The BAFTA nominations for 2023 have been announced, which means it's time for Cinema Paradiso users to make their annual predictions!
Each year, Cinema Paradiso invites members to use their film knowledge to predict the winners in the 25 competition categories at the British Academy Film Awards. So, why not cast your votes before Richard E. Grant hosts the 76th edition of Britain's oldest and most prestigious awards event at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 19 February?
The person who correctly predicts the most winners will receive SIX MONTHS of free rentals from CinemaParadiso.co.uk. Cast your vote by clicking here!
So, what are you waiting for? Maybe a few pointers about the contenders in the six major categories? Okay, here we go...
BEST FILM
There's something rather cruel about the longlists that BAFTA now releases a couple of weeks before the official nominations are announced. While they afford the cited films a moment in the spotlight to boost their box-office takings, they also highlight the 'failure' of those who don't make the final cut.
James Cameron, for example, knew that Avatar: The Weight of Water would not be in contention for Best Film. But Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), Steven Spielberg (The Fabelmans), Ruben Östlund (Triangle of Sadness), Oliver Hermanus (Living), and Charlotte Wells (Aftersun) had a fortnight to endure before having their hopes very publicly dashed. Apart from Top Gun: Maverick and The Fabelmans - who respectively landed four technical nominations and recognition for Best Original Screenplay - the others at least came up trumps in some of the other major categories, as we shall see.
In all, 45 features and eight shorts have been nominated across the 25 categories. None was more feted than Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front, whose tally of 14 equals the record for a non-English-language film set by Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000). It's the highest haul since Tom Hooper's The King's Speech in 2011. For now, though, Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) remains out on its own as the most garlanded in BAFTA history, with 16 nominations.
The British Film Academy was still a twinkle in the eye of Michael Balcon and Alexander Korda when Lewis Milestone's All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) won the Academy Award for Best Picture. But, while Netflix's German adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque's pacifist novel has surprised some with its award season plaudits, combat pictures have always done well at the BAFTAs, with the top prize going to René Clément's Forbidden Games (1952), David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Griguri Chukrai's Ballad of a Soldier (1959), David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien (1974), Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List (1993), Roman Polanski's The Pianist (2002), and Sam Mendes's 1917 (2019).
Anthony Minghella's The English Patient (1996) and Joe Wright's Atonement (2007) also deal with the world wars, while Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields (1984) and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (2008) touch upon conflicts in Cambodia and Iraq. Although it only provides unsettling background noise, the Irish Civil War rages across the water in Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin. We'll focus more on this bittersweet dramedy and its 10 nominations when considering the acting awards. But it should be noted that McDonagh has form at BAFTA, with a Best Film win for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017).
Australian Baz Luhrmann has also had his moments over the last three decades, with Strictly Ballroom (1992) and Moulin Rouge! (2001) being up for Best Film before Elvis. The omens aren't good, however, as Martin Scorsese's The Aviator (2004) is the sole showbiz biopic to prevail, with Bryan Singer's Bohemian Rhapsody (2018) not even meriting a Best Film nomination, in spite of the fact that Rami Malek won Best Actor for his performance as Queen frontman, Freddie Mercury.
Staying with the musical theme, Todd Field's Tár centres on the efforts of a classical music conductor (Cate Blanchett) to control her public image. Similar stories about high-maintenance artistes have come good before, with Joseph L. Mankiewicz's theatrical backstager, All About Eve (1950), winning Best Film and Darren Aronofsky's ballet thriller, Black Swan (2010), also being nominated. As academic's wife, Martha, Elizabeth Taylor played another termagant in Mike Nichols's adaptation of Edward Albee's stage play, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), which also took the premier award.
Known as 'The Daniels', Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert will break new ground if the BAFTA goes to Everything Everywhere All At Once, as no science-fiction film has ever been voted Best Film. The trend against the genre has been bucked since the millennium, with James Cameron's Avatar (2009), Guillermo Del Toro's The Shape of Water (2017), and Denis Villeneuve's Dune (2021) all being nominated. Fantasy fans will, of course, point to the bookending parts of Peter Jackson's 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy - The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and The Return of the King (2003) - which both took the top prize. But it remains to be seen how a multiverse caper will go down with what has traditionally been a conservative electorate, even though it has registered in 10 categories.
There are another 15 at BAFTA 2023, so don't forget to make your predictions on the voting page.
BEST DIRECTOR
By all accounts, the BAFTA membership seems to be of the impression that Elvis directed itself to a Best Film nomination. Baz Luhrmann did make the longlist, alongside Marie Kruetzer (Corsage), Sara Dosa (Fire of Love), Colm Bairéad (The Quiet Girl), Alice Diop (Saint Omer), Maria Schrader (She Said), Chinonye Chukwu (Till), Joseph Kosinski (Top Gun: Maverick), and Sarah Polley (Women Talking). Luhrmann can take solace from the fact he won the award for William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet (1997) when it wasn't nominated for Best Film. Moreover, his omission allows two more directors to receive recognition.
Given the number of women who were left on the longlist, it's something of a relief that Gina Prince-Bythewood has been nominated for The Woman King. Born in Los Angeles, the 53 year-old African American has been producing notable work since debuting with Love & Basketball (2000). Among the titles available to rent from Cinema Paradiso are Disappearing Acts (2000), The Secret Life of Bees (2008), and Beyond the Lights (2014). We can heartily recommend them all.
What makes Prince-Bythewood's BAFTA recognition so significant is that she is in the running to complete a hat-trick for women directors after Chloé Zhao for Nomadland (2020) and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (2021). Furthermore, she can thumb her nose at Hollywood's Academy after being excluded from the Oscar shortlist. As was South Korea's Park Chan-wook, who has been nominated for Decision to Leave, a seductive thriller in which a detective becomes obsessed with the chief suspect in a murder case. As BAFTA opted to reward 1917 rather than Bong Joon-ho's Oscar winner, Parasite (2019), it seems likely that Park will go home empty handed. But Cinema Paradiso users should treat his citation as a splendid excuse to revisit such past achievements as Joint Security Area (2000), Sympathy For Mr Vengeance (2002), Oldboy (2003), Lady Vengeance (2005), I Am a Cyborg (2006), Thirst (2009), Stoker (2014), The Handmaiden (2016), and The Little Drummer Girl (2018).
For those who have never sampled Park before, untold treats await. And don't forget the 2008 anthology, Cinema 16: World Cinema Shorts, which contains his 1999 short, Judgement. Speaking of shorts, writer-director Martin McDonagh and actor Brendan Gleeson first worked together on the 2004 short, Six Shooter. The pair hooked up with Colin Farrell for In Bruges (2008) before McDonagh and Farrell went Stateside for Seven Psychopaths (2012).
The gang is back together for The Banshees of Inisherin, which could become the first picture set in Ireland to win the BAFTAs for Best Film and Best Director since Alan Parker's The Commitments (1991). If Edward Berger wins for All Quiet on the Western Front, he will become the first German to take the category since Wim Wenders did so with Paris, Texas (1984), since when, the only other German to have been nominated was Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck for The Lives of Others (2007).
That was the year that Joel and Ethan Coen's shared the Best Director prize for No Country For Old Men (2007), after Joel had won on his own for Fargo (1996). Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert will follow in their footsteps and those of Michael Radford and Massimo Troisi (for Il Postino, 1995) if Everything Everywhere All At Once is pulled out of the envelope at the Festival Hall. This will be quite a step up for The Daniels, who debuted with the cult Daniel Radcliffe comedy, Swiss Army Man (2016). By contrast, actor Todd Field, who is only making his third feature with Tár, was widely acclaimed for In the Bedroom (2001) and Little Children (2006). The 16-year gap is a BAFTA record for a directorial hiatus prior to a nomination and Field would become the fourth director to win a BAFTA with his third feature, after Chloé Zhao, Damien Chazelle (La La Land, 2016), and Ben Affleck (Argo, 2012). Yet, even if Scheinert and Kwan do become the first sophomores to win Best Director since Bob Fosse for Cabaret (1972), Kenneth Branagh will remain the sole winner on debut for Henry V (1989).
BEST ACTOR
Just as the 1968 BAFTAs introduced the Best Director Category, they also witnessed a simplification of the awards for actors and actresses in leading roles. Instead of there being separate prizes for British and Foreign performers, the unified Best Actor and Best Actress categories were devised. These were expanded to six nominations last year, but that won't come as much consolation to Tom Cruise (Top Gun: Maverick), Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), Daniel Kaluuya (Nope), and Felix Kammerer (All Quiet on the Western Front), who were left stranded on the longlist.
Taking the 1968 awards as our starting point, there have been 11 previous instances of the Best Actor category being entirely populated by first-time nominees. For the first time, half of the newbie sextet up for selection hail from Ireland and should either Colin Farrell, Paul Mescal, or Daryl McCormack win for their respective performances as the defriended Pádraic Súilleabháin in The Banshees of Inisherin, single father Calum Paterson in Aftersun, and sex worker Connor in Sophie Hyde's Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, they will become their nation's first Best Actor winner at the BAFTAs. And before you write in, we know that Daniel Day-Lewis won for playing Irish artist Christy Brown in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989) and that has held dual British and Irish citizenship since 1993, but our foot is firmly down on this one.
Farrell has a slight head start, as he has already won the award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical at the 80th Golden Globes. However, Austin Butler took the prize for Best Actor in a Drama for Elvis and BAFTA loves a biopic, with the following converting their nominations for playing historical figures: John Hurt as John Merrick in David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980), Ben Kingsley in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982), Daniel Day-Lewis in My Left Foot, Robert Downey, Jr. in Richard Attenborough's Chaplin (1992), Nigel Hawthorne as George III in Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George (1995), Geoffrey Rush as pianist David Helfgott in Scott Hicks's Shine (1996), Russell Crowe as mathematician John Forbes Nash, Jr. in Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001), Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in Taylor Hackford's Ray (2004), Philip Seymour Hoffman in Bennett Miller's Capote (2005), Forrest Whitaker as Idi Amin in Kevin Macdonald's The Last King of Scotland (2006), Colin Firth as George VI in The King's Speech (2010), Daniel Day-Lewis in Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012), Chiwetel Ejiofor as Solomon Northup in Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013), Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking in James Marsh's The Theory of Everything (2014), Leonardo DiCaprio as trapper Hugh Glass in Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant (2015), Gary Oldman as Winston Churchill in Joe Wright's Darkest Hour (2017), Rami Malek as Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody (2018), and Will Smith as Richard Williams in Reinaldo Marcus Green's King Richard (2021).
While such a lengthy list tilts the balance, it by no means puts the others out of the race. Mescal may have only been in his second feature (after Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Lost Daughter, 2021), but he already has an Emmy nomination to his name for Lenny Abrahamson's tele-take on Sally Rooney's Normal People (2020). Despite appearing in five films, McCormack is also best known for this small-screen work, notably as Isaiah Jesus in Peaky Blinders (2013-22).
Bill Nighy already has a BAFTA for his Best Supporting turn as Billy Mack in Richard Curtis's Love Actually (2003). As Rodney Williams, however, he contributes a very different performance to Living, which was adapted by Kazuo Ishiguro from Akira Kurosawa's deeply moving drama about a dying civil servant, Ikiru (1952). Played with great dignity by Brendan Fraser, obese English tutor Charlie also has health issues in Darren Aronofsky's The Whale, as he tries to repair his relationship with his estranged teenage daughter. Both men received Golden Globe nominations, only to lose out to Butler. But could home advantage play into the 73 year-old's hands and see him become the second-oldest Best Actor winner behind 83 year-old Anthony Hopkins for Florian Zeller's The Father (2020) ?
The BAFTA electorate aren't the only ones with choices to make, of course. There's six months of free Cinema Paradiso rentals on offer as the prize in our prediction competition. Click here to register your entry.
BEST ACTRESS
Commentators have been quick to point out that the BAFTA line-up for the Best Actress category is markedly more diverse than its Oscar counterpart. It might have been more so had the shortlisted Naomi Ackie made it through for her playing Whitney Houston in Kasi Lemmons's I Wanna Dance With Somebody. But she missed out, along with Jessica Chastain for Tobias Lindholm's The Good Nurse, Lesley Manville for Anthony Fabian's Mrs Harris Goes to Paris, and the Oscar-nominated duo of Michelle Williams for Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans and Andrea Riseborough for Michael Morris's To Leslie.
Some may be surprised by the omission of Golden Globe nominees Olivia Colman and Margot Robbie because Sam Mendes's Empire of Light and Damien Chazelle's Babylon each celebrate the mystique of cinema. But the presence of Cuban Ana de Armas provides ample compensation, as she shows how Norma Jeane Mortensen made a troubled transformation into Marilyn Monroe in Andrew Dominik's Blonde, which drew on the same Joyce Carol Oates source as Joyce Chopra's Blonde (2001), which starred Poppy Montgomery.
Staying in the realm of the performing arts, Cate Blanchett will be many people's favourite for the BAFTA after taking the Golden Globe for her potent display as conductor Lydia Tár in Tár. The winner of the 2018 Stanley Kubrick Britannia Award for Excellence in Film has amassed an enviable haul of BAFTA citations, since winning Best Actress with her first nomination for Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth (1998). Her return to the throne in Elizabeth: The Golden Age brought further recognition in 2008, when she was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for her quirky cameo as Bob Dylan in Todd Haynes's I'm Not There (both 2007).
This was Blanchett's third nod in this category, after she had previously been nominated for playing Meredith Logue in Anthony Minghella's take on Patricia Highsmith's thriller, The Talented Mr Ripley (1998), and had won for the vivacious impersonation of Katharine Hepburn in Martin Scorsese's The Aviator that also landed her an Oscar. But the Australian did the Oscar-BAFTA double again in the Best Actress category for her complex showing as distressed Manhattan socialite Jasmine Francis in Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine (2013) before receiving a dual nomination for Todd Haynes's Carol (2015).
Katharine Hepburn may hold the Oscar record with four wins, but Maggie Smith can match her when it comes to BAFTAs, thanks to Ronald Neame's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), Malcolm Mowbray's A Private Function (1984), James Ivory's A Room With a View (1985), and Jack Clayton's The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne (1987). But, if Blanchett holds sway, she will join Audrey Hepburn and Simone Signoret on three wins. Their victories, however, came respectively in the British and Foreign Actress classes for William Wyler's Roman Holiday (1953), Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story (1959), and Stanley Donen's Charade (1963) and for Jacques Becker's Casque d'or (1952), Raymond Rouleau's The Witches of Salem (1957), and Jack Clayton's Room At the Top (1958).
Curiously, while Oscar rewarded Blanchett's work in Richard Eyre's Notes on a Scandal (2006), BAFTA plumped for co-star Judi Dench and such home-field favouritism might help Emma Thompson, who also has two previous Best Actress wins for James Ivory's Howards End (1992) and Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995). However, she also has a TV BAFTA for her work in Fortunes of War and Tutti Frutti (1987) and a Scottish BAFTA for her wonderful turn in Robert Carlyle's black comedy, The Legend of Barney Thompson (2015). Much has been made of Thompson's courage in playing widowed teacher Susan Robinson, who uses the alias Nancy Stokes for her assignations with an Irish sex worker in Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, which has earned screenwriter Katy Brand a spot on the list for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer. So, this could just see the 63 year-old to victory.
BAFTA, however, has never given the Best Actress award to a non-white performer. So, there is every chance that either Viola Davis, Danielle Deadwyler, or Michelle Yeoh could make history in mid-February. Having previously been nominated for Tate Taylor's The Help (2011) and Steve McQueen's Widows (2018), and having won Best Supporting Actress for Denzel Washington's Fences (2016), Davis will be hoping it's third-time lucky for her compelling performance as General Nanisca, the leader of the all-female Agojie warriors in 19th-century Dahomey in The Woman King. However, Malaysian star Yeoh has also been nominated before and will hope to go one better for her droll turn as Evelyn Quan Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once after missing out for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.
But don't overlook first-time nominee, Danielle Deadwyler, who has been steadily building a reputation since debuting a decade ago, in such pictures available from Cinema Paradiso as Paolo Virzi's The Leisure Seeker and Marc Webb's Gifted (both 2017). Having earned award recognition for Jeymes Samuel's The Harder They Fall (2021), she now has a BAFTA nomination for playing Mamie Till-Mobley in Till, an account of the 1955 racist murder of 14 year-old Emmett Till whose exclusion from the Oscar shortlists prompted director Chinonye Chukwu to accuse the Academy of 'unabashed misogyny towards Black women'.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Fourteen of the 24 acting nominees are new to BAFTA. The most surprising newcomer, perhaps, is Angela Bassett, who was bafflingly overlooked 29 years ago for her storming display as Tina Turner in Brian Gibson's What's Love Got to Do With It (1993). However, her 2023 nomination for playing Queen Ramonda in Ryan Coogler's Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is something of a landmark, as Bassett becomes the first performer to receive an acting nomination for a title from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. And, if she wants a good omen, Joaquin Phoenix won the Best Actor prize when he became the first DC Comics nominee for his work as Arthur Fleck in Todd Phillips's Joker (2019).
If she wins, Bassett won't be the first Black actress to take this category, but she will join an exclusive club that includes Whoopi Goldberg as Oda Mae Brown in Jerry Zucker's Ghost (1990), Thandiwe Newton as Christine Thayer in Paul Haggis's Crash (2005), Jennifer Hudson as Effie White in Bill Condon's Dreamgirls (2006), Mo'nique as Mary Lee Johnston in Lee Daniels's Precious (2009), Octavia Spencer as Minny Jackson in The Help, Viola Davis as Rose Maxon in Fences, and Ariana DeBose as Anita in Steven Spielberg's West Side Story (2021).
Neither Lashana Lynch nor Janelle Monáe will be joining the club, despite their strong displays in The Woman King and Rian Johnson's Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Also dropping off the longlist are Aimee Lou Wood for Living and Emma Thompson for Matthew Warchus's Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical. But there is a chance we could have our third Asia-born winner of Best Supporting Actress, after Rohini Hattangadi was rewarded for playing Kasturba Gandi in Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (in a tie with Maureen Stapleton for Warren Beatty's Reds, both 1982) and South Korean seventysomething Youn Yuh-jung did the BAFTA-Oscar double as Soon-ja in Lee Isaac Chung's Minari (2020).
Born in Manila, Dolly de Leon becomes the first Filipina to be nominated for a BAFTA for her scene-stealing performance as Abigail the resourceful cleaner in Ruben Östlund's Palme d'or winner, Triangle of Sadness. She missed out on an Oscar nod, as the Academy went for Stephanie Hsu from Everything Everywhere All At Once. But Hong Chau will attend both ceremonies for her caring display as Liz in The Whale, which built on the fine impression left by her turn as the dissident Ngoc Lan Tran in Alexander Payne's Downsizing (2017). This would be one of the stories of the night, as Chau was born in a Thai refugee camp to Vietnamese boat parents, who were invited to the United States by a Catholic Church in New Orleans.
Although she spent time in Germany (where her father managed a hotel), Carey Mulligan had a much easier childhood, during which she got the acting bug at school. Despite family pressure, she opted not to go to university and, ironically, earned her first BAFTA nomination for Lone Scherfig's An Education (2009), for which she was also cited at the Academy Awards. Another Oscar nod followed for Emerald Fennell's A Promising Young Woman (2020), but Mulligan finds herself in the Best Supporting category for her performance as New York Times reporter Megan Twohey, alongside Zoe Kazan's Jodi Kantor, in She Said, which was adapted by estimable BAFTA nominee Rebecca Lenkiewicz from the pair's book about uncovering the crimes of Harvey Weinstein.
Mulligan spent much of her early career on stage and that was where Kerry Condon caught the eye of Martin McDonagh, through her appearances in two of his plays, The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001), when she was just 18, and The Cripple of Inishmaan (2009). She worked with him again on Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but will be more familiar to many film fans as the voice of F.R.I.D.A.Y. in the Marvel Studios outings, Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015), Captain America: Civil War (2016), Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017), Avengers: Infinity War (2018), and Avengers: Endgame (2019).
As a member of the MCU, Condon will no doubt be delighted if Bassett made a bit of BAFTA history. But she'd also quite like to win herself for her work as Siobhán Súilleabháin in McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin, as no Irish actress has ever won the award. If you think she's a shoo-in, head to the Cinema Paradiso voting page to register your vote. There are 25 categories in all and a splendid prize for the winner.
Jamie Lee Curtis already has a BAFTA for her standout comic display as Ophelia alongside Eddie Murphy and Dan Aykroyd in John Landis's Trading Places (1983). She was also nominated for Best Actress for her equally excellent turn as Wanda Gershwitz in Charles Crichton's A Fish Called Wanda (1988) and picked up a Golden Globe for James Cameron's True Lies (1995). Now, after all those Halloween sequels, she is back in contention for playing IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdre in Everything Everywhere All At Once. She missed out to Bassett at the Golden Globes, but could still become the first ennobled winner of the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress, as her official title is The Right Honourable the Lady Haden-Guest, as husband Christopher Guest is the 5th Baron Haden-Guest. Yep, Nigel Tufnell from Rob Reiner's This Is Spinal Tap (1984) is a hereditary peer who had a seat in the House of Lords until it was abolished in 1999. Life, eh?
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
This category was only added to the BAFTA roll of honour in 1968. But you'd be surprised how often co-stars have cancelled each other out ever since. Martin Balsam and Jason Robards did it in Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976), as did Edward Fox and Roshan Seth in Gandhi; Ian Holm and Ralph Richardson in Hugh Hudson's Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes (1984); Simon Callow and Denholm Elliott in A Room With a View; Simon Callow and John Hannah in Mike Newell's Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994); Joaquin Phoenix and Oliver Reed in Ridley Scott's Gladiator (2000); Steve Carell and Mark Ruffalo in Bennett Miller's Foxcatcher (2014); Al Pacino and Joe Pesci in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman (2019); and Kodi Smit-McPhee and Jesse Plemons in The Power of the Dog.
Now, Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan are up against each other for their performances as Colm Doherty and Dominic Kearney in The Banshees of Inisherin. But they needn't despair just yet, as James Fox beat Michael Gough to the award after they had co-starred in Joseph Losey's adaptation of L.P. Hartley's The Go-Between (1971). Subsequently, Ian Holm beat Nigel Havers to the tape in Hugh Hudson's Chariots of Fire (1981), Geoffrey Rush bested Tom Wilkinson in John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (1998), Ralph Fiennes eclipsed Ben Kingsley in Schindler's List, and Tom Wilkinson stole a march on Mark Addy in Peter Cattaneo's The Full Monty (1997). More recently, Javier Bardem prevailed over Tommy Lee Jones in Joel and Ethan Coen's No Country For Old Men, while Sam Rockwell pipped Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), which was, of course, directed by Martin McDonagh.
Gleeson was recognised for his earlier McDonagh outing, In Bruges, while Keoghan (who lived in 13 different foster homes after his drug-addicted mother died when he was 12) was previously nominated for Nick Rowland's Calm With Horses (2020). If either wins, they will be the first Irishman to do so since Ray McAnally triumphed twice for Roland Joffé's The Mission (1986) and My Left Foot (1989). The Inisherin twosome's four rivals are all new to the Best Supporting stakes, however. although can you imagine the attention this category would have attracted if Tom Hanks (Elvis), Woody Harrelson (Triangle of Sadness), Brad Pitt (Babylon), and Ben Whishaw (Women Talking) had all made it off the long list?
As a former classmate of James Corden and Prince William, Cambridge graduate Eddie Redmayne has hardly come up the hard way. But he had to work hard to secure consecutive Oscar nominations for The Theory of Everything and Tom Hooper's The Danish Girl. Indeed, he even had to endure a Razzie nomination for the Wachowski space opera, Jupiter Ascending (both 2015). He has bounced back in atypical style, however, with a sinister turn as suspected serial killer Charlie Cullen in The Good Nurse.
Like Redmayne, Micheal Ward did some modelling early in his career. Born in Jamaica, he was raised in London after his father was killed in a car crash when he was two. Now, two years after winning the BAFTA Rising Star Award, he has landed his second Best Supporting nomination after his display as Franklin Cooper in the Lovers Rock episode of Steve McQueen's Small Axe (2020) earned one of the 15 nominations the series received at the BAFTA television awards. If he wins for his performance as 1980s cinema usher Stephen in Empire of Light, Ward will become the second Black British actor to take the BAFTA after Daniel Kaluuya, who played Fred Hampton in Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah (2020).
With three German Film Awards already to his credit, Albrecht Schuch stands to become the second Germanic Best Supporting winner after Austrian Christoph Waltz (who holds dual citizenship) topped the poll for Quentin Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds (2009) and Django Unchained (2012). Born in East Germany five years before Reunification, Schuch is the only member of the All Quiet on the Western Front cast to be nominated, for his performance as Stanislaus Katczinsky, who was played in the 1930 Hollywood version by Louis Wolheim, who died the following year at the age of 50.
Ke Huy Quan safely negotiated that birthday shortly before playing naive husband Waymond Wang in Everything Everywhere All At Once. This was his first film role since quitting acting in 1998 after tasting success as a child actor, most notably as Short Round in Steven Spielberg's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) and as Richard 'Data' Wang in Richard Donner's The Goonies (1985). The second Vietnamese refugee up for a BAFTA this year, Quan already has a Golden Globe on his mantelpiece and could well be the man to beat on 19 February.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
And that concludes our round-up of the major categories on the BAFTA ballot. But you're on your own for the other 19!
To take part in this competition, all you have to do is tell us who you think will win each category at the 76th British Academy Film Awards.
Whoever correctly predicts the highest number of winners will receive SIX MONTHS of free rentals from CinemaParadiso.co.uk.
In the result of a tie, the top predictors will be entered in a draw to find ONE lucky winner.
The competition will close at 12:00 on Sunday 19 February 2023 and the winner will be announced on Monday 20 February 2023.
One entry per customer and everyone with a Cinema Paradiso account is welcome to take part. Good luck!
