2020 BAFTA Nominations Omit Actors of Color as ‘Joker’ Leads the Field

Anne Thompson

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In this foreshortened, speedy awards schedule, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts nominations for the EE British Academy Film Awards arrived mere hours, rather than a week, before Oscar voters hand in their nominations ballots. BAFTA’s February 2 Awards show comes two days before Academy ballots are due on February 4. BAFTA has an overlap of a few hundred Academy voters living mostly in London, New York and Los Angeles.

6700 BAFTA members voted for the nominations covering 39 feature films. One movie that one would expect would do well with the BAFTAs, British theater-maven and filmmaker Sam Mendes’ one-shot World War I epic “1917,” landed nine nominations, but no acting nods. The war movie took home two Golden Globes on Sunday, for Motion Picture Drama and Director. Historically, about two-thirds of BAFTA contenders also reap Oscar bids. Last year, the BAFTAs chose “Roma” over eventual Oscar Best Picture “Green Book.”

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The BAFTA nods tend to favor homegrown fare such as “1917,” “Rocketman,” and “The Two Popes.” But this year American contender “Joker” lead the field with 11 nominations, followed by 10 for “The Irishman” and “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood,” six for “Jojo Rabbit,” five for “LIttle Women,” “Marriage Story” and “The Two Popes,” four for Elton John musical “Rocketman,” Syria documentary “For Sama,” and Korean foreign-language film “Parasite,” and three for “Bombshell,” “Judy,” “Le Mans ’66” (“Ford v. Ferrari”) and “Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.”

Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women,” Noah Baumbach’s “Marriage Story” and Fernando Meirelles’ “The Two Popes” did not make it to Best Film or Best Director, even if Saoirse Ronan, Scarlett Johansson, Adam Driver and Jonathan Pryce landed acting nods; neither did “Jojo Rabbit,” which landed six slots including Adapted Screenplay for Taika Waititi. And yet again, “The Irishman” star Robert De Niro did not land a Best Actor slot while “Rocketman” Globe-winner Taron Egerton did.

Remarkably, Margot Robbie is nominated twice for Supporting Actress for her roles in “Once Upon a Time in Hollywood” and “Bombshell.” Not making the cut, surprisingly, were British actress Cynthia Erivo for “Harriet,” Cannes Best Actor-winner Antonio Banderas for “Pain and Glory,” and Globe-winning actress Awkwafina for “The Farewell,” who will compete for the Rising Star Award. All 20 acting slots went to white actors. (“Queen & Slim” opens in the UK in January.) Nor did any women directors make the Directors list.

The already announced nominees for the EE Rising Star Award, voted by the public, are Awkwafina, Jack Lowden, Kaitlyn Dever, Kelvin Harrison Jr, and Micheal Ward.

Back in 2000, the BAFTAs moved up their awards ahead of the Oscars, and did the same this year. Eight BAFTA winners have presaged the 19 Best Picture Oscar winners, including “Gladiator” (2001), “The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King” (2004) and “Slumdog Millionaire” (2009). And the awards synced up for “The Hurt Locker” (2010), “The King’s Speech” (2011), “The Artist” (2012), “Argo” (2013) and “12 Years a Slave” (2014). But they don’t always match. In 2015, the BAFTAs picked “Boyhood,” while “Birdman” went on to win the Best Picture Oscar. The next year, BAFTA voted for Best Director Oscar-winner “The Revenant” over “Spotlight.” In 2017, the BAFTAs went with “La La Land” over eventual Oscar winner “Moonlight.” In 2018, the BAFTAs leaned into British “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” over “The Shape of Water.” And last year, the British pick was “Roma” over BP Oscar-winner “Green Book.”

2020 NOMINATIONS

BEST FILM

1917 Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren

THE IRISHMAN Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

JOKER Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino

PARASITE Bong Joon-ho, Kwak Sin-ae

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

1917 Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Krysty Wilson-Cairns

BAIT Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite

FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts

ROCKETMAN Dexter Fletcher, Adam Bohling, David Furnish, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn, Lee Hall

SORRY WE MISSED YOU Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty

THE TWO POPES Fernando Meirelles, Jonathan Eirich, Dan Lin, Tracey Seaward, Anthony McCarten

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

BAIT Mark Jenkin (Writer/Director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (Producers)

FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab (Director/Producer), Edward Watts (Director)

MAIDEN Alex Holmes (Director)

ONLY YOU Harry Wootliff (Writer/Director)

RETABLO Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Writer/Director)*

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

THE FAREWELL Lulu Wang, Daniele Melia

FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts

PAIN AND GLORY Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar

PARASITE Bong Joon-ho

PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur

DOCUMENTARY

AMERICAN FACTORY Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert

APOLLO 11 Todd Douglas Miller

DIEGO MARADONA Asif Kapadia

FOR SAMA Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts

THE GREAT HACK Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim

ANIMATED FILM

FROZEN 2 Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho

KLAUS Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh

A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley

TOY STORY 4 Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen

DIRECTOR

1917 Sam Mendes

THE IRISHMAN Martin Scorsese

JOKER Todd Phillips

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino

PARASITE Bong Joon-ho

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BOOKSMART Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman

KNIVES OUT Rian Johnson

MARRIAGE STORY Noah Baumbach

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Quentin Tarantino

PARASITE Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho,

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE IRISHMAN Steven Zaillian

JOJO RABBIT Taika Waititi

JOKER Todd Phillips, Scott Silver

LITTLE WOMEN Greta Gerwig

THE TWO POPES Anthony McCarten

LEADING ACTRESS

JESSIE BUCKLEY Wild Rose

SCARLETT JOHANSSON Marriage Story

SAOIRSE RONAN Little Women

CHARLIZE THERON Bombshell

RENÉE ZELLWEGER Judy

LEADING ACTOR

LEONARDO DICAPRIO Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood

ADAM DRIVER Marriage Story

TARON EGERTON Rocketman

JOAQUIN PHOENIX Joker

JONATHAN PRYCE The Two Popes

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

LAURA DERN “Marriage Story”

SCARLETT JOHANSSON “Jojo Rabbit”

FLORENCE PUGH “Little Women”

MARGOT ROBBIE “Bombshell”

MARGOT ROBBIE “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”

The Two Popes Anthony Hopkins
The Two Popes Anthony Hopkins

SUPPORTING ACTOR

TOM HANKS “A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood”

ANTHONY HOPKINS “The Two Popes”

AL PACINO “The Irishman”

JOE PESCI “The Irishman”

BRAD PITT “Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood”

ORIGINAL SCORE

1917 Thomas Newman

JOJO RABBIT Michael Giacchino

JOKER Hildur Guđnadóttir

LITTLE WOMEN Alexandre Desplat

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER John Williams

CASTING

JOKER Shayna Markowitz

MARRIAGE STORY Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Victoria Thomas

THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD Sarah Crowe

THE TWO POPES Nina Gold

CINEMATOGRAPHY

1917 Roger Deakins

THE IRISHMAN Rodrigo Prieto

JOKER Lawrence Sher

LE MANS ’66 Phedon Papamichael

THE LIGHTHOUSE Jarin Blaschke

EDITING

THE IRISHMAN Thelma Schoonmaker

JOJO RABBIT Tom Eagles

JOKER Jeff Groth

LE MANS ’66 Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Fred Raskin

PRODUCTION DESIGN

1917 Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales

THE IRISHMAN Bob Shaw, Regina Graves

JOJO RABBIT Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková

JOKER Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN

THE IRISHMAN Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell

JOJO RABBIT Mayes C. Rubeo

JUDY Jany Temime

LITTLE WOMEN Jacqueline Durran

ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD Arianne Phillips

MAKEUP & HAIR

1917 Naomi Donne

BOMBSHELL Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan

JOKER Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann

JUDY Jeremy Woodhead

ROCKETMAN Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

SOUND

1917 Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson

JOKER Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic

LE MANS ’66 David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester

ROCKETMAN Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

1917 Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy

AVENGERS: ENDGAME Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick

THE IRISHMAN Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman

THE LION KING Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez

STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC. Maryam Mohajer

IN HER BOOTS Kathrin Steinbacher

THE MAGIC BOAT Naaman Azhari, Lilia Laurel

BRITISH SHORT FILM

AZAAR Myriam Raja, Nathanael Baring

GOLDFISH Hector Dockrill, Harri Kamalanathan, Benedict Turnbull, Laura Dockrill

KAMALI Sasha Rainbow, Rosalind Croad

LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva

THE TRAP Lena Headey, Anthony Fitzgerald

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

AWKWAFINA

JACK LOWDEN

KAITLYN DEVER

KELVIN HARRISON JR.

MICHEAL WARD

The EE British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday February 2 at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The ceremony will be hosted by Graham Norton and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD. The ceremony is also broadcast in all major territories around the world.

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