Yahoo Finance Oh My God, Did the Baftas Actually Get the 2021 Nominees Right?
Last year, in the wake of a much-deserved pillorying about its very white, very male membership, the Baftas engaged in a seven-month review aimed at improving what could be summed up as an embarrassing record on diversity, which reached its nadir in 2020 when not one person of colour was nominated in any acting category.
Well, the self-examination worked. The 2021 Bafta nominations are perhaps the most diverse we've ever seen at a major awards ceremony, with 16 of the 24 acting nominees hailing from minority ethnic backgrounds, as well as four women nominated for best director. Golden Globes, take note.
Granted, it's a weird year. Of the Best Film nominees, only one has actually been released in the UK – Netflix's The Trial of the Chicago Seven. With big studio pictures either shifted to the back end of the year, or dropped from the release schedule completely, there's been more space for voices that too often sidelined. The acid test of the new approach will come next year, when things are (hopefully) back to normal.
Still, even if this is a one-off, it shows that change works. Ahead of this year's nominations the Baftas announced a slew of changes aimed at improving the visibility of diverse talent, like long-lists to offer extra exposure to the nominated films, as well as expanding the number of nominees in the acting and director categories to create more space at the table.
British film, which has always been oddly unrecognised considering these awards are run by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, is strongly represented too, with multiple homegrown nominees in all the acting, writing and directing categories.
Yes, there are some odd snubs and omissions (Emerald Fennell can feel hard done by that Promising Young Woman has a best film nod, but there's nothing for her direction, and it's still mind-boggling that Aaron Sorkin's courtroom drama-by-numbers is up for best film but Rose Glass's revolutionary horror St Maud is not) but overall it seems like – whisper it – this year the Baftas might have actually got it right.
The 2021 Bafta Nominations
Best Film
THE FATHER Philippe Carcassonne, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt
THE MAURITANIAN TBC
NOMADLAND Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Stuart Besser, Marc Platt
Outstanding British Film
CALM WITH HORSES Nick Rowland, Daniel Emmerson, Joe Murtagh
THE DIG Simon Stone, Gabrielle Tana, Moira Buffini
THE FATHER Florian Zeller, Philippe Carcassone, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Christopher Hampton
HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes, Martin Gentles, Edward Kings, Roy Lee
LIMBO Ben Sharrock, Irune Gurtubai, Angus Lamont
THE MAURITANIAN Kevin Macdonald, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
MOGUL MOWGLI Bassam Tariq, Riz Ahmed, Thomas Benski, Bennett McGhee
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara
ROCKS Sarah Gavron, Ameenah Ayub Allen, Faye Ward, Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
SAINT MAUD Rose Glass, Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes (Writer/Director)
LIMBO Ben Sharrock (Writer/Director), Irune Gurtubai (Producer) [also produced by Angus Lamont]
MOFFIE Jack Sidey (Writer/Producer) [also written by Oliver Hermanus and produced by Eric Abraham]
ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (Writers)
SAINT MAUD Rose Glass (Writer/Director), Oliver Kassman (Producer) [also produced by Andrea Cornwell]
Film Not in the English Language
ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen
DEAR COMRADES! Andrei Konchalovsky, Alisher Usmanov
LES MISÉRABLES Ladj Ly
MINARI Lee Isaac Chung, Christina Oh
QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbanić, Damir Ibrahimovich
Documentary
COLLECTIVE Alexander Nanau
DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes, Keith Scholey
THE DISSIDENT Bryan Fogel, Thor Halvorssen
MY OCTOPUS TEACHER Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, Craig Foster
THE SOCIAL DILEMMA Jeff Orlowski, Larissa Rhodes
Animated Film
ONWARD Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae
SOUL Pete Docter, Dana Murray
WOLFWALKERS Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young
Director
ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg
BABYTEETH Shannon Murphy
MINARI Lee Isaac Chung
NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao
QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbanić
ROCKS Sarah Gavron
Original Screenplay
ANOTHER ROUND Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg
MANK Jack Fincher
PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell
ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Aaron Sorkin
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