Dune, The Power of the Dog lead race for BAFTA movie awards

Sci-fi epic Dune and darkish western The Power of the Dog lead the race because the British Academy Film Awards return on Monday with a reside, black-tie ceremony after a pandemic-curtailed occasion in 2021.

Acting nominees Benedict Cumberbatch and Lady Gaga are among the many stars anticipated on the purple carpet at London’s Royal Albert Hall earlier than a ceremony hosted by Rebel Wilson. Last 12 months’s occasion was largely carried out on-line, with solely the hosts and presenters showing in individual.

Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, starring Timothee Chalamet and Zendaya, has 11 nominations together with finest movie, cinematography and authentic rating. Jane Campion’s The Power of the Dog, set in Twenties Montana and starring Cumberbatch as a ranch proprietor, has eight nods together with finest director and finest movie.

If Campion takes the directing trophy, she will likely be solely the third feminine winner in that class, however the second in two years after Chloe Zhao took residence the award for Nomadland in 2021.

Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast, the story of a childhood overshadowed by Northern Ireland’s violent Troubles, has six nominations together with finest movie. Daniel Craig’s ultimate James Bond thriller No Time to Die, Steven Spielberg’s musical West Side Story and Paul Thomas Anderson’s coming-of-age drama Licorice Pizza have 5 nominations every.

Best-picture nominees are Dune, The Power of the Dog, Belfast, Licorice Pizza and catastrophe comedy Don’t Look Up.

The separate class of finest British movie contains After Love, Ali & Ava, Belfast, Boiling Point, Cyrano, Everybody’s Talking About Jamie, House of Gucci, Last Night in Soho, No Time to Die and Passing.

The contenders for finest actor are Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog, Adeel Akhtar for Ali & Ava, Mahershala Ali for Swan Song, Stephen Graham for Boiling Point, Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up and Will Smith for King Richard.

Leading actress nominees are Lady Gaga for House of Gucci, Alana Haim for Licorice Pizza, Emilia Jones for Coda, Renate Reinsve for The Worst Person in The World, Joanna Scanlan for After Love and Tessa Thompson for Passing. The class is probably the most unpredictable, with acclaimed performances by Kristen Stewart in Princess Diana biopic Spencer and Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter ignored for nomination.

The British movie academy has expanded its voting membership and shaken up its guidelines in recent times in an try to handle a obvious lack of range within the nominations. In 2020, no ladies had been nominated as finest director for a seventh consecutive 12 months, and all 20 nominees within the lead and supporting performer classes had been white.

Awards organisers say they’re dedicated to supporting new expertise, and this 12 months all of the performers within the supporting actor class are first-time nominees. They embody Woody Norman for C’mon C’mon — at 11 years outdated the youngest nominee of the 12 months — and Ariana DeBose, who performs Anita in West Side Story.

The British awards, often called the BAFTAs, are often held per week or two earlier than the Academy Awards and have turn out to be an essential awards-season staging publish. This 12 months’s Oscars happen on March 27.