“The Shape of Water,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” and “Darkest Hour” lead the race for the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ movie awards, regarded as a bellwether for the Oscars.
“The Shape of Water” received 12 nominations Tuesday, the most of any film, including the coveted best film award. Guillermo del Toro is nominated for both director and original screenplay, Sally Hawkins for leading actress and Octavia Spencer for supporting actress.
“Three Billboards” and “Darkest Hour” landed nine nominations apiece. The former is up for best film and Frances McDormand for leading actress. Sam Rockwell and Woody Harrelson both received nominations for supporting actor. Martin McDonagh is nominated for both director and original screenplay.
As expected, veteran British actor Gary Oldman, widely considered the front-runner for the Oscar, is one of the leading-actor nominees for his performance as Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour.” Oldman won a Golden Globe award Sunday. “Darkest Hour” also received nominations for best film and for Kristin Scott Thomas in the supporting-actress category.
Rounding out the list for best film are “Call Me by Your Name” and “Dunkirk.” Their directors, Luca Guadagnino and Christopher Nolan, respectively, also earned nominations, as did Denis Villeneuve for “Blade Runner 2049.” Some expressed disappointment that once again there were no women, such as Greta Gerwig (“Lady Bird”), on the best director list, although five female directors were named in other categories, including Angelina Jolie in the foreign-language film category for “First They Killed My Father.”
The leading-actress nominees are Hawkins, McDormand, Annette Bening for “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” Margot Robbie for “I, Tonya,” and Saoirse Ronan for “Lady Bird.” All except Bening had received Golden Globe nominations as well.
The leading-actor category also reflected the awards buzz already out there. Besides Oldman, the nominees are Daniel Day-Lewis for “Phantom Thread,” Daniel Kaluuya for “Get Out,” Jamie Bell for “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool,” and Timothee Chalamet for “Call Me by Your Name.”
British actress Joanna Lumley, best known for “Absolutely Fabulous,” was named as the new host of the awards ceremony, replacing longtime emcee Stephen Fry, who has stepped down after doing the honors a dozen times. Lumley said she accepted the invitation to host “indecently quickly.”
Although the BAFTAs, like the Academy Awards, consider all English-language films, not just U.K. productions, movies with strong British links often figure more prominently in BAFTA’s nominations than at the Globes or the Oscars. “Darkest Hour” and “Dunkirk” were richly recognized Tuesday with nine and eight nominations, respectively. “Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool” and “Paddington 2,” neither of which made much impression at the Globes, both received three nominations.
The nominations were unveiled Tuesday at BAFTA’s Piccadilly headquarters in London by Natalie Dormer (“Game of Thrones”) and Letitia Wright (“Black Panther”) and were live-streamed on Facebook.
In her opening remarks, BAFTA chairwoman Jane Lush lauded Oprah Winfrey for her Golden Globes speech and ceremony host Seth Meyers for having “skewered” the subject of sexual harassment and equality. “We, too, are determined to ensure the grave revelations become a watershed moment and catalyst for real, lasting change across the workplace,” Lush said, adding: “It’s not ‘me too.’ It’s ‘we too,'” she said.
The U.K. is coming off a record year at the box office, with “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” helping to power the market to its 2017 total of £1.3 billion ($1.76 billion). Last year’s BAFTA best film winner, “La La Land,” was among the top 10 earners, out of a list dominated by Disney titles and tentpole releases.
The EE British Academy Film Awards ceremony takes place Feb. 18 at London’s Royal Albert Hall.
2017 BAFTA FILM AWARDS NOMINATIONS
(presented in 2018)
BEST FILM
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Emilie Georges, Luca Guadagnino, Marco Morabito, Peter Spears
DARKEST HOUR Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, J. Miles Dale
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh
DIRECTOR
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Denis Villeneuve
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME Luca Guadagnino
DUNKIRK Christopher Nolan
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh
LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
FRANCES McDORMAND Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
MARGOT ROBBIE I, Tonya
SALLY HAWKINS The Shape of Water
SAOIRSE RONAN Lady Bird
LEADING ACTOR
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Phantom Thread
DANIEL KALUUYA Get Out
GARY OLDMAN Darkest Hour
JAMIE BELL Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET Call Me by Your Name
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
ALLISON JANNEY I, Tonya
KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS Darkest Hour
LAURIE METCALF Lady Bird
LESLEY MANVILLE Phantom Thread
OCTAVIA SPENCER The Shape of Water
SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER All the Money in the World
HUGH GRANT Paddington 2
SAM ROCKWELL Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
WILLEM DAFOE The Florida Project
WOODY HARRELSON Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
DARKEST HOUR Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Lisa Bruce, Eric Fellner, Anthony McCarten, Douglas Urbanski
THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Kevin Loader, Laurent Zeitoun, Yann Zenou, Ian Martin, David Schneider
GOD’S OWN COUNTRY Francis Lee, Manon Ardisson, Jack Tarling
LADY MACBETH William Oldroyd, Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly, Alice Birch
PADDINGTON 2 Paul King, David Heyman, Simon Farnaby
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE GHOUL Gareth Tunley (Writer/Director/Producer), Jack Healy Guttman & Tom Meeten (Producers)
I AM NOT A WITCH Rungano Nyoni (Writer/Director), Emily Morgan (Producer)
JAWBONE Johnny Harris (Writer/Producer), Thomas Napper (Director)
KINGDOM OF US Lucy Cohen (Director)
LADY MACBETH Alice Birch (Writer), William Oldroyd (Director), Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (Producer)
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
ELLE Paul Verhoeven, Saïd Ben Saïd
FIRST THEY KILLED MY FATHER Angelina Jolie, Rithy Panh
THE HANDMAIDEN Park Chan-wook, Syd Lim
LOVELESS Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky
THE SALESMAN Asghar Farhadi, Alexandre Mallet-Guy
DOCUMENTARY
CITY OF GHOSTS Matthew Heineman
I AM NOT YOUR NEGRO Raoul Peck
ICARUS Bryan Fogel, Dan Cogan
AN INCONVENIENT SEQUEL Bonni Cohen, Jon Shenk
JANE Brett Morgen
ANIMATED FILM
COCO Lee Unkrich, Darla K. Anderson
LOVING VINCENT Dorota Kobiela, Hugh Welchman, Ivan Mactaggart
MY LIFE AS A COURGETTE Claude Barras, Max Karli
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
GET OUT Jordan Peele
I, TONYA Steven Rogers
LADY BIRD Greta Gerwig
THE SHAPE OF WATER Guillermo del Toro, Vanessa Taylor
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Martin McDonagh
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
CALL ME BY YOUR NAME James Ivory
THE DEATH OF STALIN Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin, David Schneider
FILM STARS DON’T DIE IN LIVERPOOL Matt Greenhalgh
MOLLY’S GAME Aaron Sorkin
PADDINGTON 2 Simon Farnaby, Paul King
ORIGINAL MUSIC
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer
DARKEST HOUR Dario Marianelli
DUNKIRK Hans Zimmer
PHANTOM THREAD Jonny Greenwood
THE SHAPE OF WATER Alexandre Desplat
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Roger Deakins
DARKEST HOUR Bruno Delbonnel
DUNKIRK Hoyte van Hoytema
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dan Laustsen
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Ben Davis
EDITING
BABY DRIVER Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Joe Walker
DUNKIRK Lee Smith
THE SHAPE OF WATER Sidney Wolinsky
THREE BILLBOARDS OUTSIDE EBBING, MISSOURI Jon Gregory
PRODUCTION DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
DARKEST HOUR Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
DUNKIRK Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
THE SHAPE OF WATER Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau
COSTUME DESIGN
BEAUTY AND THE BEAST Jacqueline Durran
DARKEST HOUR Jacqueline Durran
I, TONYA Jennifer Johnson
PHANTOM THREAD Mark Bridges
THE SHAPE OF WATER Luis Sequeira
MAKE UP & HAIR
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn
DARKEST HOUR David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji
I, TONYA Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee
VICTORIA & ABDUL Daniel Phillips
WONDER Naomi Bakstad, Robert A. Pandini, Arjen Tuiten
SOUND
BABY DRIVER Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Ron Bartlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth
DUNKIRK Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten
THE SHAPE OF WATER Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
BLADE RUNNER 2049 Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson
DUNKIRK Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson
THE SHAPE OF WATER Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott
STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI Nominees tbc
WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES Nominees tbc
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
HAVE HEART Will Anderson
MAMOON Ben Steer
POLES APART Paloma Baeza, Ser En Low
BRITISH SHORT FILM
AAMIR Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone, Oliver Shuster
COWBOY DAVE Colin O’Toole, Jonas Mortensen
A DROWNING MAN Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Byrge Sørensen, Patrick Campbell
WORK Aneil Karia, Scott O’Donnell
WREN BOYS Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon, John Fitzpatrick
EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
DANIEL KALUUYA
FLORENCE PUGH
JOSH O’CONNOR
TESSA THOMPSON
TIMOTHÉE CHALAMET
