Awards season is officially upon us, and with the 2024 Critics' Choice Awards and Emmy Awards taking place last week, proceedings are under way.
Oscar nominations are expected to be released in a matter of days, and the film industry is all abuzz with predictions, but it is the BAFTA nominations that are making the most headlines.
The prestigious awards announced its shortlist this week, and while Oppenheimer and Poor Things emerged as frontrunners, with 13 and 11 nominations respectively, other fan favourite films underperformed.
One of these was Barbie, with the cult-classic earning just five nominations at the British Academy of Film and TV Awards - best actress, best supporting actor, best costume designer, best production design and best original screenplay.
And while that is still a lot to celebrate, the record-breaking film was noticeably absent from two major categories - best film and best director.
The best director snub for Greta Gerwig caused the most significant online uproar, with only one female director, Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall) listed among the nominees.
"No Greta Gerwig?", one fan posted to Twitter when the best director category was announced, made up this year of: Andrew Haigh (All of Us Strangers), Justine Triet (Anatomy of a Fall), Alexander Payne (The Holdovers), Bradley Cooper (Maestro), Christopher Nolan (Oppenheimer) and Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest).
"Those BAFTA nominations are very odd in places," posted another. "The snub of Lily Gladstone is frankly a massive oversight to the point of almost being a bit embarrassing. Likewise, Greta Gerwig getting snubbed a director nomination for Barbie - one of the most confidently helmed films all year."
"As a member of #bafta I can but roll my eyes AGAIN at the exclusion of Greta Gerwig from the best director race," another posted. "The old white men voters win again. FFS."
“There’s no such thing as expected at BAFTA,” explained Anna Higgs, chair of BAFTA’s film committee, in an interview with Variety. “I think to play a guessing game with our expert members and where they can go, particularly in a year that’s so competitive, is really hard.
“But we know it’s not a fair race from the start,” she continued. “For every three film submitted directed by a man, we only have one film submitted directed by a woman. So to see a woman in that nominations list is a really good thing.”
“We’ve got lots of women across the board. And we’re seeing brand new emerging filmmakers with debut films up against legendary filmmakers, which speaks to the excitement and also the range of films that BAFTA celebrates for their excellence on their own merit.”
We will continue to update this story.
