BAFTA Awards nominations: The biggest surprises and snubs
The BAFTAs, the British Film Academy's annual honors, pride themselves on their ability to shift the awards season focus, slightly, away from Hollywood and towards the U.K.
The 2018 BAFTA nominations, unveiled Tuesday, were no exception. While there were kudos for the biggest and buzziest American titles this season — Guillermo del Toro's The Shape of Water leads the pack with 12 noms — British titles, or British co-productions, from Martin McDonagh's Golden Globe winner Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and Joe Wright's Darkest Hour (9 nominations each), to Christopher Nolan's war epic Dunkirk (8), dominated the list.
This Brit focus goes some way to explain what looks like the most glaring snubs from this year's nominations. Though why Steven Spielberg's The Post — a leading Oscar candidate — failed to get a single BAFTA nom may be a mystery for many. The period drama, starring Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, tracing the Washington Post's battle to publish the Pentagon Papers in 1971, was a critical hit in Britain and its themes of fake news and political meddling couldn't help but strike a chord with the land that brought us Brexit. But BAFTA voters opted for more homegrown history in the form of World War II dramas Darkest Hour and Dunkirk.
See photos from last year's BAFTA Awards:
Another glaring snub was Des Rees' sweeping period drama Mudbound, which also came away empty-handed. The fact that Mudbound was a Netflix title may have hurt it with more traditional BAFTA voters.
Three other awards favorites, all with U.S.-centric storylines were passed over by BAFTA in the best film and best director categories but they got recognition elsewhere. They are Jordan Peele's Get Out, Greta Gerwig's Lady Bird and Craig Gillespie's I, Tonya.
Britain-born Daniel Kaluuya nabbed a best actor nom for his turn in Get Out; both Margot Robbie and Allison Janney are in the running for best actress and best supporting actress, respectively, for I, Tonya; and Lady Bird picked up three BAFTA noms, including in the best actress category for Saoirse Ronan and best original screenplay for Gerwig.
On the opposite side of the coin, a Brit film not on the U.S. awards radar, Paul McGuigan's Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool, picked up three BAFTA noms, with both Jamie Bell and Annette Bening nabbing best acting nominations for their starring roles in the Spring-Autumn romance tale and Matt Greenhalgh receiving a nomination for best adapted screenplay.
Another surprise, for many, was the best director nomination for Denis Villeneuve for his helming of Blade Runner 2049. The Canadian director got raves for his reboot of Ridley Scott's sci-fi classic but its rare for a genre title, and a sequel, to get that sort of BAFTA love.
Many in the British industry would have liked to see a bit more love set in the direction of God's Own Country. Francis Lee's directorial debut —a love story between two men working as shepherds in rural Yorkshire —was a cross-over success but only managed a single BAFTA nom, for best British film. Lead Josh O'Connor got a mention, as one of the rising star nominees, the sole category voted on by the British public and not BAFTA members.
William Oldroyd's directorial debut, Lady MacBeth, did a bit better, receiving nominations in the outstanding British film and outstanding British debut categories, with actress Florence Pugh also picking up a rising star nomination.
RELATED: See photos from inside the 2018 Golden Globes:
