The BAFTA Film nominations for 2021 have been announced and while the organization has been accused of a lack of diversity and representation in the past, the year's nominees showcase a highly diverse field led by Nomadland and Rocks.
Nomadland and Rocks scored seven nominations each, including mentions for their female directors Chloé Zhao and Sarah Gavron, respectively. What's already making headlines just moments after the nominations were revealed is how diverse BAFTA went with their choices this year. It was one year ago that BAFTA received heavy backlash for a lack of diversity among its nominees which led to a seven-month review that that included a long-list system in an effort to increase viewership of all submitted films and increasing all four acting categories and best director categories to six nominees.
The changes definitely yielded different results with this year's nominees. Four women have been nominated in the director category, which is a first for BAFTA, and 15 of the 24 actors that received nominations today are Black or Asian. Last year all of the acting nominees were white and the reaction to those nominations was very swift. It was almost immediate that BAFTA came under fire for the lack of diversity in their nominees and it would appear that this is something they wanted to change this year. Chair of BAFTA, Krishnendu Majumdar, had this to say about this year's nominees:
"This year’s nominations showcase and celebrate the remarkable range of performances and nominees behind the camera from 50 films and we’re delighted to recognize such high-quality work. We are also delighted to see the strength of British film shine through in all categories. After last year’s nominations, we started the BAFTA Review process with the intention of leveling the playing field and introduced? a range of measures to ensure that all entered films were seen by our members and judged on merit. We hope today you can see some of those changes reflected in the breadth and depth of those nominated and we congratulate all our nominees."
Nomadland was one of six nominations in the best film category that also included Promising Young Woman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Father, and The Mauritanian. Nomadland and Rocks lead all nominees with seven nods but four other films followed close behind with six nominations with The Father, Mank, Minari, and Promising Young Woman also making a strong showing.
The BAFTA Awards will be held virtually on April 11, 2021, and two shows will be broadcast from London's Royal Albert Hall across that weekend. The first show will be a celebration of the craft of film, which will broadcast on April 10, 2021, on BBC Two and BBC Two HD. The main show the following day will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD. Both shows are set to be broadcast in major territories worldwide.
Do YOU agree with the nominations? You can check out the full list of nominees below!
THE FATHER Philippe Carcassonne, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt
THE MAURITANIAN TBC
NOMADLAND Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Stuart Besser, Marc Platt
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
CALM WITH HORSES Nick Rowland, Daniel Emmerson, Joe Murtagh
THE DIG Simon Stone, Gabrielle Tana, Moira Buffini
THE FATHER Florian Zeller, Philippe Carcassone, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Christopher Hampton
HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes, Martin Gentles, Edward Kings, Roy Lee
LIMBO Ben Sharrock, Irune Gurtubai, Angus Lamont
THE MAURITANIAN Kevin Macdonald, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
MOGUL MOWGLI Bassam Tariq, Riz Ahmed, Thomas Benski, Bennett McGhee
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara
ROCKS Sarah Gavron, Ameenah Ayub Allen, Faye Ward, Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
SAINT MAUD Rose Glass, Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes (Writer/Director)
LIMBO Ben Sharrock (Writer/Director), Irune Gurtubai (Producer) [also produced by Angus Lamont]
MOFFIE Jack Sidey (Writer/Producer) [also written by Oliver Hermanus and produced by Eric Abraham]
ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (Writers)
SAINT MAUD Rose Glass (Writer/Director), Oliver Kassman (Producer) [also produced by Andrea Cornwell]
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen
DEAR COMRADES! Andrei Konchalovsky, Alisher Usmanov
LES MISÉRABLES Ladj Ly
MINARI Lee Isaac Chung, Christina Oh
QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbani?, Damir Ibrahimovich
DOCUMENTARY
COLLECTIVE Alexander Nanau
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes, Keith Scholey
THE DISSIDENT Bryan Fogel, Thor Halvorssen
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, Craig Foster
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA Jeff Orlowski, Larissa Rhodes
ANIMATED FILM
ONWARD Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae
SOUL Pete Docter, Dana Murray
WOLFWALKERS Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young
DIRECTOR
ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg
BABYTEETH Shannon Murphy
MINARI Lee Isaac Chung
NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbani?
ROCKS Sarah Gavron
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
ANOTHER ROUND Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg
MANK Jack Fincher
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell
ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Aaron Sorkin
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE DIG Moira Buffini
THE FATHER Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
THE MAURITANIAN Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
THE WHITE TIGER Ramin Bahrani
BUKKY BAKRAY Rocks
RADHA BLANK The Forty-Year-Old Version
VANESSA KIRBY Pieces of a Woman
FRANCES McDORMAND Nomadland
WUNMI MOSAKU His House
ALFRE WOODARD Clemency
LEADING ACTOR
RIZ AHMED Sound of Metal
CHADWICK BOSEMAN Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
ADARSH GOURAV The White Tiger
ANTHONY HOPKINS The Father
MADS MIKKELSEN Another Round
TAHAR RAHIM The Mauritanian
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
NIAMH ALGAR Calm With Horses
KOSAR ALI Rocks
MARIA BAKALOVA Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
DOMINIQUE FISHBACK Judas and the Black Messiah
ASHLEY MADEKWE County Lines
YUH-JUNG YOUN Minari
DANIEL KALUUYA Judas and the Black Messiah
BARRY KEOGHAN Calm With Horses
ALAN KIM Minari
LESLIE ODOM JR. One Night in Miami…
CLARKE PETERS Da 5 Bloods
PAUL RACI Sound of Metal
ORIGINAL SCORE
MANK Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
MINARI Emile Mosseri
NEWS OF THE WORLD James Newton Howard
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Anthony Willis
SOUL Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
CASTING
CALM WITH HORSES Shaheen Baig
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Alexa L. Fogel
MINARI Julia Kim
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu
ROCKS Lucy Pardee
CINEMATOGRAPHY
JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Sean Bobbitt
MANK Erik Messerschmidt
THE MAURITANIAN Alwin H. Küchler
NEWS OF THE WORLD Dariusz Wolski
NOMADLAND Joshua James Richards
THE FATHER Yorgos Lamprinos
NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Frédéric Thoraval
SOUND OF METAL Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Alan Baumgarten
THE DIG Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
THE FATHER Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
MANK Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale
NEWS OF THE WORLD David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan
REBECCA Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
AMMONITE Michael O’Connor
THE DIG Alice Babidge
EMMA. Alexandra Byrne
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Ann Roth
MANK Trish Summerville
THE DIG Jenny Shircore
HILLBILLY ELEGY Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle
MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal
MANK Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams
PINOCCHIO Mark Coulier
SOUND
GREYHOUND TBC
NEWS OF THE WORLD Michael Fentum, William Miller, Mike Prestwood Smith, John Pritchett, Oliver Tarney
NOMADLAND Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, M. Wolf Snyder
SOUL Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker
SOUND OF METAL Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
GREYHOUND Pete Bebb, Nathan McGuinness, Sebastian von Overheidt
THE MIDNIGHT SKY Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, David Watkins
MULAN Sean Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher
TENET Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley
THE FIRE NEXT TIME Renaldho Pelle, Yanling Wang, Kerry Jade Kolbe
THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf
THE SONG OF A LOST BOY Daniel Quirke, Jamie MacDonald, Brid Arnstein
EYELASH Jesse Lewis Reece, Ike Newman
LIZARD Akinola Davies, Rachel Dargavel, Wale Davies
LUCKY BREAK John Addis, Rami Sarras Pantoja
MISS CURVY Ghada Eldemellawy
THE PRESENT Farah Nabulsi
EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
BUKKY BAKRAY
KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR
MORFYDD CLARK
??P? DÌRÍSÙ
CONRAD KHAN