Baftas 2014: ‘Gravity’ leads the nomination pack

Live-streamed to the film-adoring world earlier this morning at bafta.org, the official nominations for the 2014 Baftas were revealed by rising British stars Luke Evans and Helen McCrory to an expectant online community. A surprise to some, Alfonso Cuarón’s space opera Gravity leads the pack with eleven nominations, earning nods for Best Picture, Best British Film, Best Director as well as a host of technical awards. Elsewhere, Oscar hopefuls 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle and Captain Phillips also garnered numerous nominations. The inimitable Stephen Fry returns once again as host for this year’s EE-sponsored Bafta ceremony, taking place at London’s Royal Opera House on Sunday 16 February.

Best Picture

12 Years a Slave (dir. Steve McQueen)
American Hustle (dir. David O. Russell)
Captain Phillips (dir. Paul Greengrass)
Gravity (dir. Alfonso Cuarón)
Philomena (dir. Stephen Frears)

Best British Film
Gravity
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
Philomena
Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
The Selfish Giant 

Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón (Gravity)
Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)
Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)
David O. Russell (American Hustle)
Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best Actor
Christian Bale (American Hustle)
Bruce Dern (Nebraska)
Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)
Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)
Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

Best Actress
Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)
Sandra Bullock (Gravity)
Judi Dench (Philomena)
Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks) 

Best Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)
Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)
Daniel Brühl (Rush)
Matt Damon (Behind the Candelabra)
Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

Best Supporting Actress
Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)
Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)
Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)
Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)
Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

Best Original Screenplay
American Hustle (Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell)
Blue Jasmine (Woody Allen)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
Nebraska (Bob Nelson)

Best Adapted Screenplay
12 Years a Slave (John Ridley)
Behind the Candelabra (Richard LaGravenese)
Captain Phillips (Billy Ray)
Philomena (Steve Coogan, Jeff Pope)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Terence Winter)

Best Foreign Language Film
The Act of Killing (dir. Joshua Oppenheimer)
Blue Is the Warmest Colour (dir. Abdellatif Kechiche)
The Great Beauty (dir. Paolo Sorrentino)
Metro Manila (dir. Sean Ellis)
Wadjda (dir. Haifaa al-Mansour)

Best Documentary
The Act of Killing
The Armstrong Lie (Alex Gibney)
Blackfish (Gabriela Cowperthwaite)
Tim’s Vermerr (Teller, Penn Jillette, Farley Ziegler)
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks (Alex Gibney)

Best Animation
Despicable Me 2 (Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin)
Frozen (Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee)
Monsters University (Dan Scanlon)

Best Cinematography
12 Years a Slave (Sean Bobbitt)
Captain Phillips (Barry Ackroyd)
Gravity (Emmanuel Lubezki)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Bruno Delbonnel)
Nebraska (Phedon Papamichael)

Best Editing
12 Years a Slave (Joe Walker)
Captain Phillips (Christopher Rouse)
Gravity (Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger Rush, Dan Hanley, Mike Hill)
The Wolf of Wall Street (Thelma Schoonmaker) 

Best Production Design
12 Years a Slave (Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker)
American Hustle (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler)
Behind the Candelabra (Howard Cummings)
Gravity (Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woodlard)
The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn)

Best Costume Design
American Hustle (Michael Wilkinson)
Behind the Candelabra (Ellen Mirojnick)
The Great Gatsby (Catherine Martin)
The Invisible Woman (Michael O’Connor)
Saving Mr. Banks (Daniel Orlandi)

Best Make Up and Hair
American Hustle (Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell)
Behind the Candelabra (Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin)
The Butler (Debra Denson, Beverly Jo Pryor)
The Great Gatsby (Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn)
The Desolation of Smaug (Peter Swords King) 

Best Sound
All Is Lost (Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur)
Captain Phillips (Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney)
Gravity (Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro)
Inside Llewyn Davis (Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff)
Rush (Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse)

Best Original Music
12 Years a Slave (Hans Zimmer)
The Book Thief (John Williams)
Captain Phillips (Henry Jackman)
Gravity (Steven Price)
Saving Mr. Banks (Thomas Newman)

Best Special Visual Effects
Gravity (Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny)
The Desolation of Smaug (Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds)
Iron Man 3 (Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick)
Pacific Rim (Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner)
Star Trek Into Darkness (Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett)

Best British Short Animation
Everything I Can See From Here (dir. Bjorn-Erik Aschim)
I Am Tom Moody (dir. Ainslie Henderson)
Sleeping with the Fishes (dir. James Walker)

Best British Short Film
Island Queen (dir. Ben Mallaby)
Keeping up with Joneses (dir. Megan Rubens)
Orbit Ever After (dir. Chee-Lan Chan)
Room 8 (dir. James W. Griffiths)
Sea View (dir. Anna Duffield) 

Outstanding Debut by a British Creative

Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson (writers, Good Vibrations)
Kelly Marcel (writer, Saving Mr. Banks)
Keiran Evans (director/writer, Kelly + Victor)
Paul Wright, Polly Stokes (director and producer, For Those in Peril)
Scott Graham (director/writer, Shell)

The EE Rising Star Award (voted for by public)
Dane DeHaan
George MacKay
Lupita Nyong’o
Will Poulter
Léa Seydoux

What do you think of the Bafta 2014 shortlist? Did they make the right choices? Are there any films you would have liked to have seen feature more heavily? Let us know using the comment box below.

Daniel Green