Los Angeles: Alfonso Cuaron’s stranded-in-space thriller Gravity received the most nominations for the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA), earning 11, including for film, actress for Sandra Bullock, director for Cuaron and screenplay for Cuaron and his son, Jonas.
Steve McQueen’s harrowing 12 Years a Slave and David O. Russell’s con man comedy American Hustle earned 10 nominations from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, with Paul Greengrass’ hijacking thriller Captain Phillips following with nine nods.
Vying with Gravity for best film are 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips and Philomena.
Missing from the list were The Wolf of Wall Street, Nebraska, Inside Llewyn Davis, Dallas Buyers Club and Her.
Best actor BAFTA nominations went to Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave, Christian Bale for American Hustle, Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street and Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips.
Omissions
Notably missing from the contenders were Robert Redford for All Is Lost and Matthew McConaughey for Dallas Buyers Club.
Joining Bullock in the lead actress competition are Amy Adams for American Hustle, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Emma Thompson for Saving Mr. Banks and Judi Dench for Philomena. Not making the cut was Meryl Streep for August: Osage County.
Supporting actor nominations went to Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips, Bradley Cooper for American Hustle, Daniel Bruhl for Rush, Matt Damon for Behind the Candelabra (the HBO movie was released theatrically in the UK) and Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave. Jared Leto for Dallas Buyers Club was a surprising omission.
Nominated for supporting actress were Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle, Julia Roberts for August: Osage County, Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave, Oprah Winfrey for Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine. Missing from the list was June Squibb for Nebraska.
Vying with Cuaron in the director category are McQueen for 12 Years a Slave, Russell for American Hustle, Greengrass for Captain Phillips and Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street. All five filmmakers were also nominated on Tuesday for the Directors Guild of America award.
Nominees for the BAFTA for Film Not in the English Language are The Act of Killing, Blue is the Warmest Color, The Great Beauty, Metro Manila and Wadjda.
Animation nominations went to Despicable Me 2, Frozen and Monsters University.
The awards will be handed out on February 16 at a ceremony at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. Stephen Fry will host.
