The Shape of Water leads British-heavy BAFTA nominations

Both Sally Hawkins (left) and Octavia Spencer are up for individual BAFTAs for The Shape of Water.

The fantasy romance that won the top prize at the Venice Film Festival, Guillermo del Toro’s The Shape of Water, has notched up twelve nominations at the BAFTA Film awards.

The Fox Searchlight film is a full three nods ahead of its stable-mate Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which is making the running in the Oscars race, winning four Golden Globes at the weekend and leading the Screen Actors Guild Award contest.

There are also nine nominations from the British Academy for Working Title’s Winston Churchill biopic, Darkest Hour, which saw Gary Oldman bring at Golden Globe statuette home from LA.

The three films share the Best Film category with another Second World War film, Christopher Nolan’s IMAX masterpiece Dunkirk and the smaller-scale romance Call Me by Your Name.

Unusually, for BAFTA, a British director whose film features among the Best Film nominees, Darkest Hour’s Joe Wright, missed out on a Best Director nomination, in favour of Canada’s Denis Villeneuve, for Blade Runner 2049, who joins Britons Christopher Nolan and Three Billboard’s Martin McDonagh, Mexican del Toro and Call Me By Your Name’s Luca Guadagnino, who hails from Italy.

The Death of Stalin is one of the higher profile films among the BIFA nominations.
The Death of Stalin is up for 2 BAFTAs, including Outstanding British Film.

Being BAFTA, there are two major categories aimed specifically at British talent, to ensure that homegrown talent doesn’t get overlooked on the big night. But just as Joe Wright was snubbed in the Best Director competition, Dunkirk – among the top five films in the world, according to BAFTA – couldn’t make it into the top six British features; the contest for Outstanding British Film will be fought by Darkest Hour, Three Billboards – which despite a British director and producer, with some funding from Film 4 feels the very essence of an American indy, The Death of Stalin, Lady Macbeth, God’s Own Country and Paddington 2.

If reserving awards for British talent doesn’t seem somewhat parochial, defeatist or even positive discrimination, with films – such as Dunkirk and Three Billboards – increasingly being financed multi-nationally, it does end up feeling at the very least somewhat inconsistent, with Three Billboards featuring strongly at the Independent Spirit Awards, which – in all the major categories – are for American productions, only.

Similarly, I am Not a Witch, which is nominated at the Spirits as a Zambian entry for Best Foreign Film, is up for the Best Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer at BAFTA, because director Rungano Nyoni, was brought up in the UK. In this category, her film is up against Lady Macbeth, Kingdom of Us, Jawbone and The Ghoul.

Annette Bening and Jamie Bell both secure their first major nominations of Awards Season for Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool

But as with most of these awards ceremonies, its the acting nominees that attract the most attention, as they’re the best known faces and generally the biggest draws to the films. So the Golden Globe winning Three Billboards’ Frances McDormand (in the drama category) and Lady Bird’s Saoirse Ronan (in the musical or comedy category) are up against Globe nominees I, Tonya’s Margot Robbie and The Shape of Water’s Sally Hawkins, the only British nominee. The fifth actress in contention in the category is the largely overlooked – until now – Annette Bening, for a British production, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool.

Her co-star Jamie Bell, for a particularly strong performance, also gets his first major nomination for this film courtesy of BAFTA, as one of four British actors in contention for Best Actor. He’s up against Gary Oldman, awards favourite Phantom Thread’s Daniel Day-Lewis and Get Out’s Daniel Kaluuya, as well as American Timothée Chalamet, for Call Me By Your Name, a Golden Globe winner and three nominees.

The inclusion of Bening and Bell mean there’s no room for Meryl Streep or Tom Hanks for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming The Post, which despite having six Golden Globe nominations doesn’t even get a mention at BAFTA. Globe winner James Franco also gets no recognition but more surprisingly, neither does Dame Judi Dench, who was up for a Globe for her performance in Victoria & Abdul.

Three Billboads co-stars Sam Rockwell (right) and Woody Harrelson are up against each other in the Best Supporting Actor race

It’s also notable that while The Shape of Water collected more nominations than any other film, one of them was not for Golden Globe best supporting actor nominee Richard Jenkins. That race will be contested by Globe nominees Christopher Plummer (repeating his Globe recognition, just weeks after ousting the disgraced Kevin Spacey from his role in All the Money in the World) and The Florida Project’s Willem Dafoe, Globe winner Sam Rockwell, his Three Billboards co-star Woody Harrelson, and British favourite Hugh Grant, collecting his third BAFTA nomination for Paddington 2.

In the best supporting actress, I, Tonya’s Allison Janney will have a chance to repeat her Golden Globes success, against fellow Globe nominees Lady Bird’s Laurie Metcalf and The Shape of Water’s Octavia Spencer. But at the British Academy, they’ll be up against two British actresses, the highly deserving Lesley Manville for Phantom Thread and Darkest Hour’s Kristin Scott Thomas.

With many BAFTA members also having a membership of the American Academy, awards watchers will be analysing this list for clues to the Oscars, but with BAFTA’s tendency to recognise British talent, US-based events are likely to prove to be more accurate predictors.

The BAFTA Film Awards winners will be announced at the Royal Albert Hall on 18th February, at a ceremony hosted by the actress Joanna Lumley, chosen from the following list:

Best film

Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Outstanding British film

Darkest Hour
The Death of Stalin
God’s Own Country
Lady Macbeth
Paddington 2
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best Director

Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049
Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best original screenplay

Get Out
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best adapted screenplay

Call Me by Your Name
The Death of Stalin
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Molly’s Game
Paddington 2

Best actress

Annette Bening, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird

Best actor

Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Jamie Bell, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name

Best supporting actress

Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Kristin Scott Thomas, Darkest Hour
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water

Best supporting actor

Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Hugh Grant, Paddington 2
Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

The Ghoul – Gareth Tunley (writer/director/producer), Jack Healy Guttman & Tom Meeten (producers)
I Am Not a Witch – Rungano Nyoni (writer/director), Emily Morgan (Producer)
Jawbone – Johnny Harris (writer/producer), Thomas Napper (director)
Kingdom of Us – Lucy Cohen (director)
Lady Macbeth – Alice Birch (writer), William Oldroyd (director), Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (producer)

Best film not in the English language

Elle
First They Killed My Father
The Handmaiden
Loveless
The Salesman

Best documentary

City of Ghosts
I Am Not Your Negro
Icarus
An Inconvenient Sequel
Jane

Best animated film

Coco
Loving Vincent
My Life as a Courgette

Best original music

Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water

Best cinematography

Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best editing

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Best production design

Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water

Best costume design

Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
I, Tonya
Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water

Best make up & hair

Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
I, Tonya
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder

Best sound

Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Best special visual effects

Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes

Best British short animation

Have Heart
Mamoon
Poles Apart

Best British short film

Aamir
Cowboy Dave
A Drowning Man
Work
Wren Boys

EE Rising Star award (voted for by the public)

Daniel Kaluuya
Florence Pugh
Josh O’Connor
Tessa Thompson
Timothée Chalamet