Conclave Surprise at the BAFTAs

Ralph Fiennes in Conclave.

In a surprise win, Conclave was named Best Picture and Best British Picture at the BAFTA awards presented on Sun., Feb. 16 in London, further complicating the Oscar race. Conclave and The Brutalist tied for most wins with four each. Brutalist took Best Actor for Adrien Brody and Bet Director for Brady Corbet. In another surprise, Mikey Madison took Best Actress for Anora which has moved to the head of the pre-Oscar pack, after scoring big wins at the Critics Choice, DGA, PGA and WGA awards. Kieran Culkin was not present to accept his Best Supporting Actor Award for A Real Pain. His co-star and director Jesse Eisenberg who also won for Best Original Screenplay, explained he was staying with a sick family member. Zoe Saldana added another Best Supporting Actress prize for Emila Perez to her collection. Former Doctor Who David Tennant hosted and made a few Donald Trump jokes about his hair in his opening monologue. A few of these quips were edited out of the BBC Broadcast (the three-hour show was pre-taped and an edited, two-hour version was shown.) The complete version is available on YouTube.

Conclave and Emilia Perez Top BAFTA Noms

Ralph Fiennes and Stanley Tucci
in Conclave, the picture with the most
BAFTA noms.
Credit: Focus Features

As the Oscar nominations are pushed back because of LA's wildfires, the BAFTAs (British Academy of Film and Television Arts) noms from London were made public on schedule on Jan. 15. Conclave and Emilia Perez were top of the list with 12 and 11 citations respectively. Conclave's noms include both Best Film and Best British film as well as nods to Leading Actor Ralph Fiennes, Supporting Actress Isabella Rossellini, and Director Edward Berger. Emilia Perez is also up for Best Film and also for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Actress Karla Sofia Garscon and Supporting Actresses Zoe Saldana and Selena Gomez. The awards will be presented in London on Feb. 15. 

Notable snubs include Pamela Anderson for The Last Showgirl, Nicole Kidman for Babygirl, Fernanda Torres for I'm Still Here, Daniel Craig for Queer, Denzel Washington in Gladiator 2, and Margaret Qualley for The Substance. Marianne Jean-Baptiste who won the Best Actress Awards from NY, LA and National Society film critics groups and was snubbed by the Golden Globes and the SAGs, did make the BAFTA cut for her acclaimed performance in the British film Hard Truths.

A complete list of BAFTA nominees follows:

SAG and BAFTA Aftermath

The SAG (Feb. 24) and BAFTA Awards (Feb. 18) were pretty much in agreement in almost every major category--except Best Actress. Both prizes honored Oppenheimer, Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey, Jr. and Da'Vine Joy Randolph. But the SAG went to Lily Gladstone of Killers of the Flower Moon and the BAFTA was delivered to Emma Stone of Poor Things. Stone was playing a British character so that may have earned her Brit votes for the BAFTA, plus Lily wasn't even nominated for the BAFTA. I think Gladstone is still the favorite for the Oscar since she will be the first Native American to win one. 

BTW, the People's Choice Awards were on the same day as the BAFTAs and Oppenheimer actually won both at the BAFTAs and in the Drama Film category at the People's Choice, which otherwise went big for Barbie. The People Choice Award has changed shapes over the years and now looks like a giant lipstick cylinder with a rubber ball stuck in the middle.

The SAG and
People's Choice Awards

SAG and BAFTA winners list follows:

BAFTA Noms Honor Affleck, Snub Spielberg

John Goodman, Alan Arkin, and Ben Affleck in Argo

It's the day before the Oscar nominations and we have the final major nominations before the big announcement: the BAFTAs which are the British equivalent of the Oscars, and the Directors Guild nominations. The major surprises were the BAFTAs including Ben Affleck as both best actor and director for Argo and snubbing Spielberg, though Lincoln got the most nominations from the Brits. Affleck's best actor nod is his only one for performing while he's received directing nominations from the Globes, Critics Choice and DGA.

The BAFTA also include a separate category for Best British Film but since I'm not including foreign films in the other tallying, I won't tally that here. It sounds sort of like a consolation prize, like the Critics Choice Awards including Best Comedy Film and Best Action Film. Les Miz is nominated for both Best FIlm and Best British Film. The other nominees are Anna Karenina (the only major award recognition for the Tom Stoppard adaptation of Tolstoy), The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Seven Psychopaths, and Skyfall. In addition to BAFTAs and DGAs, we've added the Online FIlm Critics Society winners.

Picture: Argo (AFI, bafta; cc, gg, OFCS, pga, SD)
Amour (LAFCA, NSFC)
Beasts of the Southern Wild (AFI, cc, is, pga)
Bernie (is)
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (gg)
The Dark Knight Rises (AFI)
Django Unchained (AFI, cc, gg, pga)
Keep the Lights On (is)
Les Miserables (AFI, bafta, cc, gg, pga)
Life of Pi (AFI, bafta, cc, gg, LV, pga)
Lincoln (AFI, bafta, cc, DFW, gg, pga)
The Master (cc, SF)
Moonrise Kingdom (AFI, cc, gg, is, pga)
Salmon Fishing in the Yemen (gg)
Silver Linings Playbook (AFI, cc, DET, gg, is, pga)
Skyfall (pga)
Zero Dark Thirty (AFI, bafta, Bos, CHI, cc, DC, gg, NBR, NYFCC, NYO, pga)