2022 BAFTA Film Nominations Shed Further Light on the Oscar Race

With Oscar nominations days away, The Friendly Film Fan takes note of how the BAFTA contenders could shake things up in the awards race.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts announced their film nominations for their annual awards ceremony yesterday, shedding further light on what may turn out to be the soon-to-come Oscar nominations, and what they might look like when separated from their British counterpart. Oscar voting itself closed on February 1, before these nominees were revealed, so these will have no impact on the voting itself, but perhaps if we take a closer look, we might see where these various races are heading. Of course plenty of British films took up much of the space in BAFTA’s nominees, which meant that plenty of American films and nominees either did not qualify or fell by the wayside, but there were still some surprising snubs and surprising appearances by a wealth of contenders, as well as further confirmations of predictions pundits have held and developed in the months leading up to the Oscar nominations, which are scheduled for next Tuesday. Of course, this is also due to the revamped voting process by which the BAFTAs nominate candidates, a process they also employed last year.
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The Best Film category looks to hold the main “Oscar Five” (the five films most secure in the Oscars Best Picture race), while Outstanding British Film doesn’t seem to shed much light on the Best Picture race beyond maybe giving House of Gucci a bit more wiggle room. There is the presence, though, of Prime Video’s Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, which has appeared here and absolutely nowhere else of note during the 2022 awards season. Clearly After Love, Ali & Ava, and Boiling Point are very well beloved by BAFTA members, but don’t expect that to reflect on the Oscars at all, as these films really haven’t appeared anywhere outside of the BAFTAs either.

Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Best Director nomination for Drive My Car makes him all but a lock for that fifth Oscars spot, joining a now-locked Paul Thomas Anderson, as well as a genuine threat in the Adapted Screenplay category, where Hamaguchi’s three-hour Japanese contender could knock out Tony Kushner’s work on the critically-lauded West Side Story. In fact West Side Story does seem to be in a bit of trouble, missing yet another editing nomination as BAFTA opts to include Summer of Soul (No Time to Die also makes an unsurprising appearance). Not a great look for the Best Picture race.

The Rescue has solidified itself as NatGeo’s most likely contender in the Best Documentary race as well, meanwhile Flee has reaffirmed that it is not to be counted out in Best Animated Feature. Other highlights also include Julia Ducournau finally receiving recognition for her brilliant work on Titane despite the film receiving no love from AMPAS, Lady Gaga all-but-guaranteed to solidify the Best Actress race for her work in House of Gucci, Mike Faist not being counted out for Best Supporting Actor, and the confirmation that at least one awards body did in fact see Mike Mills’ brilliant C’mon C’mon (Woody Norman is nominated here in Supporting Actor). Plus, West Side Story may not land its coveted cinematography spot after all with Nightmare Alley and No Time to Die nipping at its heels, and Jamie Dornan’s time in the Supporting Actor race for Belfast​ has come to a quiet close.

There are certainly other things to talk about with these nominations, but for now, the highlights feel sufficient enough to get a better guess at where things are going. Hopefully these bode well for the upcoming Oscar nominations and the surprise appearances aren’t purely one-offs. In any case, check back with The Friendly Film Fan on our Instagram for a live reaction to the Oscar nominations, as well as all our thoughts, when they drop on Tuesday, February 8 at 8:18 EST. 

​The full list of BAFTA nominees is below.

BEST FILM
Belfast
Don’t Look Up
Dune
Licorice Pizza
The Power of the Dog

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
After Love
Ali & Ava
Belfast
Boiling Point
Cyrano
Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
House of Gucci
Last Night in Soho
No Time to Die
Passing

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Aleem Khan (Writer/Director), After Love
James Cummings (Writer) and Hester Ruoff (Producer), Boiling Point
Jeymes Samuel (Writer/Director), The Harder They Fall
Posy Dixon (Writer/Director) and Liv Proctor (Producer), Keyboard Fantasies
Rebecca Hall (Writer/Director), Passing

BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Drive My Car
The Hand of God
Parallel Mothers
Petite Maman
The Worst Person in the World

BEST DOCUMENTARY
Becoming Cousteau
Cow
Flee
The Rescue
Summer of Soul

BEST ANIMATED FILM
Encanto
Flee
Luca
The Mitchells vs the Machines

BEST DIRECTOR
Aleem Khan, After Love
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Audrey Diwan, Happening
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog
Julia Ducournau, Titane

BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Aaron Sorkin, Being the Ricardos
Kenneth Branagh, Belfast
Adam McKay, Don’t Look Up
Zach Baylin, King Richard
Paul Thomas Anderson, Licorice Pizza

BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Siân Heder, CODA
Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Drive My Car
Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts, and Denis Villeneuve, Dune
Maggie Gyllenhaal, The Lost Daughter
Jane Campion, The Power of the Dog

BEST ACTRESS
Lady Gaga, House of Gucci
Alana Haim, Licorice Pizza
Emilia Jones, CODA
Renate Reinsve, The Worst Person in the World
Joanna Scanlan, After Love
Tessa Thompson, Passing

BEST ACTOR
Adeel Akhtar, Ali & Ava
Mahershala Ali, Swan Song
Benedict Cumberbatch, The Power of the Dog
Leonardo DiCaprio, Don’t Look Up
Stephen Graham, Boiling Point
Will Smith, King Richard

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Caitríona Balfe, Belfast
Jessie Buckley, The Lost Daughter
Ariana DeBose, West Side Story
Ann Dowd, Mass
Aunjanue Ellis, King Richard
Ruth Negga, Passing

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Mike Faist, West Side Story
Ciarán Hinds, Belfast
Troy Kotsur, CODA
Woody Norman, C’mon C’mon
Jesse Plemons, The Power of the Dog
Kodi Smit-McPhee, The Power of the Dog

BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Daniel Pemberton, Being the Ricardos
Nicholas Britell, Don’t Look Up
Hans Zimmer, Dune
Alexandre Desplat, The French Dispatch
Jonny Greenwood, The Power of the Dog

BEST CASTING
Boiling Point
Dune
The Hand of God
King Richard
West Side Story

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Dune
Nightmare Alley
No Time to Die
The Power of the Dog
The Tragedy of Macbeth

BEST EDITING
Belfast
Dune
Licorice Pizza
No Time to Die
Summer of Soul

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Cyrano
Dune
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley
West Side Story

BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
The French Dispatch
Nightmare Alley

BEST MAKEUP AND HAIR
Cruella
Cyrano
Dune
The Eyes of Tammy Faye
House of Gucci

BEST SOUND
Dune
Last Night in Soho
No Time to Die
A Quiet Place Part II
West Side Story

BEST SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Dune
Free Guy
Ghostbusters: Afterlife
The Matrix Resurrections
No Time to Die

BEST BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
Affairs of the Art
Do Not Feed the Pigeons
Night of the Living Dread

BEST BRITISH SHORT FILM
The Black Cop
Femme
The Palace
Stuffed
Three Meetings of the Extraordinary Committee

RISING STAR AWARD (VOTED FOR BY THE PUBLIC)
Ariana DeBose
Harris Dickinson
Lashana Lynch
Millicent Simmonds
Kodi Smit-McPhee