Britain’s biggest celebration of film – the BAFTAs – take place this Sunday, honouring the best movies of the last year.
With a brand-new host, two special live musical performances, and a red carpet packed with celebrities, it’s set to be a star-studded night with plenty of surprises in store.
Image: (Clockwise from top left) David Tennant, Sophie Ellis-Bextor, David Beckham and Hannah Waddingham. Pic: AP
Here’s everything you need to know ahead of this year’s BAFTA Film Awards.
Where are they being held?
The ceremony will take place at the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre.
Sky News will be liveblogging winners as they’re announced, ahead of the televised ceremony which will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 7pm on Sunday night.
Image: Cillian Murphy is J Robert Oppenheimer in Oppenheimer. Pic: Universal Pictures
Gothic fairy-tale Poor Things has 11 nods, while Martin Scorsese’s Killers Of The Flower Moon and German-language drama The Zone Of Interest both have nine nods.
French courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall, 70s nostalgia-fest The Holdovers, and Bradley Cooper’s labour of love Maestro all have seven nominations.
All Of Us Strangers, starring Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, has six nominations, while Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn both have five.
Despite being the highest-grossing film of 2023, Barbie failed to make it into the best film category, and Gerwig is also absent from the directing category. It’s likely the film’s fictional heroine would have had something rather pointed to say about those omissions…
Which stars are likely to take home a gong?
If past achievements are anything to go by, Golden Globe wins earlier this year for Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy and Poor Things actress Emma Stone set them both in good stead.
Image: Emma Stone in Poor Things. Pic: Yorgos Lanthimos/Searchlight Pictures
And he’s Britain’s most successful working director, but Christopher Nolan has never won a BAFTA for best film or best director, so many feel this could be his year.
With many of the other categories wide open, one that many of the critics are calling is best supporting actress, with The Holdovers star Da’Vine Joy Randolph considered to be the runaway favourite for both a BAFTA and an Oscar win next month.
Image: Da’Vine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers. Pic: Focus Features/Seacia Pavao
Whether audience-favourite Ryan Gosling will snap up best supporting actor is less easy to foretell.
However, his nomination in this category has received less of a frenzied response than the same nod at the Oscars, mainly due to the fact that Margot Robbie does have a BAFTA nod for best actress, while she was locked out of the Academy Award shortlist.
Image: Jacob Elordi
In the Rising Star category – the only award voted for the public – actor Jacob Elordi‘smuch-talked about performances in Saltburn and Priscilla – would seem to give him more than an even chance of taking home the prize.
Who’s hosting?
David Tennant will host this year’s event for the first time.
Image: David Tennant and Catherine Tate in Doctor Who. Pic: BBC
Clearly feeling laid back about the challenge, he said: “It’ll either work and everyone will be terribly nice about it or it’ll be a total disaster and I’ll never be asked again. Either way – it’s fine.”
The 52-year-old Scottish star has said he won’t be “roasting” any of the stars on the night – an approach that has received mixed results at the BAFTAs in the past.
Last year, the awards ceremony was hosted by Saltburn actor Richard E Grant and This Morning host Alison Hammond, and the year before by Australian actress and comedian Rebel Wilson.
Tennant says he hopes it will be an “evening of generosity and joy,” and has also hinted that his former Doctor Who co-star Catherine Tate might make a surprise appearance.
Image: Dua Lipa. Pic: Matt Crossick/Global/Shutterstock
Who’ll be presenting the awards?
Famous faces giving out awards include David Beckham, Dua Lipa, Hugh Grant, Idris Elba, Cate Blanchett, Gillian Anderson and Daisy Edgar Jones.
And while All Of Us Strangers co-star Andrew Scott was a notable absence from the best actor contenders, he will present a prize on the night.
Ellis-Bextor will be performing her 2001 hit Murder On The Dancefloor, which has become a viral hit since featuring in the closing finale of Saltburn.
Ted Lasso star Waddingham will also give a live musical performance, with details of her turn a closely guarded secret.
Image: Sophie Ellis-Bextor.Pic: Richard Jones
Will any other prizes be handed out?
The Bafta Fellowship – the film academy’s highest honour – will be presented to actress Samantha Morton.
Over a three-decade career (and counting), her credits have spanned British indie productions to Hollywood blockbusters, starring in movies including Under The Skin, The Minority Report and The Whale.
Previous BAFTA Fellow include Charlie Chaplin, Elizabeth Taylor and Steven Spielberg.
Image: Samantha Morton. Pic: Ian West/PA Photos
BAFTA’s Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema will be presented to June Givanni.
She is a pioneering film curator, writer and programmer of African and African diaspora cinema.
Givanni founded The June Givanni PanAfrican Archive (JGPACA), a volunteer-run archive comprising over 10,000 rare and unique artefacts documenting the development of filmmaking across Africa and the African diaspora, including in Britain.
Sky News will be liveblogging winners as they’re announced, from around 4.30pm on Sunday afternoon – follow it all live on our site.
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