With 13 nominations, Oppenheimer leads the field, followed by Poor Things. Christopher Nolan is in good shape because British nominees are typically favored by the BAFTAs.
The 77th BAFTA Awards will be presented at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday night. David Tennant, one of the most popular performers in Britain, will host the event. He made a touching comeback to the Doctor Who series towards the end of last year for the 60th-anniversary celebrations.
Oppenheimer, directed by Christopher Nolan, is predicted to win multiple Oscars and has the most nominations of any movie this year.
Our forecasts for the major categories at BAFTA are as follows:
Supporting Actor
Probably the simplest prediction of the night is that Robert Downey Jr., in his role as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer, has won practically every award this season. Though it’s improbable, Paul Mescal might be a dark horse for All of Us Strangers, a beloved but strangely underappreciated film this year. Mescal is still very young and is only starting his career, therefore it’s highly likely that we will talk about him again in the future. We can all anticipate a pleasant and humorous speech from Downey Jr., who is unlikely to have many more opportunities after winning Leading Actor for Chaplin.
Supporting Actress
The only significant category where an upset is possible is this one. Da’vine Joy Randolph, who won numerous precursor accolades for her exceptional performance in Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers, has dominated the field. However, it would be incorrect to disregard Emily Blunt, who made the best of an understandably underdeveloped part as Oppenheimer’s wife. Although Blunt hasn’t yet taken home any honors, she has supported Oppenheimer and Nolan wholeheartedly and loudly during the campaign trail. The fact that Blunt is British is crucial because it will appeal to BAFTA supporters. This is one of the first prizes of the evening, and if Blunt wins, Oppenheimer might make it a clean sweep.
Lead Actor
Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers and Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer have been the apparent front-runners throughout this awards season. Despite the fact that each performance is exceptional in and of itself, Cillian Murphy wins in this case because of his British heritage. The BAFTAs are mandated to support British art and artists, and voters will undoubtedly wish to honor Murphy for his outstanding body of work spanning nearly three decades in both film and television, in addition to this part.
Leading Actress
This year’s contest between Emma Stone’s Poor Things and Lily Gladstone’s Killers of the Flower Moon appeared to be a two-horse race, but it ended up being far more exciting. The field was wide open for the previous winner Stone when the BAFTAs first zagged and decided not to nominate Gladstone.
However, there has been an unexpected uptick in support for German actress Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall over the past month. Hüller is the one who makes Anatomy of a Fall come to life as an intellectual exercise, even though Stone plays the more theatrical and conventionally daring part. Given that British voters have historically exhibited a stronger liking for European films and artists in comparison to the Oscars, I’m betting on Hüller in this contest.
Best Director and Best Film
With both of the major prizes, the Oppenheimer train will not stop running. Christopher Nolan is going the same way as Steven Spielberg, who, despite his box office triumphs and audience devotion, did not receive any Oscars until he made a “serious” movie like Schindler’s List. Even his somber movie became a huge box office hit thanks to Nolan’s extra effort. The BAFTAs, for their part, won’t pass up the opportunity to honor a British director.
BAFTA Awards: A Key Indicator for Oscar Success and the Impact on Nolan’s Prospects
Not only are the BAFTAs one of the major precursor honors but there is also a significant overlap in the voting membership between the two academies, making them important forecasters of the Academy honors. All Quiet on the Western Front, a German-language film, unexpectedly dominated the 2023 BAFTAs and went on to win four Oscars out of nine nominations. The Oppenheimer story appears to be written this year, but any form of controversy at the BAFTAs may mean trouble for Nolan the following month.
