BAFTA nominations 2024: Oppenheimer wins battle with Barbie as shortlist announced
Barbie might have won the battle of the box office, but Oppenheimer leads the BAFTAs race – picking up 13 nods for this year’s awards.
British filmmaker Christopher Nolan’s epic, which explores the true story of the first atomic bomb, is shortlisted for gongs including best film and best director, as well as acting awards for stars Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr.
It is followed by the critically acclaimed Poor Things, which has 11 BAFTA nominations. Star Emma Stone, who plays a young woman resurrected from the dead with the mind of an infant, is nominated for best actress – like Murphy, she is fresh from a Golden Globe win – while the film is also in the running for best film and outstanding British film.
Nominations in full:
The films and stars in the running this year
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Emma Stone on Poor Things sex scenes
Barbie, the biggest film of 2023, has five nominations, including best actress for Margot Robbie and supporting actor for Ryan Gosling, but is notably missing from the best film and director categories for filmmaker Greta Gerwig, who surprised the world with her feminist take on the world’s most famous doll when the film was released in the summer.
She receives a nod instead for best original screenplay, while the film is also shortlisted for best costume design and best production design.
Anatomy Of A Fall (seven nods), The Holdovers (seven nods) and Killers Of The Flower Moon (nine nods) make up the rest of the nominees in the best film category, while acting nominees also include Bradley Cooper and Carey Mulligan, for Maestro, and Robert De Niro for Killers Of The Flower Moon.
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Saltburn explores class, power and sex and is something of a modern take on Brideshead Revisited. Pic: MGM/Amazon Studios
British films, including All Of Us Strangers and Saltburn, have fared well, with six and five nods respectively. Saltburn has acting nods for Irish star Barry Keoghan and British actress Rosamund Pike, while Paul Mescal and Claire Foy are in the running for their performances in All Of Us Strangers.
Films shortlisted alongside Poor Things for outstanding British film include How To Have Sex, Napoleon, Wonka and Rye Lane.
First and second ever nominations for one actress
Sandra Huller is nominated in two acting categories. Pic: Taylor Jewell/Invision/AP
In the acting categories, German actress Sandra Huller receives both her first and second ever nods – for best actress for Anatomy Of A Fall and best supporting actress for Zone Of Interest. She is one of 11 nominees, from 23 in total, to be shortlisted for the first time – along with Murphy for Oppenheimer.
Fantasia Barrino and Danielle Brooks (The Color Purple), Colman Domingo (Rustin), Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers), Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane) and Teo Yoo (Past Lives) are also first-time nominees.
In the directing category, four of the six are first-time director nominees: Jonathan Glazer (The Zone Of Interest), Andrew Haigh (All Of Us Strangers), Alexander Payne (The Holdovers), and Justine Triet (Anatomy Of A Fall). They are up against Nolan and Cooper, who directed and starred in Maestro – meaning five of the six nominees are male.
‘The most talked about films of the year’
Leonardo DiCaprio missed out on a nod for his performance in Killers Of The Flower Moon, but the film is up for several other awards. Pic: AppleTV+
The nominations for the Rising Star Award, which recognises up-and-coming talent and is voted for by the public, were announced ahead of the full shortlist – and feature Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor, Saltburn’s Elordi, The Bear actress Ayo Edebiri, and Mia McKenna-Bruce and Sophie Wilde – stars of the films How To Have Sex and Talk To Me respectively.
Previous winners – including Tom Hardy, Kristen Stewart and Daniel Kaluuya – have gone on to become household names.
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BAFTA chief executive Jane Millichip said the “films and talented people nominated represent some of the most talked about films of the year, the most critically acclaimed, and films yet to be released and discovered by audiences”.
‘Our mad, special film got recognition’: Stars react to nominations
Oppenheimer star Murphy said he “couldn’t be happier” to see so many of his collaborators recognised, Nolan in particular. “Working on the film was an experience I’ll never forget,” he said.
Colman Domingo, who is nominated opposite Murphy for the best actor prize for Rustin, about the man who helped Martin Luther King Jr and others organise the 1963 March on Washington, said he was in “tremendous company”.
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Obama had ‘notes’ on Rustin film
Saltburn star Pike, who plays the mother of a wealthy Oxford student who invites a less privileged friend back to his family estate for the summer, said there was “something uniquely special” about a BAFTA nomination.
“It happened once before,” she said, referring to her nomination for best actress in 2015, for her performance in Gone Girl. “I thought realistically it might never happen again.”
She continued: “I am proud to be nominated in this group of varied and powerful supporting actresses. And overjoyed that Jacob and Barry and our mad, special film got recognition. Bliss Bliss Bliss.”
Molly Manning Walker, writer and director of How To Have Sex, said it was “nothing short of a dream” to be shortlisted.
Mia McKenna-Bruce stars in How To Have Sex. Pic: MUBI
The film, her directorial debut, tells the story of three British teenage girls on a rites-of-passage holiday in Malia, where they find themselves navigating the complexities of sex, consent and self-discovery. “It’s hard to imagine that a year ago, when editing the film, it would take us on this incredible journey,” she said.
Poor Things star Stone, who is also a producer, released a statement along with director Yorgos Lanthimos and their fellow producers Ed Lowe and Andrew Guiney, saying they were delighted by the nominations.
“It’s particularly gratifying that BAFTA has recognised the work of our many talented UK-based heads of department across cinematography, costume design, make-up and hair, original score, production design and special visual effects,” they said.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, nominated for best supporting actress for her performance in The Holdovers, said her career started in London’s West End so to be BAFTA nominated was “truly dreamlike”.
Danielle Brooks, nominated in the same category for The Color Purple, a new musical film version of Alice Walker’s 1982 novel, said she was grateful that the story had brought her “this amazing moment”.
The winners will be announced at the BAFTAs ceremony on 18 February, with David Tennant hosting this year.
Angelina Jolie says although she appreciates being an artist, she would prefer for her legacy to be “a good mother” and to be known for her “belief in equality and human rights”.
The Oscar-winning actress stars as Maria Callas in the new Pablo Larrain film about the opera singer’s life.
Pic: StudioCanal
She has called Maria “the hardest” and “most challenging” role she has had in her career and put months of preparation into immersing herself into the world of opera.
Jolie, who recently reached a divorce settlement with actor Brad Pitt, told Sky News: “To be very candid, it was the therapy I didn’t realise I needed. I had no idea how much I was holding in and not letting out.
“So, the challenge wasn’t the technical [side of opera], it was an emotional experience to find my voice, to be in my body, to express. You have to give every single part of yourself.”
The biopic combines the voice of the Maleficent actress with recordings of Maria Callas.
Jolie believes it “would be a crime to not have [Callas’] voice through this because, in many ways, she is very present in this film”.
Who was Maria Callas?
Born in New York in 1923, Maria Callas was the daughter of Greek immigrants who moved back to Athens at the age of 13 with her mother and sister.
After enrolling at the Athens Conservatory, she made her professional debut at 17 and went on to become one of the most famous faces of opera, travelling around the world and performing at Covent Garden in London, The Met in New York and La Scala in Milan.
Callas’s final operatic performance took place at Covent Garden in 1965 when she was 41 but she continued to work conducting master classes at Juilliard School, doing concert tours and starring in the 1969 film Medea.
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, Maria focuses on the artist’s final years in the 1970s when she moved to Paris and disappeared from public view.
She died on 16 September 1977 at the age of 53.
Pic: StudioCanal
Jolie on changing motivations as an actor
Maria follows the life of an artist fully consumed by the art she creates and even remarks that “happiness never developed a beautiful melody”.
Reflecting on her own life in the spotlight, Jolie said she noticed her own career motivations change over the years.
“There’s this kind of study of being human that we do when we create, and we communicate with an audience because our work is not in isolation – it’s a connection.
“I think when I was younger, I had different questions about being human and different feelings and now as I’ve gotten older, I understand some things and now I have different questions.
“It’s a matter of life, right? And so maybe that’s interesting that this now is a character really contemplating death and really contemplating the toll of certain things in life that I, of course, couldn’t have understood in my 20s”.
Jolie at the New York Film Festival in September with three of her children (L-R) Pax, Zahara and Maddox. Pic: AP
A family affair
Two of Jolie’s children, Maddox and Pax, took on production assistant roles during the filming of Maria and witnessed their mother perform opera for the first time in public.
She says the film allowed them to create new experiences together and for her children to see her approach to playing a difficult role.
“Everyone in my home, we all give each other space to be who we are and we’re all different.
“I’m the mom, but I’m also an artist and a person and so my family has been very kind and gives me their understanding. They make fun of me, and they support me and just as you’d hope it would be.”
She adds: “When you play somebody who is dealing with so much pain, it’s very important to come home to some kindness.”
Maria is in cinemas now.
Tom Holland’s dad has confirmed his son’s engagement to Zendaya – revealing how the 28-year-old meticulously planned the proposal.
Zendaya, also 28, sparked engagement rumours when she attended last Sunday’s Golden Globes wearing a sparkling diamond on her ring finger.
Neither star has publicly addressed the rumours but Tom’s comedian father, Dominic Holland, has now confirmed the pair are set to wed.
He wrote in a post on his Patreon account: “Tom, as you know by now was very incredibly well prepared. He had purchased a ring.
“He had spoken with her father and gained permission to propose to his daughter.”
“Tom had everything planned out… When, where, how, what to say, what to wear,” he added.
Zendaya arrived at the Golden Globes with a noticeable piece of new jewellery. Pic: Invision/AP
Dominic also noted that while most men worry about being able to afford an engagement ring, he suspects his actor son was “more concerned with the stone, its size and clarity, its housing, which jeweller”.
Tom and Zendaya met on the set of Spider-Man: Homecoming in 2016, when they played the titular hero and his love interest MJ, respectively. Their romance was confirmed in 2021.
In his post, Tom’s father admitted fears over whether being in the spotlight could put a strain on the couple’s relationship.
He wrote: “I do fret that their combined stardom will amplify their spotlight and the commensurate demands on them and yet they continually confound me by handling everything with aplomb.”
“And even though show business is a messy place for relationships and particularly so for famous couples as they crash and burn in public and are too numerous to mention […] yet somehow right at the same time, I am completely confident they will make a successful union.”
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Zendaya rose to fame after landing a role in Disney sitcom Shake It Up, and became a household name after starring in Euphoria.
Holland – who has starred in three Spider-Man films opposite his now-fiancée – made his stage debut in Billy Elliot the Musical in 2008.
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