2021 BAFTA nominations: Chloé Zhao’s ‘Nomadland,’ Sarah Gavron’s ‘Rocks’ lead most diverse lineup ever

Carey Mulligan misses Best Actress, Olivia Colman misses Supporting Actress as their films place second in nomination totals, four women nominated in Director

We knew the 2021 BAFTA nominations were going to be full of surprises today but not as shocking as they actually turned out to be.

Last year, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts aka BAFTA made an announcement of sweeping changes to their voting process and membership and that they would make good on it in the very next awards cycle. They brought back longlists, which were decided on by chapter voting (actors voted for actors, etc) and then the seemingly dubious choice to have very small juries of 7-12 people, some of which didn’t even need to be BAFTA members, decide the nominations. These changes were put forth after a history of a lack of diversity among their nominees year to year shined a light on systemic issues within the organization.

Last year, the BAFTA Film Awards came under fire for shutting out people of color in all four acting races (Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Supporting Actor) and only nominating male directors in the Best Director race. At the time, BAFTA’s film committee chair Marc Samuelson said there is an “infuriating lack of diversity in the acting noms.” The organization overhauled its voting process for 2021 in an attempt to have more inclusive nominees, which, looking at this year’s selection, it has. The same issues that have hit the Oscars and the Golden Globes, each of which have also begun or implemented changes.

Chloé Zhao’s Nomadland and Sarah Gavron’s Rocks led the nomination totals today with seven apiece including Best Director nominations for each. A host of films were next with six including The Father, Mank, Minari and Promising Young Woman but each saw shocking snubs, too. No Olivia Colman in Supporting Actress, no Best Picture, Director or acting nominations for Mank, no Directing or acting nominations for Promising Young Woman, not even for Carey Mulligan.

As I highlighted in my BAFTA nominations predictions piece, the curious case of Minari and the chapter voting vs jury voting played out exactly as I thought it might. While the film itself was snubbed for the Best Film longlist (where everyone voted) it landed mentions across the board in the longlists and today turned most of those into nominations. Lee Isaac Chung hit Best Director, Youn Yuh-jung was nominated in Supporting Actress and 8-year old wunderkind Alan Kim was nominated in Supporting Actor. That’s on top of its Score, Casting and Film Not in the English Language nominations.

Director is comprised of four women, Best Actress features four women of color out of six nominees: Bukky Bakray (Rocks), Radha Blank (The Forty-Year Old Version), Wunmi Mosaku (His House) and Alfre Woodard (Clemency). The other three acting categories are also among the most diverse in BAFTA history with some Oscar ‘frontrunners’ out of the mix entirely.

The previously announced EE BAFTA Rising Star nominees are: Bukky Bakray, Kingsley Ben-Adir, Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù, Conrad Khan and Morfyyd Clark.

Ironically, while pushing through on promised diversity for women and people of color, many of today’s nominations look like the BAFTA days of yore when they came after the Oscars and weren’t a precursor for the Academy Awards at all. But here’s the thing, and why the new voting system both worked and failed. While the directing and acting nominations were chosen by these small juries, Best Film was voted on by all members and as diverse as the rest of the nominations are, the members as a whole snubbed Black-led films entirely, just as the Golden Globes did. There was only one crossover from Film to Director: Zhao. The nominations today were a big step forward towards diversity and inclusion but there’s a long way to go.

Here are the nominations for the 2021 EE British Academy Film Awards. Winners will be announced on April 11.

Best Film
The Father
The Mauritanian
Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
The Trial Of The Chicago 7

Leading Actress
Bukky Bakray, Rocks
Radha Blank, The Forty-Year-Old Version
Vanessa Kirby, Pieces Of A Woman
Frances McDormand, Nomadland
Wunmi Mosaku, His House
Alfre Woodard, Clemency

Leading Actor
Riz Ahmed, Sound Of Metal
Chadwick Boseman, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom
Adarsh Gourav, The White Tiger
Anthony Hopkins, The Father
Mads Mikkelsen, Another Round
Tahar Rahim, The Mauritanian

Supporting Actress
Niamh Algar, Calm With Horses
Kosar Ali, Rocks
Maria Bakalova, Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Dominique Fishback, Judas And The Black Messiah
Ashley Madekwe, County Lines
Yuh-Jung Youn, Minari

Supporting Actor
Daniel Kaluuya, Judas And The Black Messiah
Barry Keoghan, Calm With Horses
Alan Kim, Minari
Leslie Odom Jr., One Night In Miami…
Clarke Peters, Da 5 Bloods
Paul Raci, Sound Of Metal

Outstanding British Film
Calm With Horses
The Dig
The Father
His House
Limbo
The Mauritanian
Mogul Mowgli
Promising Young Woman
Rocks
Saint Maud

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
Dear Comrades!
Les Misérables
Minari
Quo Vadis, Aida?

Documentary
Collective
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet
The Dissident
My Octopus Teacher
The Social Dilemma

Animated Film
Onward
Soul
Wolfwalkers

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

Adapted Screenplay
The Dig, Moira Buffini
The Father, Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
The Mauritanian, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
Nomadland, Chloé Zhao
The White Tiger, Ramin Bahrani

Original Score
Mank, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Minari, Emile Mosseri
News Of The World, James Newton Howard
Promising Young Woman, Anthony Willis
Soul, Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Casting
Calm With Horses, Shaheen Baig
Judas And The Black Messiah, Alexa L. Fogel
Minari, Julia Kim
Promising Young Woman, Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu
Rocks, Lucy Pardee

Cinematography
Judas And The Black Messiah, Sean Bobbitt
Mank, Erik Messerschmidt
The Mauritanian, Alwin H. Küchler
News Of The World, Dariusz Wolski
Nomadland, Joshua James Richards

Editing
The Father, Yorgos Lamprinos
Nomadland, Chloé Zhao
Promising Young Woman, Frédéric Thoraval
Sound Of Metal, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
The Trial Of The Chicago 7, Alan Baumgarten

Production Design
The Dig, Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
The Father, Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
Mank, Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale
News Of The World, David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan
Rebecca, Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Costume Design
Ammonite, Michael O’connor
The Dig, Alice Babidge
Emma, Alexandra Byrne
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Ann Roth
Mank, Trish Summerville

Make Up & Hair
The Dig, Jenny Shircore
Hillbilly Elegy, Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal
Mank, Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams
Pinocchio, Mark Coulier

Sound
Greyhound, Tbc
News Of The World, Michael Fentum, William Miller, Mike Prestwood Smith, John Pritchett, Oliver Tarney
Nomadland, Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, M. Wolf Snyder
Soul, Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker
Sound Of Metal, Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc

Special Visual Effects
Greyhound, Pete Bebb, Nathan Mcguinness, Sebastian Von Overheidt
The Midnight Sky, Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, David Watkins
Mulan, Sean Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury
The One And Only Ivan, Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher
Tenet, Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley

British Short Animation
The Fire Next Time, Renaldho Pelle, Yanling Wang, Kerry Jade Kolbe
The Owl And The Pussycat, Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf
The Song Of A Lost Boy, Daniel Quirke, Jamie Macdonald, Brid Arnstein