAFTAS could nominate a woman of color. The other four: All Quiet On The Western Front — Edward Berger; The Banshees Of Inisherin — Martin Mcdonagh; Decision To Leave — Park Chan-wook (FORGET IT!), Everything Everywhere All At Once — Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert (NO!) and Tar — Todd Field.
HE’s preferred winners: Field or Berger.
Sarah Polley‘s Women Talking, which all the woke critics were salivating over during Telluride ’22, had been BAFTA longlisted for director, adapted screenplay, supporting actor and original score categories. It came up totally empty-handed this morning.
HE boldface obviously indicates a preferred winner or winners:
BEST FILM:
All Quiet On The Western Front – Malte Grunert / HE
The Banshees Of Inisherin – Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin Mcdonagh
Elvis – Gail Berman, Baz Luhrmann, Catherine Martin, Patrick Mccormick, Schuyler Weiss
Everything Everywhere All At Once – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Jonathan Wang
Tar – Todd Field, Scott Lambert, Alexandra Milchan / HE
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM:
Aftersun – Charlotte Wells, Producer(S)
The Banshees Of Inisherin – Martin Mcdonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
Brian And Charles – Jim Archer, Rupert Majendie, David Earl, Chris Hayward
Empire Of Light – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris / HE…YES!
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande – Sophie Hyde, Debbie Gray, Adrian Politowski, Katy Brand (NOT A CHANCE!)
Living – Oliver Hermanus, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley, Kazuo Ishiguro
Roald Dahl’s Matilda The Musical – Matthew Warchus, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Jon Finn, Luke Kelly, Dennis Kelly
See How They Run – Tom George, Gina Carter, Damian Jones, Mark Chappell
The Swimmers – Sally El Hosaini, Producer(S) Tbc, Jack Thorne
The Wonder – Sebastián Lelio, Ed Guiney, Juliette Howell, Andrew Lowe, Tessa Ross, Alice Birch, Emma Donoghue
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
“Aftersun” – Charlotte Wells (Writer/director) / HE (not an endorsement but a sporting presumption)
“Blue Jean” – Georgia Oakley (Writer/director), Hélène Sifre (Producer)
“Electric Malady” – Marie Lidén (Director)
“Good Luck To You, Leo Grande” – Katy Brand (Writer)
“Rebellion” – Maia Kenworthy (Director)
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE:
“All Quiet On The Western Front” – Edward Berger, Malte Grunert / HE
“Argentina, 1985” – Santiago Mitre, Producer(S) Tbc / HE
“Corsage” – Marie Kreutzer
“Decision To Leave” – Park Chan-wook, Ko Dae-seok
“The Quiet Girl” – Colm Bairéad, Cleona Ní Chrualaoí
DOCUMENTARY:
“All That Breathes” – Shaunak Sen, Teddy Leifer, Aman Mann
“All The Beauty And The Bloodshed” – Laura Poitras, Howard Gertler, Nan Goldin, Yoni Golijov, John Lyons
“Fire Of Love” – Sara Dosa, Shane Boris, Ina Fichman
“Moonage Daydream” – Brett Morgan
“Navalny” – Daniel Roher, Diane Becker, Shane Boris, Melanie Miller, Odessa Rae / HE
ANIMATED FILM:
“Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio” – Guillermo Del Toro, Mark Gustafson, Gary Ungar, Alex Bulkley / HE
“Marcel The Shell With Shoes On” – Dean Fleisher Camp, Andrew Goldman, Elisabeth Holm, Caroline Kaplan, Paul Mezey
“Puss In Boots: The Last Wish” – Joel Crawford, Mark Swift
“Turning Red” – Domee Shi, Lindsey Collins
DIRECTOR:
“All Quiet On The Western Front” – Edward Berger / HE
“The Banshees Of Inisherin” – Martin Mcdonagh
“Decision To Leave” – Park Chan-wook
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
“Tár” Todd Field / HE
“The Woman King” – Gina Prince-bythewood
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
“The Banshees Of Inisherin” – Martin Mcdonagh
“Everything Everywhere All At Once” – Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert
“The Fabelmans” – Tony Kushner, Steven Spielberg
“Tár” – Todd Field / HE
“Triangle Of Sadness” – Ruben Östlund
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
“All Quiet On The Western Front” – Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson, Ian Stokell
“Living” – Kazuo Ishiguro
“The Quiet Girl” – Colm Bairéad
“She Said” – Rebecca Lenkiewicz / HE
“The Whale” – Samuel D. Hunter
LEADING ACTRESS:
Cate Blanchett – “Tár” / HE
Viola Davis – “The Woman King”
Danielle Deadwyler – “Till”
Ana De Armas – “Blonde”
Emma Thompson – “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande”
Michelle Yeoh – “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
LEADING ACTOR:
Austin Butler – “Elvis”
Colin Farrell – “The Banshees Of Inisherin” / HE
Brendan Fraser – “The Whale”
Daryl Mccormack – “Good Luck To You, Leo Grande”
Paul Mescal – “Aftersun”
Bill Nighy – “Living”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
Angela Bassett – “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” (NO!)
Hong Chau – “The Whale”
Kerry Condon – “The Banshees Of Inisherin” / HE
Dolly De Leon – “Triangle Of Sadness”
Jamie Lee Curtis – “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
Carey Mulligan – “She Said”
SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Brendan Gleeson – “The Banshees Of Inisherin”
Barry Keoghan – “The Banshees Of Inisherin”
Ke Huy Quan – “Everything Everywhere All At Once”
Eddie Redmayne – “The Good Nurse”
Albrecht Schuch – “All Quiet On The Western Front”
Micheal Ward – “Empire Of Light” / HE!!!