All Quiet on the Western Front leads the pack of nominees for the 2023 BAFTA film awards with a record-equaling haul of 14 nominations.
Netflix’s acclaimed anti-war epic, which now ties with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for BAFTA’s most nominated foreign-language film in its history, is set to compete for best film, director (for Edward Berger), adapted screenplay, and supporting actor (for Albrech Schuch) alongside almost every single below-the-line category when the winners are announced on Feb. 19, according to a report on www.hollywoodreporter.com.
Revealed on Thursday from the British Academy’s London HQ, the nominees followed a similar order to the BAFTA longlists announced earlier this month, with All Quiet ahead of awards season favorites The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At One, each landing 10 nominations. Both films dominated the performance categories, with nominations for Everything Everywhere’s Michelle Yeoh (her last BAFTA nod being for Crouching Tiger), Ke Huy Quan and Jamie Lee Curtis, and Banshees’ Colin Farrell (perhaps surprisingly, his first BAFTA film nomination), Kerry Condon, Brendan Gleeson and Barry Keoghan (Gleeson and Keoghan making up two of the five supporting actor slots).
Just behind with nine nominations is Elvis, up for best film and best actor (for Austin Butler), and seven of the craft categories.
But further down the list, the 2023 lineup of nominees serves up a hugely broad and diverse list, with expanded categories giving room for a total of 45 films being nominated, numerous BAFTA first-timers and plenty of shocks, surprises and snubs. Tár‘s 5 nominations were followed by Aftersun, The Batman, Good Luck to You Leo, Grande, Top Gun: Maverick and The Whale, which four apiece, with a trio — Babylon, Empire of Light and Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio — getting three.
“It’s really the breadth across all genres, and styles of film storytelling, perspectives, representation, that’s what strikes me more than anything,” said BAFTA chief executive Jane Millichip, for whom the 2023 film awards mark her first (she joined in late 2022). Millichip also pointed to the fact the 40 percent of the performance nominees were from ethnically diverse backgrounds, an issue that BAFTA had faced heavy scrutiny over several years ago, leading to a grueling review process and dramatic overhaul of its voting procedures.
Among the likely talking points, alongside All Quiet on the Western Front, is a growing distinction between the BAFTA awards and the Academy Awards, so often largely mirror images of each other in terms of nominees.
While the leading actress category includes, as might have been expected, Tár’s Cate Blanchett (already a 3-time BAFTA winner), Yeoh, Danielle Deadwyler for Till, previous supporting actress winner Viola Davis for The Woman King and Ana De Armas for Blonde, double winner Emma Thompson lands her 7th nomination for Good Luck to You Leo, Grande. Sophie Hyde’s Brit drama emerged as one of the breakouts, landing nods for outstanding British film, outstanding debut and, in perhaps the biggest shock of the day, leading actor for Daryl McCormack, who may have muscled out Tom Cruise to get one of the six slots (the Oscars only has room for 5).
McCormack — also a Rising Star nominee — leads a growing cohort of emerging faces getting their first shot at BAFTA film glory. Also in the leading actor category is Paul Mescal, already a BAFTA TV winner for Normal People but now getting his big screen dues for his first leading role in Aftersun.
“It’s really great in the performance categories to see no 14 out of the 24 being first time nominees,” noted BAFTA executive director, awards & content Emma Baehr.
Alongside Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick (whose four craft nominations were possibly below expectations), those looking out for snubs will likely center Indian smash hit RRR, entirely absent, and on Steven Spielberg’s The Fabelmans. Widely predicted to feature heavily in the Oscars, the deeply personal film landed just one BAFTA nominations, for best original screenplay. Not that Spielberg, a fixture at BAFTA for more than four decades, is likely to complain.