Dune has received the most nominations at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards. The 2022 nominees were announced by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts on Thursday and the Denis Villeneuve directorial received 11 nods, including for Best Film.
Belfast, Don’t Look Up, Licorice Pizza, and The Power of the Dog will contend with Dune for the Best Film title.
The recognition for Dune is notably technician-heavy. The other 10 categories the film is nominated in are Adapted Screenplay, Original Score, Casting, Cinematography, Editing, Production Design, Costume Design, Makeup and Hair, Sound, and Special Visual Effects.
Netflix’s Oscar frontrunner The Power of the Dog had the second most nominations. Its eight nominations include a leading actor nod for Benedict Cumberbatch and supporting actor nods for Jesse Plemmons and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Director Jane Campion is nominated as well and the film’s director of photography, Ari Wegner, became the first woman to earn a BAFTA nomination for cinematography.
The organising committee noted that there is an equal split in the number of female and male directors nominated this year, and the overall number of female nominees has risen to 70, the highest in the last five years.
However, actor Kirsten Dunst, who recently earned a Screen Actors Guild nomination for her role in The Power of the Dog, was left out.
Smit-McPhee, on the other hand, is also nominated in the BAFTA Rising Star category alongside Ariana DeBose (for Steven Spielberg’s West Side Story), Lashana Lynch, Harris Dickinson, and Millicent Simmonds. Both Smit-McPhee and DeBose are first-time nominees, and recently won Golden Globes for their respective performances.
Will Smith, who won the Golden Globe for his role as the father of tennis players Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard, also earned his first-ever BAFTA nomination for the film.
According to a statement from the organisers, 19 of the 24 nominees in the performance categories are receiving their first BAFTA nominations and everyone in the supporting actor category is a first-timer.
Belfast, directed by actor Kenneth Branagh, has been nominated in six categories, namely Best Film, Original Screenplay, Supporting Actress, Supporting Actor, Editing, and Outstanding British Film.
West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, and No Time to Die received five nods each, while After Love, Boiling Point, Cyrano, Don’t Look Up, Passing, and King Richard got four nominations each.
The nominees in the Best Film Not in the English Language category are Drive My Car (Japan), The Hand of God (Italy), Parallel Mothers (Spain), Petite Maman (France), and The Worst Person in The World (New Zealand).
Drive My Car is also nominated in the Director and Adapted Screenplay categories.
Krishnendu Majumdar, Chair of the BAFTA, said in a statement, “Our goal is to level the playing field for awards entries so that more films and the true diverse range of exceptional creative talent in the UK and internationally is represented and celebrated.”
However, despite the nominations of a wide range of talent, the British Academy failed to recognise a few performances and films.
Kristen Stewart-starrer Spencer and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s directorial debut Tick, Tick, Boom! were overlooked entirely.
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Notable directors such as Spielberg (West Side Story), Branagh (Belfast), and Pablo Larrain (Spencer) were left out as well.
Moreover, the Marvel films that released in 2021 – Black Widow, Eternals, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, and Spider-Man: No Way Home – did not find a place in any of the technical categories, despite making it to the Oscars shortlist for special effects.
The BAFTA award ceremony will be held on March 13 at London’s Royal Albert Hall. Rebel Wilson, the award-winning actor, writer, and producer, will host the 75th British Academy Film Awards.