The secret's out! Naomi Ackie and Kingsley Ben-Adir have announced the BAFTA nominations for 2024, 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 David Tennant hosts the 77th edition of Britain's oldest and most prestigious awards event at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday 18 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!
Before you vote, though, how about a few pointers to the contenders in the six major categories?
BEST FILM
There are always casualties when the BAFTA nominations are announced. But the release of the 'longlists' for the various categories a fortnight before the big reveal makes any fall from grace highly public. Take Greta Gerwig's Barbie, which has once again demonstrated that being a box-office behemoth is no guarantee of recognition during award season. Despite picking up 15 longlist nods, the picture has only received five nominations. By contrast, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer - its partner in crime in the 'Barbenheimer' double bill that revitalised British cinema-going over the summer of 2023 - has shed only two longlist citations in claiming 13 nominations.
Another popular success, Paul King's Wonka, wound up with a single nomination after getting eight longlist mentions, whereas Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fall completed a clean sweep in converting all seven of its. As we shall see, this makes the Frenchwoman unique in the Best Film and Best Director categories in a year that has seen BAFTA's diversity figures make a downturn, prompting some critics to question the role played by the juries that were appointed to rectify the issues behind the 2020 #BaftaSoWhite controversy.
It's a built-in absurdity of all award ceremonies that there can only be so many available berths in each category. Along with Barbie, Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers, Bradley Cooper's Maestro, Celine Song's Past Lives, and Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest also failed to make the Best Film cut. Haigh and Glazer will have a chance for consolation in the Best British Film category, where they will be up against Wonka, Molly Manning Walker's How to Have Sex, Ridley Scott's Napoleon, Ken Loach's The Old Oak, Raine Allen-Miller's Rye Lane, Emerald Fennell's Saltburn, Charlotte Regan's Scrapper, and Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things, which is the only contender to also make the Best Film race.
We shall return to some of these titles when we consider the Best Director stakes. But let's take a look at the big prize and assess the chances of the five nominees in alphabetical order.
Following in the footsteps of Bong Joon-ho's Parasite (2019) and Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), Justine Triet's Anatomy of a Fallis a rare foreign-language inclusion in the Best Film category. That said, Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948), Max Ophüls's La Ronde (1950), René Clément's Forbidden Games (1952) and Gervaise (1956), Henri-Georges Clouzot's The Wages of Fear (1953), Grigori Chukhrai's Ballad of a Soldier (1959), François Truffaut's Day For Night (1973), Louis Malle's Lacombe, Lucien (1974), Claude Berri's Jean de Florette (1987), and Alfonso Cuarón's Roma (2018) have all won against the linguistic odds.
In addition to knowing that seven compatriots have won Best Film, Triet can also draw inspiration from the recent wins by two women directors, Chloé Zhao for Nomadland (2020) and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog (2022). However, no courtroom drama has ever taken the category, although Aaron Sorkin's The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Kevin Macdonald's The Mauritanian were both nominated in 2020. Prior to this, you have to go back to Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich (2000), Robert Benton's Kramer vs Krame (1979), Robert Mulligan's To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Stanley Kramer's Judgement At Nuremberg (1961), Ken Hughes's The Trials of Oscar Wilde (1960), and Otto Preminger's Anatomy of a Murder (1959).
Intriguingly, despite winning a raft of international prizes, including Best Film at the European Film Awards and Best Non-English Language Picture at the Golden Globes, Anatomy of a Fall won't be eligible for the Best International Oscar, as rumour has it that Tr?n Anh Hùng's The Taste of Things was selected to punish Triet for criticising President Emmanuel Macron's pension reforms in her acceptance speech at Cannes.
Only one story predominantly set in a school has claimed the award for Best Film, so Alexander Payne's The Holdovers has a precedent to cling to, however small. Anthony Asquith's The Browning Version (1951), Alexander Mackendrick's Mandy (1952), Bill Forsyth's Gregory's Girl (1980), and Louis Malle's Au revoir, les enfants (1987) were all nominated. But it was Peter Weir's Dead Poets Society (1988) that caught the eye of the voters, although David Hemingson's debut screenplay owes more to John Hughes's The Breakfast Club (1985), as strict classics teacher Paul Hunham (Paul Giamatti) finds himself spending Christmas 1970 supervising the boarders who couldn't get home from Barton Academy in New England. Before you ask, no film set exclusively during the festive season has ever taken BAFTA's top prize, but The Holdovers has been picking up awards Stateside, as we shall see when we reach the acting categories.
The only nominated feature to have considered Native American rights before Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon is Kevin Costner's Dances With Wolves (1991). This took the Academy Award for Best Picture, but lost out at BAFTA to Alan Parker's The Commitments. To some at the time, this seemed a rather parochial decision. But stories with a Civil Rights element have cropped up occasionally in this category since the nomination of Clarence Brown's Intruder in the Dust (1949). The aforementioned To Kill a Mockingbird shared the fate of Norman Jewison's In the Heat of the Night (1967), and Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy (1989) before Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2012) triumphed at the 67th edition. Yet, in the decade-plus since, only Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman and Peter Farrelly's Green Book (both 2018) have made the top five and neither won.
Based on journalist David Grann's book about a spate of killings within the Osage Nation in 1920s Oklahoma, Scorsese's epic crime Western would make a fine double bill with Jane Campion's The Power of the Dog, which won Best Film at the 75th BAFTAs. But it comes into this year's edition having only converted one of its seven Golden Globe nominations, although it has been more warmly received by the various critics circles.
By contrast, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer took five Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture - Drama. Its haul of 13 nominations is the highest for a biopic since Tom Hooper's The King's Speech amassed 14 in 2011, although Richard Attenborough's Gandhi (1982) remains out on its own as the most garlanded in BAFTA history, with 16 nominations. Drawing on American Prometheus, Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin's 2005 tome on theoretical phycisist J. Robert Oppenheimer, Nolan's three-hour opus has become the most successful biopic and Second World War-related film in Hollywood history.
As last year's win for All Quiet on the Western Front demonstrates, BAFTA is always ready to reward a war film. Indeed, the top prize has also gone to Forbidden Games, David Lean's The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957), Ballad of a Soldier, 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 dealt with the world wars, while Roland Joffé's The Killing Fields (1984) and Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker (2008) touched upon conflicts in Cambodia and Iraq.
Stories centred on thinkers and inventors have fared less well, although John Boulting's The Magic Box (1951), Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001), Morten Tyldum's The Imitation Game, and James Marsh's The Theory of Everything (both 2014) were all nominated for Best Film.
Inspired by Alasdair Gray's 1992 novel, Yorgos Lanthimos's Poor Things surprised many by beating Barbie to the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy. But this was no fluke and the story of Bella Baxter has received 11 BAFTA nominations. No Frankensteinian saga has been up for Best Film before, although David Lynch's The Elephant Man (1980) and Peter Weir's The Truman Show (1998) similarly depicted an innocent being confronted with unfamiliar circumstances. Curiously, cinematographer Robbie Ryan has cited Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992), as a major influence on the look of the film, as well as Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's Black Narcissus (1947), Federico Fellini's And the Ship Sails On (1984), and the studio-bound works of Swedish auteur, Roy Andersson, whose methodology is explored in Fred Scott's Being a Human Person (2019).
Set in Vienna in 1900, Max Ophüls's La Ronde just about qualifies for a Victorian setting. It pipped The Magic Box to the top prize in 1951, while René Clément's Émile Zola adaptation, Gervaise, took the honours five years later. The next winner set in the Victorian era was George Roy Hill's Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969), since when Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave, and Alejandro González Iñárritu's The Revenant (2015) have all told 19th-century stories.
BEST DIRECTOR
It feels odd that since 2020 BAFTA nominates five titles for Best Film and six in the acting and directing categories. Equally perplexing is that a body primarily made up of film professionals seems to believe that pictures competing for the top prize have directed themselves. This year, neither Martin Scorsese nor Yorgos Lanthimos has been deemed good enough to merit a place in the Best Director listing, even though their work is clearly exceptional. Perhaps they can share a consolatory drink in the bar afterwards with fellow longlist discardees Cord Jefferson (American Fiction), Greta Gerwig (Barbie), Molly Manning Walker (How to Have Sex), Celine Song ( Past Lives ), Sofia Coppola ( Priscilla ), Raine Allen-Miller (Rye Lane), Emerald Fennell (Saltburn), and Charlotte Regan ( Scrapper ).
Cinema Paradiso users will note the effect that these absentees will have on the category's diversity quotient and may perhaps wonder about the criteria that led the specialist jury to arrive at the final sextet. But, as votes have to be cast to win six months of free rentals, let's leave politics aside and focus on the chances of those actually in contention for the award.
Since the 1968 inception of what was once known as the David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction, only three women have emerged triumphant: Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker; Chloé Zhao for Nomadland; and Jane Campion for The Power of the Dog. Nominated for Anatomy of a Fall, Justine Triet can take more positives from the fact that compatriots François Truffaut (Day For Night), Louis Malle ( Atlantic City, 1980 & Au revoir, les enfants), and Michel Hazanavicius ( The Artist, 2012) have also prevailed. Indeed, Best Director has gone to a film not in the English language on several occasions, with Akira Kurosawa's Kagemusha (1980), Pedro Almodóvar's All About My Mother (1999), Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, and Edward Berger's All Quiet on the Western Front being the other recipients.
This is Triet's first nomination and the same is true for Alexander Payne for The Holdovers. Since Mike Nichols won the inaugural award for The Graduate (1967), American directors have done well in the category without exactly dominating, as is more the case with the Oscars. It remains to be seen whether Payne can join George Roy Hill (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid), Bob Fosse ( Cabaret, 1972), Stanley Kubrick ( Barry Lyndon, 1975), Woody Allen ( Annie Hall, 1977 & Hannah and Her Sisters, 1986), Francis Ford Coppola ( Apocalypse Now, 1979), Oliver Stone ( Platoon, 1986), Martin Scorsese ( GoodFellas, 1990), Robert Altman ( The Player, 1992), Steven Spielberg ( Schindler's List ), Joel Coen ( Fargo, 1996 & No Country For Old Men, 2007), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker), David Fincher ( The Social Network, 2010), Ben Affleck ( Argo, 2012), Richard Linklater ( Boyhood, 2014), and Damien Chazelle (La La Land, 2016).
While Payne has to be considered an outside bet, Christopher Nolan must be the favourite after winning the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama for Oppenheimer. He has been nominated twice before, with Inception (2010) and Dunkirk (2017) respectively losing out to David Fincher for The Social Network and Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water. As one might expect, Brits have a decent track record at the BAFTAs, with John Schlesinger ( Midnight Cowboy, 1969 & Sunday Bloody Sunday, 1971), Alan Parker ( Midnight Express, 1978 & The Commitments), Richard Attenborough ( Gandhi, 1982), Bill Forsyth ( Local Hero, 1983), Kenneth Branagh ( Henry V, 1989), Mike Newell ( Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994), Michael Radford ( Il Postino, 1995), Mike Leigh ( Vera Drake, 2004), Paul Greengrass ( United 93, 2006), Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire), and Sam Mendes (1917) all coming to the fore.
Harrogate's Andrew Haigh will be hoping to steal a march, however, as he is nominated for the first time for All of Us Strangers. This is the second feature to be adapted from Taichi Yamada's 1987 novel, Strangers, following Nobuhiko Obayashi's The Discarnates (1988). If he were to win, Haigh would become the third director to do so with a remake, after Kenneth Branagh (Henry V) and Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front). He would also be the fourth to prevail with a story with an LGBTQIA+ theme, after John Schlesinger's Midnight Cowboy and Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bob Fosse's Cabaret, and Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain (2005).
Along with Christopher Nolan, Bradley Cooper is the only other survivor of the Golden Globe shortlist after BAFTA opted to overlook Scorsese, Gerwig, Song, and Lantimos. Cooper is unique this year in having directed himself as composer and conductor Leonard Bernstein in Maestro. François Truffaut (Day For Night), Woody Allen (Annie Hall & Hannah and Her Sisters), Kenneth Branagh (Henry V), and Ben Affleck (Argo) have all directed themselves in winning the BAFTA, while Roman Polanski and Martin Scorsese respectively gave themselves cameos in Chinatown (1974) and GoodFellas. We'll look at actor-directors who have doubled up at BAFTA in the Best Actor section below.
Polanski also won Best Director for The Pianist (2002), which followed Louis Malle's Au revoir, les enfants and Steven Spielberg's Schindler's List in taking the award with a film about the Holocaust. Jonathan Glazer would emulate them if chosen for The Zone of Interest, an adaptation of a Martin Amis novel about the domestic life of Auschwitz commandant Rudolph Höss that has been nominated in nine categories. Glazer would also join those listed above in winning Best Director for a film not in the English language. Glazer would also become the fourth Londoner to take home the prize after John Schlesinger, Alan Parker, and Paul Greengrass.
BEST ACTRESS
Despite some suggesting that Tilda Swinton might be nominated for two performances in the same film for Joanna Hogg's The Eternal Daughter (2023), there are no quirky nominations in the line-up for Best Actress to match Scarlett Johansson and Kate Winslet being nominated against themselves. The former won for Sofia Coppola's Lost in Translation over Peter Webber's Girl With a Pearl Earring (both 2003), while the latter atoned for missing out entirely with Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Marc Forster's Finding Neverland (both 2004) by winning for Stephen Daldry's The Reader over Sam Mendes's Revolutionary Road (both 2008).
There is a major shock, however, as Lily Gladstone, who won the Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Drama for her outstanding performance in Killers of the Flower Moon was excluded from the six names selected by the British Academy. The others to fall victim to the longlist cull were Annette Bening for Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi and Jimmy Chin's Nyad, Greta Lee for Celine Song's Past Lives, and Mia McKenna-Bruce for How to Have Sex.
Fantasia Barrino is in line to win a BAFTA on debut for her performance as Celie Johnson in Blitz Bazawule's The Color Purple. Somewhat shockingly, Whoopi Goldberg was ignored by the British Academy for her interpretation of the same role in Steven Spielberg's 1985 adaptation of Alice Walker's novel. But Barrino has set the record straight by being nominated for a singing role in the wake of Dorothy Dandridge in Otto Preminger's Carmen Jones and Judy Garland in George Cukor's A Star Is Born (both 1954); Jean Simmons in Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Guys and Dolls (1955); Julie Andrews in Robert Wise's The Sound of Music (1965); Barbra Streisand in William Wyler's Funny Girl (1968) and Gene Kelly's Hello, Dolly! (1969); Diana Ross in Sidney J. Furie's Lady Sings the Blues (1972); Bette Midler in Mark Rydell's The Rose (1979); Sissy Spacek in Michael Apted's Coal Miner's Daughter (1980); Michelle Pfeiffer in Steve Kloves's The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989); Jane Horrocks in Mark Herman's Little Voice (1998); Renée Zellwegger in Rob Marshall's Chicago (2002); Meryl Streep in Stephen Frears's Florence Foster Jenkins (2016), Lady Gaga in Bradley Cooper's A Star Is Born (2018); and Emilia Jones in Sian Heder's CODA (2021). More to the point, can she emulate Leslie Caron in Charles Walters's Lili (1953), Liza Minnelli in Bob Fosse's Cabaret (1972), Reese Witherspoon in James Mangold's Walk the Line (2004); Marion Cotillard in Olivier Dahan's La Vie en rose (2007), Emma Stone in Damien Chazelle's La La Land (2016), and Renée Zellwegger in Rupert Goold's Judy (2019) an win the BAFTA for Best Actress?
The Academy has enticed us with a bit of novelty this year, as German Sandra Hüller has been nominated in both the acting categories, for Anatomy of a Fall and The Zone of Interest. This doubling up has only been possible since 1968, when the Best Supporting categories were introduced and Best British and Best Foreign Actress (which had existed since 1952) were merged into a single award. Meryl Streep was the first dual nominee for Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter and Woody Allen's Manhattan (both 1979) and is the only double dualler, courtesy of Stephen Daldry's The Hours and Spike Jonze's Adaptation (both 2002).
Subsequently, however, Shirley MacLaine ( Postcards From the Edge & Steel Magnolias, 1990), Cate Blanchett ( Elizabeth: The Golden Age & I'm Not There, 2008), Alicia Vikander (The Danish Girl & Ex Machina, 2015), and Scarlett Johansson ( Marriage Story & Jojo Rabbit, 2019) have all followed suit. But Holly Hunter and Judi Dench managed to go one better in converting one of their nominations. Hunter compensated for missing out on Best Supporting in Sydney Pollack's The Firm by taking home Best Actress for Jane Campion's The Piano (both 1993), while Dench's win for Iris made up for being beaten for Lasse Hallström's The Shipping News (both 2001).
Hüller could become the first to win both awards on the same night, but she faces some stiff opposition. Having received a Best Supporting nod last year for Maria Schrader's She Said (2022), Carey Mulligan is up for Best Actress for her performance as Felicia Montealegre in Maestro. Despite losing out to Kristen Stewart for the Rising Star Award in 2010, Mulligan received the Best Actress prize for Lone Scherfig's An Education (2009). She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive (2011).
Mulligan isn't the only Brit up for the award, however, as Vivian Oparah is in contention for her turn as Yas in Rye Lane. This is only the Londoner's second feature after Max Minghella's Teen Spirit (2018) and no sophomore or debutant has ever won the BAFTA for Best Actress. She must be considered the outsider, but there is scope for a surprise on the night, especially if the voters decide to reward Margot Robbie for the phenomenal cultural impact she's made in the title role of Barbie (which she also co-produced). Since missing out to Jack O'Connell for the BAFTA Rising Star Award in 2015, Robbie has accrued a Best Actress nomination for Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya (2017) and Best Supporting recognition for Josie Rourke's Mary Queen of Scots (2019), Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood, and Jay Roach's Bombshell (both 2020). As a producer, she's also on the ticket for Saltburn in the Outstanding British Film of the Year category.
If the Golden Globes are anything to go by, however, the favourite must be Emma Stone, who won Best Actress - Musical or Comedy for her dazzling display as Bella Baxter, the Victorian woman with her infant daughter's brain in her reanimated body who learns to appreciate pleasure and fathom human nature in Poor Things. Stone has won before for La La Land and could put her on the track of Simone Signoret, who converted her first three nominations 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). A victory would put Stone level on 2/2 with Rachel Roberts for Karel Reisz's Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960) and Lindsay Anderson's This Sporting Life (1963); Anne Bancroft for Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker (1962) and Jack Clayton's The Pumpkin Eater (1964); and Patricia Neal for Martin Ritt's Hud (1963) and Otto Preminger's In Harm's Way (1965).
BEST ACTOR
As with Best Actress, much ink and even more pixels have been expended on protesting the acting nominations. In this case, commentators have demanded to know why Andrew Scott was snubbed for Andrew Haigh's All of Us Strangers and why Leonardo DiCaprio failed to cut the mustard for Killers of the Flower Moon. Spare a thought, then, for George MacKay and JeffreyWright, whose respective omissions for Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping's Femme and Cord Jefferson's American Fiction have barely caused a ripple in the media, when each gave a fine performance that certainly deserved to make the longlist.
Actresses must be queuing up to work with Bradley Cooper, as each time he is nominated for Best Actor at the BAFTAs, his co-star also gets the nod. It has already happened with Jennifer Lawrence for David O. Russell's Silver Linings Playbook (2012) and Lady Gaga for Cooper's self-directed remake of A Star Is Born (2017). But now he and Carey Mulligan have been cited for playing the married Leonard Bernstein and Felicia Montealegre in Maestro.
Back in the day when there were four categories for Best British and Foreign Actor and Actress, co-stars were regularly nominated in one way or another. Among them were Ralph Richardson and Ann Todd for David Lean's The Sound Barrier (1952); Trevor Howard and Maria Schell for George More O'Ferrall's The Heart of the Matter and Gregory Peck and Audrey Hepburn for William Wyler's Roman Holiday (both 1953); John Mills and Brenda De Banzie for David Lean's Hobson's Choice (1954); François Perrier and Maria Schell for Gervaise, Kenneth More and Dorothy Allison for Lewis Gilbert's Reach For the Sky, Gunnar Björnstrand and Eva Dahlbeck for Ingmar Bergman's Smiles of a Summer Night, Karl Malden and Carroll Baker for Elia Kazan's Baby Doll, and Laurence Olivier and Marilyn Monroe for Olivier's The Prince and the Showgir (all 1957); Donald Wolfit, Simone Signoret, and Hermione Baddeley for Room At the Top, Curd Jürgens and Ingrid Bergman for Mark Robson's The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, Paul Newman and Elizabeth Taylor for Richard Brooks's Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (all 1958); Peter Finch, Audrey Hepburn, and Peggy Ashcroft for Fred Zinnemann's The Nun's Story (1959); Burt Lancaster and Jean Simmons in Richard Brooks's Elmer Gantry, Albert Finney and Rachel Roberts in Saturday Night and Sunday Morning, Richard Attenborough and Pier Angeli in Guy Green's The Angry Silence (all 1960); Paul Newman and Piper Laurie in Robert Rossen's The Hustler, Marcello Mastroianni and Daniela Rocca in Pietro Germi's Divorce Italian Style, and Sidney Poitier and Claudia McNeil in Daniel Petrie's A Raisin in the Sun (all 1961); Tom Courtenay and Julie Christie in John Schlesinger's Billy Liar and Albert Finney, Hugh Griffith, and Edith Evans in Tony Richardson's Tom Jones, Richard Harris and Rachel Roberts in This Sporting Life, Paul Newman and Patricia Neal in Hud, Jack Lemmon and Lee Remick in Blake Edwards's Days of Wine and Roses, and Cary Grant and Audrey Hepburn in Stanley Donen's Charade (all 1963); Anthony Quinn and Lila Kedrova in Michael Cacoyannis's Zorba the Greek (1964); Lee Marvin and Jane Fonda for Eliot Silverstein's Cat Ballou and Oskar Werner and Simone Signoret in Stanley Kramer's Ship of Fools, Ralph Richardson and Julie Christie for David Lean's Doctor Zhivago (all 1965); and David Warner and Vanessa Redgrave for Karel Reisz's Morgan - A Suitable Case For Treatment (1966).
All but one of these titles is available to rent from Cinema Paradiso and users can also catch up on such BAFTA-winning co-stars as
Ernest Borgnine and Betsy Blair in Delbert Mann's Marty (1955), Peter Finch and Virginia McKenna in Jack Lee's A Town Like Alice (1956), Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine in Billy Wilder's The Apartment (1960), Dirk Bogarde and Julie Christie in John Schlesinger's Darling (1965), and Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor in Mike Nichols's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), who are the only married co-winners to date. However, the rules changed in 1967 and the merger of the categories meant there were only five berths available in Best Actor and Best Actress. Consequently, the amount of overlapping diminished, but some memorable pairings were still rewarded, including Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in Stanley Kramer's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner (1967), which made Tracy the first posthumous winner of the BAFTA for Best Actor.
Taking us to the end of the century, there were plenty more Actor/Actress match-ups, including Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow in Peter Yates's John and Mary, Walter Matthau and Barbra Streisand in Hello, Dolly!, and Alan Bates and Glenda Jackson for Ken Russell's Women in Love (all 1969); Robert Shaw and Anne Bancroft in Richard Attenborough's Young Winston (1972); Donald Sutherland and Julie Christie in Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (1973); Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway in Roman Polanski's Chinatown and Dustin Hoffman and Valerie Perrine in Bob Fosse's Lenny (both 1974); Peter Finch, William Holden, and Faye Dunaway in Sidney Lumet's Network (1976); Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Annie Hall; Richard Dreyfuss and Marsha Mason in Herbert Ross's The Goodbye Girl (both 1977); Woody Allen and Diane Keaton in Manhattan; Robert De Niro and Meryl Streep in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter, Dustin Hoffman and Meryl Streep in Robert Benton's Kramer vs Kramer and Peter Sellers and Shirley MacLaine in Hal Ashby's Being There (all 1979); Jeremy Irons and Meryl Streep in Karel Reisz's The French Lieutenant's Woman and Henry Fonda and Katharine Hepburn in Mark Rydell's On Golden Pond, and Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton in Beatty's Reds (all 1981); Jack Lemmon and Sissy Spacek in Costa-Gavras's Missing and Dustin Hoffman and Jessica Lange in Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (both 1982); Victor Banerjee and Peggy Ashcroft in David Lean's A Passage to India (1984); Harrison Ford and Kelly McGillis in Peter Weir's Witness (1985), Bob Hoskins and Cathy Tyson in Neil Jordan's Mona Lisa and Woody Allen, Michael Caine, and Mia Farrow in Allen's Hannah and Her Sisters (all 1986); John Cleese, Kevin Kline, and Jamie Lee Curtis in Charles Crichton's A Fish Called Wanda (1988); Alan Rickman and Juliet Stevenson in Anthony Minghella's Truly, Madly, Deeply (1991); Anthony Hopkins and Emma Thompson in James Ivory's The Remains of the Day and Anthony Hopkins and Debra Winger in Richard Attenborough's Shadowlands (both 1993); John Travolta and Uma Thurman in Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction (1994); Nigel Hawthorne and Helen Mirren in Nicholas Hytner's The Madness of King George and Nicolas Cage and Elisabeth Shue in Mike Figgis's Leaving Las Vegas (both 1994); Ralph Fiennes and Kristin Scott Thomas in Anthony Minghella's The English Patient and Timothy Spall and Brenda Blethyn in Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies (both 1996); Billy Connolly and Judi Dench in John Madden's Mrs Brown; Ray Winstone and Kathy Burke in Gary Oldman's Nil By Mouth; and Kevin Spacey and Kim Basinger in Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential (all 1997); Michael Caine and Jane Horrocks in Mark Herman's Little Voice and Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow for John Madden's Shakespeare in Love (both 1998); Joseph Fiennes and Julianne Moore for Neil Jordan's The End of the Affair and Om Puri and Linda Bassett for Damien O'Donnell's East Is East (both 1999).
There were a few co-winners in this period, too. Robert Redford and Katharine Ross won for their dual pairings in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and Abraham Polonsky's Tell Them Willie Boy Is Here (both 1969) and they were followed by Peter Finch and Glenda Jackson in Sunday Bloody Sunday, Jack Nicholson and Louise Fletcher in Miloš Forman's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975), Jack Lemmon and Jane Fonda for James Bridges's The China Syndrome (1979), Michael Caine and Julie Walters in Lewis Gilbert's Educating Rita (1982), Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster in Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs (1991), and Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening for Sam Mendes's American Beauty (1999). Since the millennium, however, there has only been one winning pair and that was Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson for Lost in Translation.
Numerous performers have been left simply to enjoy the brouhaha in the run-up to the big night, when gracious smiles were the order of the day for one or sometimes both partners. Among them are Jim Broadbent and Judi Dench for Richard Eyre's Iris and Tom Wilkinson and Sissy Spacek for Todd Field's In the Bedroom (both 2000); Benicio Del Toro and Naomi Watts for Alejandro González Iñárritu's 21 Grams (2003); Jim Carrey and Kate Winslet for Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz for Fernando Meirelles's The Constant Gardener and Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon for Walk the Line (both 2004); James McAvoy and Keira Knightley for Atonement; Jeff Bridges and Hailee Steinfeld for Joel and Ethan Coen's True Grit (2010); Jean Dujardin and Bérénice Bejo for The Artist; Christian Bale and Amy Adams for David O. Russell's American Hustle (2013); Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones for The Theory of Everything; Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander for The Danish Girl; Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling for La La Land; Jamie Bell and Annette Bening for Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool (2017); Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story; and Daryl McCormack and Emma Thompson for Sophie Hyde's Good Luck to You, Leo Grande (2022).
Cooper could also become only the third person to direct himself to the Best Actor award after Laurence Olivier for Richard III (1955) and Roberto Benigni for Life Is Beautiful (1998). He is certainly in with a chance, if only because none of his fellow runners has been nominated in this category before. However, Colman Domingo could follow up his Golden Globe win for playing gay Civil Rights activist Bayard Rustin in George C. Wolfe's Rustin. He will also become the sixth Black winner of the BAFTA for Best Actor after Sidney Poitier for Stanley Kramer's The Defiant Ones (1958), Jamie Foxx for Taylor Hackford's Ray (2004), Forest Whitaker for Kevin Macdonald's The Last King of Scotland (2005), Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave, and Will Smith for Reinaldo Marcus Green's King Richard (2021). And, yes, there really was a 46-year gap between the first and second instances.
Paul Giamatti has a Primetime Emmy for his portrayal of the second president of the United States in John Adams (2008). Having already won a Golden Globe for The Holdovers, he's likely to add to the Best Supporting Oscar nomination he picked up for Ron Howard's Cinderella Man (2006). Comedies often do well in the Best Actor stakes, as demonstrated by Kenneth More ( Doctor in the House, 1954), Peter Sellers ( I'm All Right Jack, 1959), Jack Lemmon ( Some Like It Hot, 1959 & The Apartment), Marcello Mastroianni (Divorce Italian Style & Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 1963), Lee Marvin (Cat Ballou), Walter Matthau (Pete'n'Tillie, 1972), Richard Dreyfuss (The Goodbye Girl), Michael Caine (Educating Rita), Dustin Hoffman (Tootsie), John Cleese (A Fish Called Wanda), Hugh Grant ( Four Weddings and a Funeral, 1994), Robert Carlyle ( The Full Monty, 1997), Bill Murray (Lost in Translation), and Jean Dujardin (The Artist). But it's been a while.
Seeking to upgrade from his Best Supporting win for Martin McDonagh's The Banshees of Inisherin (2022), Barry Keoghan has a meme of his side, as Oliver Quick's naked dance to Sophie Ellis Bextor's 'Murder on the Dance Floor' at the end of Emerald Fennell's Saltburn has gone viral. However, no one has ever achieved this feat since the Best Supporting categories were introduced in the late 1960s. Similarly, no Best Actor winner has spent time at Oxford during their performance, while the only stately home winner was the decidedly downstairs butler played by Anthony Hopkins in The Remains of the Day, who followed in the hushed footsteps of Dirk Bogarde in Joseph Losey's The Servant (1963).
The Dubliner is up against Corkonian Cillian Murphy to become the first Irish winner of the BAFTA for Best Actor - and, no, Daniel Day Lewis doesn't qualify, despite holding dual citizenship. A Golden Globe win puts Murphy in front for Oppenheimer, especially as BAFTA likes a biopic, viz Viva Zapata! (Marlon Brando, 1952), The Trials of Oscar Wilde (Peter Finch, 1960), Lawrence of Arabia (Peter O'Toole, 1962), Birdman of Alcatraz (Burt Lancaster, 1962), A Man For All Seasons (Paul Scofield, 1966), The Elephant Man (John Hurt, 1980), Gandhi (Ben Kingsley, 1982), The Killing Fields (Haing S. Ngor, 1984), My Left Foot (Daniel Day Lewis, 1989), Chaplin (Robert Downey, Jr., 1992), The Madness of King George (Nigel Hawthorne, 1994), Shine (Geoffrey Rush, 1996), A Beautiful Mind (Russell Crowe, 2001), Ray (Jamie Foxx, 2004), Capote (Philip Seymour Hoffman, 2005), The Last King of Scotland (Forest Whitaker, 2006), The King's Speech (Colin Firth, 2010), Lincoln (Daniel Day Lewis, 2012), 12 Years a Slave (Chiwetel Ojiofor, 2013), The Theory of Everything (Eddie Redmayne, 2014), The Revenant (Leonardo DiCaprio, 2015), Darkest Hour (Gary Oldman, 2017), Bohemian Rhapsody (Rami Malek, 2018), King Richard (Will Smith, 2021), and Elvis (Austin Butler, 2022).
The fact that 13 Best Actor gongs have gone to biopics this century will also provide a boost for Cooper and Domingo. But this doesn't necessarily spell doom for Teo Yoo, who is the surprise inclusion in the field, in spite of the excellent of his performance as Hae Sung in Celine Song's Past Lives. In all honesty, it's a travesty that Greta Lee didn't make the Best Actress list, but Haing S. Ngor has shown that an Asian actor can triumph in the category. Moreover, François Périer (Gervaise), Marcello Mastroianni (twice), Philippe Noiret ( Cinema Paradiso, 1988), and Roberto Benigni (Life Is Beautiful, 1998) have all claimed Best Actor without speaking English. Yoo's presence also ensures that this category is more diverse than both Best Actress and its Supporting counterpart and on a par with Best Supporting Actress, which is where we'll go next.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Big names like Jodie Foster (Nyad) and Julianne Moore (May December) remained on the longlist beside America Ferrera (Barbie) and Cara Jade Myers (Killers of the Flower Moon) when the Best Supporting Actress nominations were announced. Only Emily Blunt (Oppenheimer) and Claire Foy (All of Us Strangers) have been nominated in the category before, with the former having also been selected among the Rising Star sextet in 2007. Having been pipped at the Golden Globes, Blunt failed to win for The Devil Wears Prada, and also missed out for Best Actress in Tate Taylor's The Girl on the Train (2016). Given that she was also unfortunate at the recent Globes (her sixth reverse at the awards), she faces an uphill battle. However, Blunt does have hometown status over Da'Vine Joy Randolph, who is looking to double up after her Globes win for The Holdovers.
Both Blunt and Randolph have been nominated alongside Best Actor hopefuls Cillian Murphy and Paul Giamatti. There have been dual wins across these categories, courtesy of Ben Kingsley and Rohini Hattangadi for Gandhi; Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott Thomas for Mike Newell's Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), although Charlotte Coleman missed out; Jamie Bell and Julie Walters for Stephen Daldry's Billy Elliot (2000); Russell Crowe and Jennifer Connelly for Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind (2001); and Colin Firth and Helena Bonham Carter for Tom Hooper's The King's Speech (2010).
However, there are many more examples where either one or neither nominee has left the stage clutching a statuette. Cinema Paradiso users can delve into BAFTA history by taking their pick from the following overlaps between Gene Hackman and Shelley Winters for Ronald Neame's The Poseidon Adventure (1972); Albert Finney and Ingrid Bergmn for Sidney Lumet'sMurder on the Orient Express (1974); Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster for Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver (1976); Peter Ustinov, Angela Lansbury, and Maggie Smith for John Guillermin's Death on the Nile (1978); Woody Allen, Meryl Streep, and Mariel Hemingway for Manhattan (1979); Warren Beatty and Maureen Stapleton for Reds (1981); Michael Caine and Maureen Lipman for Lewis Gilbert's Educating Rita and Dustin Hoffman and Teri Garr for Sydney Pollack's Tootsie (both 1982); Tom Courtenay, Albert Finney, and Eileen Atkins for Peter Yates's The Dresser (1984); Woody Allen, Michael Caine, and Barbara Hershey for Hannah and Her Sisters (1986); Michael Douglas and Anne Archer for Adrian Lyne's Fatal Attraction (1987); John Cleese, Kevin Kline, and Maria Aitken for A Fish Called Wanda; Stephen Rea and Miranda Richardson for Neil Jordan's The Crying Game (1992); Tom Hanks and Sally Field for Robert Zemeckis's Forrest Gump (1994); Geoffrey Rush and Lynne Redgrave for Scott Hicks's Shine, Timothy Spall and Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Mike Leigh's Secrets and Lies, and Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche for The English Patient (all 1996); Robert Carlyle and Lesley Sharp for The Full Monty; and Kevin Spacey, Thora Birch, and Mena Suvari for American Beauty (1999).
Since the millennium, the double-ups have been Kevin Spacey and Judi Dench for The Shipping News and Jim Broadbent and Kate Winslet for Iris (both 2001); Nicolas Cage and Meryl Streep for Adaptation (2002); Jude Law and Renée Zellwegger for Anthony Minghella's Cold Mountain and Sean Penn and Laura Linney for Clint Eastwood's Mystic River (both 2003); Leonardo DiCaprio and Cate Blanchett for Martin Scorsese's The Aviator and Johnny Depp and Julie Christie for Marc Forster's Finding Neverland (both 2004); Philip Seymour Hoffman and Catherine Keener for Bennett Miller's Capote and Heath Ledger and Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain (both 2005); Richard Griffiths and Frances De La Tour for Nicholas Hytner's The History Boys (2006); George Clooney and Tilda Swinton for Tony Gilroy's Michael Clayton and James McAvoy and Saoirse Ronan for Atonement (boh 2007); Dev Patel and Freida Pinto for Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire and Mickey Rourke and Marisa Tomei for Darren Aronowsky's The Wrestler (both 2008); George Clooney, Vera Farmiga, and Anna Kendrick for Ivan Reitman's Up in the Air (2009); Daniel Day Lewis and Sally Field for Steven Spielberg's Lincoln (2012); Chiwetel Ejiofor and Lupita Nyon'go for Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave (2013); Jake Gyllenhaal and Rene Russo for Dan Gilroy's Nightcrawler and Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley for The Imitation Game (both 2014); Michael Fassbender and Kate Winslet for Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs (2015); Casey Affleck and Michelle Williams for Kenneth Lonnergan's Manchester By the Sea (2016); Gary Oldman and Kristin Scott Thomas for Joe Wright's Darkest Hour (2017); Christian Bale and Amy Adams for Adam McKay's Vice (2018); Leonardo DiCaprio and Margot Robbie for Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2018); Will Smith and Aunjanue Ellis for King Richard (2021); and Colin Farrell and Kerry Condon for The Banshees of Inisherin (2022).
Claire Foy was nominated for her work as Janet Armstrong in Damien Chazelle's First Man (2018), having received BAFTA Television citations for Wolf Hall (2016) and The Crown (2017-18). She won Emmy and Golden Globe Awards for her performance as Elizabeth II, but she would be a surprise BAFTA winner for playing Andrew Scott's mother in All of Us Strangers. Rosamund Pike's maternal instinct is markedly less well honed as Lady Elspeth Catton in Saltburn. Although the Wadham College graduate didn't get to revisit her old Oxford haunts, she got to relish some delicious quips and could benefit from the Brit bounce as she seeks to go one better than being nominated (for Best Actress) for David Fincher's Gone Girl (2014).
We've already seen how Sandra Hüller could join an exclusive club with her nomination for playing Hedwig Höss in The Zone of Interest. However, she has already made history by becoming the first German to be nominated for Best Supporting Actress by BAFTA, although she has to settle for being the second Best Actress nominee, as Cornell Borchers won Best Foreign Actress for Charles Crichton's The Divided Heart (1954).
Having earned a Grammy and received a Tony nomination on her Broadway debut in the 2015 revival of the musical version of The Color Purple, Danielle Brooks was natural casting for the role of Sofia. Following a Golden Globe nod, she finds herself up for a BAFTA alongside co-star Fantasia Barrino. Such double-ups have resulted in wins for Maggie Smith and Celia Johnson in Ronald Neame's The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969), with Pamela Franklin also being nominated; Ellen Burstyn and Diane Ladd in Martin Scorsese's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), with Lelia Goldoni also beng nominated; Maggie Smith and Liz Smith in Malcolm Mowbray's A Private Function (1984); Maggie Smith and Judi Dench in James Ivory's A Room With a View (1985), with Rosemary Leach losing out; Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet in Ang Lee's Sense and Sensibility (1995), with Elizabeth Spriggs also nominated; and Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz for Yorgos Lanthimos's The Favourite (2018), with Emma Stone being the unfortunate one to be overlooked.
There are also several instances where one or neither of the nominees had prevailed, notably Jane Fonda and Susannah York for Sydney Pollack's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969); Lynn Carlin and Georgia Engel for Miloš Forman's Taking Off and Nanette Newman and Georgia Brown for Bryan Forbes's The Raging Moon (both 1971); Liza Minnelli and Marisa Berenson for Cabaret (1972); Joanne Woodward and Sylvia Sidney for Gilbert Cates's Summer Wishes, Winter Dreams (1973); Diane Keaton, Meryl Streep, and Mariel Hemingway for Manhattan; Katharine Hepburn and Jane Fonda for On Golden Pond and Diane Keaton and Maureen Stapleton for Reds; Julie Walters and Maureen Lipman for Educating Ritaand Jessica Lange and Teri Garr for Tootsie; Meryl Streep and Cher for Mike Nichols's Silkwood (1983); Mia Farrow and Barbara Hershey for Hannah and Her Sisters; Anne Bancroft and Judi Dench for David Jones's 84 Charing Cross Road and Cher and Olympia Dukakis for Norman Jewison's Moonstruck (both 1987); Jamie Lee Curtis and Maria Aitken for A Fish Called Wanda, Melanie Griffith and Sigourney Weaver for Mike Nichols's Working Girl, and Michelle Pfeiffer and Glenn Close for Stephen Frears's Dangerous Liaisons (all 1988); Emma Thompson and Helena Bonham Carter for James Ivory's Howards End and Jessica Tandy and Kathy Bates for Jon Avnet's Fried Green Tomatoes (both 1991); Brenda Blethyn and Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Secrets and Lies and Kristin Scott Thomas and Juliette Binoche for The English Patient; Gwyneth Paltrow and Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love and Jane Horrocks and Brenda Blethyn for Little Voice; Annette Bening, Mena Suvari, and Thora Birch for American Beauty.
More recently, the examples include Juliette Binoche, Judi Dench, and Lena Olin for Lasse Hallström's Chocolat, Kate Hudson and Frances McDormand for Cameron Crowe's Almost Famous, and Michelle Yeo and Ziyi Zhang for Ang Lee's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (all 2000); Judi Dench and Kate Winslet in Iris; Nicole Kidman, Meryl Streep, and Julianne Moore for The Hours and Renée Zellwegger, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Queen Latifah for Chicago; Scarlett Johansson and Judy Parfitt for Girl With a Pearl Earring; Imelda Staunton and Heather Craney for Vera Drake and Kate Winslet and Julie Christie for Finding Neverland; Charlize Theron and Frances McDormand for Niki Caro's North Country (2005); Meryl Streep and Emily Blunt for David Frankel's The Devil Wears Prada (2006); Keira Knightley and Saoirse Ronan in Atonement; Meryl Streep and Amy Adams for John Patrick Shanley's Doubt (2008); Gabourey Sidibe and M'onique for Lee Daniels's Precious (2009); Natalie Portman and Barbara Hershey in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan (2010); Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, and Jessica Chastain for Tate Taylor's The Help (2011); Cate Blanchett and Sally Hawkins for Woody Allen's Blue Jasmine and Jennifer Lawrence and Amy Adams for American Hustle (both 2013); Cate Blanchett and Rooney Mara for Todd Haynes's Carol (2015); Margot Robbie and Allison Janney for I, Tonya, Sally Hawkins and Octavia Spencer for The Shape of Water, and Saoirse Ronan and Laurie Metcalf for Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird (all 2017); Scarlett Johansson and Laura Dern for Marriage Story, Charlize Theron and Margot Robbie for Bombshell, and Saoirse Ronan and Florence Pugh for Greta Gerwig's Little Women (both 2018); Bukky Bakray and Kosar Ali for Sarah Gavron's Rocks (2020); and Tessa Thompson and Ruth Negga for Rebecca Hall's Passing (2021).
If you think lightning is going to strike again, then vote for Danielle Brooks. But strong cases can be made for her rivals. So, use your judgement to cast your vote and be in with a chance of winning six months of free rentals from Cinema Paradiso.
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Ten into six simply doesn't go. Consequently, Anthony Hopkins (One Life), Ben Whishaw (Passages), Jamie Bell (All of Us Strangers), and Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things) have been eliminated from the race for Best Supporting Actor. The latter's display of caddish villainy seems particularly unfairly discarded, but we still have a competitive field.
Only Robert Downey, Jr. (Oppenheimer) has been here before, courtesy of Ben Stiller's Tropic Thunder (2008). However, he also has a Best Actor nod for Richard Attenborough's Chaplin (1992), while Ryan Gosling (Barbie) and Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers) have previous through La La Land and Charlotte Wells's Aftersun (2022). It's a completely new experience for Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) and Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), who would become the third Australian to clinch the award after Geoffrey Rush for Shakespeare in Love and The King's Speech and Heath Ledger, who won posthumously for Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight (2008).
Robert De Niro (Killers of the Flower Moon) is also in new territory. However, since been unsuccessfully up for Best Film Newcomer for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather Part II (1974), he has racked up his share of Best Actor nominations. Bizarrely, though, De Niro has never won a BAFTA, despite the quality of his work in Michael Cimino's The Deer Hunter and Martin Scorsese's Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King of Comedy, and GoodFellas. Unusually, his nomination for The Irishman (2019) came as a producer in the Best Film category.
De Niro, Gosling, and Mescal don't have any co-stars in the Best Actor category, but Downey, Elordi, and Sessa certainly do. This proved a winning combination for Jack Nicholson and Brad Dourif in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. Subsequently, John Cleese and Michael Palin paired up in A Fish Called Wanda, with Kevin Kline missing out, as did Daniel Day Lewis and Ray McAnally in Jim Sheridan's My Left Foot (1989); Philippe Noiret and Salvatore Cascio in Giuseppe Tornatore's Cinema Paradiso (1988); Robert Carlyle and Tom Wilkinson in The Full Monty, with Mark Addy missing out; and Colin Firth and Geoffrey Rush in The King's Speech.
But there have been more examples of only one or neither co-star picking up a prize, going back to Marlon Brando and Robert Duvall for Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather (1972). The others to the turn of the century are Jack Nicholson and Randy Quaid for Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973); Albert Finney and John Gielgud for Murder on the Orient Express; Dustin Hoffman, Jason Robards, and Martin Balsam for Alan J. Pakula's All the President's Men (1976); Peter Finch, William Holden, and Robert Duvall for Network; Brad Davis and John Hurt for Midnight Express; Robert De Niro and Christopher Walken for The Deer Hunter; Warren Beatty and Jack Nicholson for Reds; Ben Kingsley, Edward Fox, and Roshan Seth for Gandhi; Michael Caine and Bob Hoskins for John McKenzie's The Honorary Consul and Robert De Niro and Jerry Lewis for The King of Comedy; Daniel Auteuil, Gérard Depardieu, and Yves Montand for Claude Berri's Jean de Florette (1987); Stephen Rea and Jaye Davidson for The Crying Game; Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, and Ben Kingsley for Schindler's List; Hugh Grant, Simon Callow, and John Hannah for Four Weddings and a Funeral and John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson for Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction; Nigel Hawthorne and Ian Holm for The Madness of King George; Geoffrey Rush and John Gielgud for Shine; Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush (who beat himself for Elizabeth ), and Tom Wilkinson for Shakespeare in Love; Kevin Spacey and Wes Bentley for American Beauty and Jim Broadbent and Timothy Spall for Mike Leigh's Topsy-Turvy (1999).
Since the turn of the millennium, the partnerships have numbered Russell Crowe, Joaquin Phoenix, and Oliver Reed for Ridley Scott's Gladiator and Jamie Bell and Gary Lewis for Billy Elliot; Jim Broadbent and Hugh Bonneville for Iris; Nicolas Cage and Chris Cooper for Adaptation; Sean Penn and Tim Robbins for Mystic River; Leonardo DiCaprio and Alan Alda for The Aviator and Gael García Bernal and Rodrigo de la Serna for Walter Salles's The Motorcycle Diaries (2004); Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal for Brokeback Mountain and George Clooney and David Strathairn for Clooney's Good Night, and Good Luck (2005); Forest Whitaker and James McAvoy for The Last King of Scotland, Peter O'Toole and Leslie Phillips for Roger Michell's Venus, and Leonardo DiCaprio and Jack Nicholson for Martin Scorsese's The Departed (all 2006); George Clooney and Tom Wilkinson for Michael Clayton and Daniel Day Lewis and Paul Dano for Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood (both 2007); Jesse Eisenberg and Andrew Garfield for The Social Network; Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill for Bennett Miller's Moneyball (2011); Ben Affleck and Alan Arkin for Argo, Daniel Day Lewis and Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln, and Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman for Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master (2012); Chiwetel Ejiofor and Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave and Christian Bale and Bradley Cooper for American Hustle; Michael Keaton and Edward Norton for Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014); Jake Gyllenhaal and Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals (2016); Viggo Mortensen and Mahershala Ali for Green Book and Christian Bale and Sam Rockwell for Vice (both 2018); Leonardo DiCaprio and Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood and Jonathan Pryce and Anthony Hopkins for Fernando Meirelles's The Two Popes (both 2019); Riz Ahmed and Paul Raci for Darius Marder's Sound of Metal (2020); Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Plemons, and Kodi Smit-McPhee for The Power of the Dog; and Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Barry Keoghan for The Banshees of Inisherin.
Gosling and De Niro are alone in not having co-stars up for Best Supporting Actress. Since the awards were introduced in 1968, dual success has been enjoyed by Edward Fox and Margaret Leighton for Alan Bridges's The Go Between, with Michael Gough missing out, and Ben Johnson and Cloris Leachman for Peter Bogdanovich's The Last Picture Show (both 1971), with Eileen Brennan proving unlucky; John Gielgud and Ingrid Bergman for Murder on the Orient Express; Jack Nicholson and Maureen Stapleton for Reds; Denholm Elliott and Jamie Lee Curtis for John Landis's Trading Places (1983); Denholm Elliott and Liz Smith for A Private Function; Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter for The King's Speech; and Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon for The Banshees of Inisherin, with Brendan Gleason being the one to miss out.
Many more co-stars have had to be content with a single win between them or simply the satisfaction of being nominated. During the first three decades of the Best Supporting awards, these included John McEnery and Pat Heywood for Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet (1968); Laurence Olivier and Mary Wimbush for Richard Attenborough's Oh! What a Lovely War (1969); Gig Young and Susannah York for They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969); John Mills and Evin Crowley for David Lean's Ryan's Daughter (1970); Michel Lonsdale and Delphine Seyrig for Fred Zinnemann's The Day of the Jackal (1973); Michael Hordern and Annette Crosbie for Bryan Forbes's The Slipper and the Rose (1976); Colin Blakely, Jenny Agutter, and Joan Plowright for Sidney Lumet's Equus (1977); Edward Fox, Roshan Seth, Rohini Hattangadi, and Candice Bergen for Gandhi; Simon Callow, Denholm Elliott, Maggie Smith, and Rosemary Leach for A Room With a View; Ian Bannen and Susan Wooldridge for John Boorman's Hope and Glory (1987); Michael Palin and Maria Aitken for A Fish Called Wanda; Alan Alda and Anjelica Huston for Woody Allen's Crimes and Misdemeanors (1989); Samuel West and Helena Bonham Carter for Howards End and Jaye Davidson and Miranda Richardson for The Crying Game; Simon Callow, John Hannah, Charlotte Coleman, and Kristin Scott Thomas for Four Weddings and a Funeral; Alan Rickman, Kate Winslet, and Elizabeth Spriggs for Sense and Sensibility; Tom Wilkinson, Mark Addy, and Lesley Sharp for The Full Monty; Geoffry Rush, Tom Wilkinson, and Judi Dench for Shakespeare in Love; and Jude Law and Cate Blanchett for Anthony Minghella's The Talented Mr Ripley and Wes Bentley, Thora Birch, and Mena Suvari for American Beauty.
The 21st-century contingent to date contains Gary Lewis and Julie Walters for Billy Elliot; Hugh Bonneville and Kate Winslet for Iris; Chris Cooper and Meryl Streep for Adaptation and Ed Harris and Julianne Moore for The Hours; Tim Robbins and Laura Linney for Mystic River and Bill Nighy and Emma Thompson for Richard Curtis's Love Actually (both 2003); Alan Alda and Cate Blanchett for The Aviator, Clive Owen and Natalie Portman for Mike Nichols's Closer, Phil Davis and Heather Craney for Vera Drake, and Don Cheadle, Matt Dillon, and Thandiwe Newton for Paul Haggis's Crash (all 2004); Jake Gyllenhaal and Michelle Williams for Brokeback Mountain; Alan Arkin, Toni Collette, and Abigail Breslin for Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris's Little Miss Sunshine (2006); Tom Wilkinson and Tilda Swinton for Michael Clayton and Javier Bardem, Tommy Lee Jones, and Kelly Macdonald for No Country For Old Men; Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams for Doubt and Brad Pitt and Tilda Swinton and Joel and Ethan Coen's Burn After Reading (both 2008); Christian Bale and Amy Adams for David O. Russell's The Fighter; Kenneth Branagh and Judi Dench for Branagh's My Week With Marilyn (2011); Javier Bardem and Judi Dench for Sam Mendes's Skyfall, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Amy Adams for The Master, and Tommy Lee Jones and Sally Field for Lincoln; Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle and Michael Fassbender and Lupita Nyong'o for 12 Years a Slave; Ethan Hawke and Patricia Arquette for Boyhood; Edward Norton and Emma Stone for Birdman; Mahershala Ali and Noemie Harris for Barry Jenkins's Moonlight and Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman for Garth Davis's Lion (both 2016); Sam Rockwell and Amy Adams for Vice; Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie for Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood; Alan Kim and Youn Yun-jung for Lee Isaac Chung's Minari, Daniel Kaluuya and Dominique Fishback for Shaka King's Judas and the Black Messiah, and Barry Keoghan and Niamh Algar for Nick Rowland's Calm With Horses (all 2020); Mike Faist and Ariana DeBose for Steven Spielberg's West Side Story and Ciarán Hands and Catríona Balfe for Kenneth Branagh's Belfast (both 2021); and Key Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis for Daniel Kwan and Daniel Schweinert's Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022).
What's clear from all this analysis is that the leading films each year tend to attract a clutch of votes across the craft and acting categories. This is either the result of canny lobbying or lazy voting. It could also, of course, signify the quality of the pictures and performances themselves. Whatever the reason, it makes the task of Cinema Paradiso members no easier when it comes to predicting the eventual winners.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
And that concludes our round-up of the major categories on the BAFTA ballot. In all, 38 features and eight shorts have been nominated across the categories. 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 77th 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 18 February 2024 and the winner will be announced on Monday 19 February 2024.
One entry per customer and everyone with a Cinema Paradiso account is welcome to take part. Good luck!
