Bafta nominations 2021: Snubs and surprises

It’s taken a little longer than usual, but it seems like awards season is finally heating up.

The nominations for the Bafta film awards were announced earlier today (9 March), throwing up a handful of unexpected names.

With the ceremony delayed by months as a result of the pandemic, the Baftas will now take place on 11 April, just two weeks before the Academy Awards.

Last year’s Baftas were criticised for their lack of diversity, with the award body failing to nominate a single actor of colour. In the year since, however, the Baftas has undertaken a substantial overhaul of its voting body, introducing more than 120 changes to its campaigning, membership and voting systems.

READ MORE: The Bafta 2021 film nominations list in full

The changes seem to be showing, and this year’s nominations list features a host of welcome surprises and new nominees.

Many of the actors who were expected to score nominations ended up missing out, while some of the lesser-known inclusions – especially in the Best Director category – prompted an outburst of celebration on social media.

Here’s are some of the biggest snubs and surprises from the Bafta nominations list...

No Best Actress nod for Carey Mulligan...

Carey Mulligan was widely expected to be nominated for Best Actress for her turn as the vengeance-driven protagonist of Promising Young Woman. Mulligan has already bagged a handful of nominations throughout the protracted awards season and managed a few wins – including the Critics’ Choice Awards Best Actress trophy, which she took home last Sunday.

… or Olivia Colman

Olivia Colman might wonder if she’s no longer the favourite – she too was passed over for an acting nomination for her turn in The Father. In the film, Colman plays a woman who moves in to live with her elderly dad as he suffers degenerative memory loss. The Father was nominated six times, including a nod for Colman’s co-star, Anthony Hopkins, which makes her omission from the list a noticeable surprise.

Alan Kim becomes one of the youngest-ever nominees

Fresh off his Critics’ Choice Award win yesterday (8 March), Alan Kim has found himself amongst some of the industry’s biggest hitters in the Best Supporting Actor category for his role in Minari. The eight-year-old actor is up against Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah), Barry Keoghan (Calm with Horses), Leslie Odom Jr (One Night in Miami), Clarke Peters (Da 5 Bloods)and Paul Raci (Sound of Metal). Should Kim win, he will be the youngest-ever recipient of a Bafta award. He stars opposite The Walking Dead’s Steven Yeun in Lee Isaac Chung’s critically acclaimed film, about a Korean American family who move to an Arkansas farm. Chung has also picked up a nomination for Best Director.

Babyteeth is finally recognised

It’s not very often that Australian films show up on the international awards circuit, so it was thrilling to see Shannon Murphy nominated for Best Director for her debut Babyteeth. A coming-of-age drama about a 16-year-old cancer patient (Eliza Scanlen) who forms an unlikely friendship with a 23-year-old drug addict (Toby Wallace), this hilarious and heartbreaking film is not to be missed.

Da 5 Bloods misses out on a Best Film nod

This snub is the latest disappointment for Spike Lee’s 2020 feature about Black Vietnam War veterans, after it was notably shut out of the Golden Globes last month. While neither Lee nor the movie’s star Delroy Lindo picked up a mention in the Best Actor category, Clarke Peters has received recognition for his supporting role as Otis.

Viola Davis is left out

As expected, Chadwick Boseman picked up a much-deserved posthumous nomination for his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. But it’s surprising not to see Viola Davis get a nod for her turn as the film’s titular blues singer, especially given she’s deservedly been nominated at the Golden Globe, SAG and Critics Choice Awards so far this season.

Alfre Woodard hasn’t been forgotten

There’s an unspoken rule that if a low-budget, critically acclaimed film gets released long after it tried and failed to win Oscars, it’s pretty much dead in the water. Clemency, a staggering condemnation of the American prison system that features a powerhouse performance from Alfre Woodard, felt like such a movie. That it clung on in Bafta voters’ minds, long after it sputtered onto British streaming services in the early days of the pandemic and got snubbed by most major US awards bodies in 2020, is one of today’s most delightful surprises. Its Best Actress nod is a wonderful last-minute gift for an actor who probably thought the film’s awards chances were long over.

Sacha Baron Cohen is snubbed

Despite speaking in an American accent that could charitably be described as “wavering”, Baron Cohen has drawn no shortage of acclaim for his performance as radical activist Abbie Hoffman in The Trial of the Chicago 7. While it’s a little surprising to see the Borat provocateur’s name left out of proceedings, it’s hard to argue with the nominations in his stead: the supporting actor category boasts strong showcases from actors including Kaluuya, Keoghan, and eight-year-old Alan Kim.