This year presents a similarly fascinating mix of contenders, including a number of titles that could make waves across multiple categories at the Baftas — and, in fact, Oscars.
Given the acclaim that has greeted
The Banshees Of Inisherin — including Venice Film Festival wins for Martin McDonagh in screenplay and Colin Farrell in actor — it would be remarkable if the dark comedy drama failed to score an outstanding British film Bafta nomination. Writer/director McDonagh and his producers Graham Broadbent and Peter Czernin have good form in the category: together, they were nominated for In Bruges, Seven Psychopaths and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, winning for the latter in 2018.
The Searchlight Pictures and Film4-backed feature is being positioned across multiple categories, and is expected to deliver a slew of nominations. So far, Banshees looks like the British film to beat.
Giving it a run for its money, however, could be another Searchlight title:
Empire Of Light, written and directed by Sam Mendes, and produced by Mendes and Pippa Harris. This personal film, which also offers a love letter to cinema, is set on the English south coast in the early 1980s, and weaves in a tender romance with perspectives on both mental illness and the racial tensions of the era. Olivia Colman, Micheal Ward, Toby Jones and Colin Firth could all figure in the acting categories — and Empire Of Light is considered a contender across the board, including for best film, director, screenplay and craft.
Titles directed by Mendes have won outstanding British film twice before: Skyfall in 2013 and 1917 in 2020.
Fresh blood
Oliver Hermanus lacks the Bafta track record of both McDonagh and Mendes — in fact, he has never been nominated, although his last film Moffie was an outstanding British debut nominee in 2021 for producer and co-writer Jack Sidey (South Africa-born Hermanus was not eligible for this award, and Moffie was not his debut feature).
This year, Hermanus directs a potential major Bafta contender with
Living, adapted by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Kazuo Ishiguro from Akira Kurosawa’s 1952 film Ikiru, and produced by Stephen Woolley and Elizabeth Karlsen for Number 9 Films. Bill Nighy stars as a reserved London County Council bureaucrat who is shaken from his life of seeming weary resignation by a medical diagnosis.
Living has impressed audiences during its sweep of major festivals this year — including Sundance, Venice, Telluride, Toronto and BFI London — and has proved a notable box-office hit in the UK for Lionsgate, with $4.2m (£3.4m) to date. Films produced by Woolley have secured an outstanding British Bafta win and nominations before: a win for The Crying Game in 1993 and nominations for Backbeat in 1995 and Made In Dagenham in 2011.
If The Banshees Of Inisherin, Empire Of Light and Living look set to be the three big beasts of the category, also prowling nearby is
The Wonder, directed by Chile’s Sebastian Lelio, and adapted from the Emma Donoghue novel by Lelio, Donoghue and Alice Birch. The amply credentialed film, set in Ireland in 1862, stars Florence Pugh as an English nurse tasked with verifying a seeming local miracle: a child (newcomer Kila Lord Cassidy) who has been fasting for months, surviving on “manna from heaven”.
The Netflix-backed title played Telluride, Toronto and BFI London film festivals, and earned 12 nominations at the British Independent Film Awards (Bifa), winning for Matthew Herbert’s score.
The big winner at the Bifas this year was
Aftersun, the debut feature of writer/director Charlotte Wells, and starring Normal People’s Paul Mescal as a young father taking his 11-year-old daughter on holiday to a Turkish beach resort.
Aftersun won seven awards at the Bifas, including the top prize of best British independent film, which is determined by Bifa’s full voting membership — auguring well for its chances in Bafta’s outstanding British film category.
Georgia Oakley’s
Blue Jean, likewise had a good showing at the Bifas, winning for lead performance (Rosy McEwen), supporting performance (Kerrie Hayes), debut screenwriter (Oakley) and casting (Shaheen Baig). This Newcastle-*set drama, playing out against the enactment of the UK’s homophobic Section 28 legislation in 1988, looks a likely jury pick for the Bafta — just as long as it makes the longlist in the British chapter vote.
That longlist has been reduced from 20 to 15 titles this year. It is good news if you are on it — you have a higher chance of a nomination. But it is tough for films that are frantically jostling for the attention of voters.
Good Luck To You, Leo Grande — which received a best British independent film Bifa nomination alongside Aftersun, Blue Jean, Living and The Wonder — has a strong chance of Bafta nominations. The story of a widower (Emma Thompson) seeking sexual fulfilment for the first time in her life with a sex worker (Daryl McCormack) is written by Katy Brand and directed by Sophie Hyde (Animals). It has been winning fans since premiering at Sundance, and Lionsgate steered it to more than $1.3m (£1.1m) at the UK and Ireland box office.
Lesley Manville, a respected actress whose leading screen roles have hitherto tended to be on television, steps into the big-screen limelight in
Mrs Harris Goes To Paris, adapted from the Paul Gallico novella. Manville received supporting actress Oscar and Bafta nominations for Phantom Thread in 2018, and now has her best shot at the same for leading actress, while multiple Oscar winner Jenny Beavan should receive awards attention for her costumes, which play a central role in the film’s storyline. The Universal Pictures-backed film has proved a hit in multiple territories, including North America, UK-*Ireland and Australia, and had reached $28m worldwide at press time.
If the above eight titles are all nominated for the outstanding British film Bafta, that leaves only a couple of slots open.
The Son, directed by Florian Zeller and adapted from his own stage play by Zeller and Christopher Hampton, could follow the path blazed by the duo’s The Father — which won the actor and adapted screenplay Baftas in 2021, losing outstanding British film to Promising Young Woman.
Similarly,
The Lost King comes from the creative team behind Philomena, which in 2014 won the adapted screenplay Bafta for Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope, and was nominated for outstanding British film, losing to Gravity.
The Swimmers — the second feature from My Brother The Devil director Sally El Hosaini — is based on the true story of Syrian sisters Sara and Yusra Mardini. Co-scripted by El Hosaini and Jack Thorne, the refugee drama opened Toronto and is an inspirational story of courage and determination.
Roald Dahl’s
Matilda The Musical proved a riotous crowdpleaser when it opened the BFI London Film Festival in October, and is a UK and Ireland box-office hit for Sony. Directed by the original stage musical’s Matthew Warchus, the film’s strong cast — including Emma Thompson, Lashana Lynch, Stephen Graham and Andrea Riseborough — could help position the film as worthy of consideration by awards voters.
Joining The Wonder are three more period films with strong female characters — Frances O’Connor’s
Emily starring Emma Mackey, Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s
Lady Chatterley’s Lover with Emma Corrin, and Lena Dunham’s
Catherine Called Birdy with Bella Ramsey — that will be vying for inclusion in the outstanding British film category.
Set in the more-recent past are comedy whodunnit
See How They Run, love-triangle drama
My Policeman, and comic tale of unlikely sporting hero
The Phantom Of The Open. The jury could cast its eyes in the direction of any one of these titles, as long as they make the longlist in the chapter vote. The same is true of Alex Garland’s
Men, starring Jessie Buckley and Rory Kinnear in a multiple role — although the film’s genre positioning, adjacent to horror, may prove divisive with voters.
Mark Jenkin won the outstanding British debut Bafta in 2020 with Bait, and was nominated for outstanding British film. He will be hoping to repeat the latter honour with his folk-horror follow-up
Enys Men.
Peter Strickland’s
Flux Gourmet found plenty of favour with Bifa voters, who nominated the film in seven categories and awarded it the win for best sound, although none of Strickland’s previous four features have earned any Bafta nominations.
UK indies that might find more favour are Agnieszka Smoczynska’s
The Silent Twins and Jim Archer’s
Brian And Charles. Premiering respectively at Cannes and Sundance, they both showcase joint lead performances: one with Letitia Wright and Tamara Lawrance as twins who for many years speak only to each other; the other with David Earl and Chris Hayward as an inventor and his robot that comes miraculously to life.
In total, 57 films have qualified for the outstanding British film Bafta, including admired documentaries such as
My Old School and
Eric Ravilious: Drawn To War. Despite the relatively capacious number of nominees the category now offers, it will — as always — be a tough fight to land a nomination.
Originally Posted by Kostas
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