The British Academy Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) on Tuesday released the list of nominations for its 74th edition of film awards scheduled to be held in April. Priyanka Chopra Jonas‘s The White Tiger received two nominations, including in the leading actor category for Adarsh Gourav, and for best adapted screenplay.
The White Tiger, directed by Ramin Bahrani, is the only Indian film to have received a nomination. Both Chopra Jonas and Gourav took to social media to announce the same.
Gourav is nominated alongside Riz Ahmed (Sound Of Metal), late Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) who posthumously received both the Golden Globe Award and the Critics Choice Award, Anthony Hopkins (The Father), Mads Mikkelsen, (Another Round) and Tahar Rahim (The Mauritanian).
Chloe Zhao’s Nomadland that has made a mark with two Golden Globe Awards, for best picture and best director, is leading at BAFTAs as well along with Sarah Gavron’s Rocks, with seven nominations each. Both Zhao and Gavron are in the run for the best director award. Bukky Bakray, the 18-year-old actor of Rocks, earned her very first nomination in the best actress category.
They are followed by The Father, Mank, Minari, and Promising Young Woman, which got six nominations each. The Dig and The Mauritanian received five nominations each, while Another Round, Calm With Horses, Judas and the Black Messiah, News of the World and Sound of Metal got four each. His House, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Soul and The Trial of the Chicago 7 saw three nominations each, while films like Borat Subsequent Moviefilm were nominated in only one category.
A year after receiving flak for not nominating non-white actors, the BAFTAs saw the most diverse nominations. The awards committee claimed so in its press release that read, “In a first for BAFTA, four women have been nominated in the Director category. Three of the nominated directors are also nominated for Film Not in the English Language.”
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A total of 21 of the total 24 names in the performance categories are first time nominees.
Krishnendu Majumdar, chair of BAFTA, said: “After last year’s nominations, we started the BAFTA review process with the intention of levelling 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.”
These changes are the beginning of a significant cultural shift within the organisation and is the first phase in what the statement called an “on-going process”.
BAFTAs will be held on April 10 and 11. Both shows will be broadcast virtually from Royal Albert Hall in London, BAFTA’s home since 2017, on BBC channels.