BAFTA Awards Set the Stage for Hollywood's Oscars: "Poor Things" vs. "Oppenheimer" Showdown

Get ready for the Poppenheimer.

The front-runners for the British Academy Film Awards are "Poor Things" and "Oppenheimer." The ceremony will take place on Sunday in front of a crowd that includes movie stars, producers, and the heir apparent to the British monarchy.


The gothic fantasy film by Yorgos Lanthimos is nominated for eleven awards, while Christopher Nolan's atom-bomb epic is up for thirteen British accolades, or BAFTAs. "Oppenheimer" has the same number as the Oscars, where it is the current front-runner.

The presentation, which takes place at London's Royal Festival Hall on March 10, is expected to be a glamorous, British-inspired taster for Hollywood's Academy Awards. It will be widely followed for clues about potential winners.

Presenters Andrew Scott, Cate Blanchett, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Idris Elba will be joining nominees Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Rosamund Pike, Ryan Gosling, and Ayo Edebiri on the red carpet along the River Thames.

In his capacity as the president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Prince William will be the honored guest. His wife Kate, who had stomach surgery last month, won't be with him.

The presenter of the program will be David Tennant, the star of "Doctor Who," with a hint of self-deprecation.

When asked about the infamously problematic duty of hosting an awards presentation, Tennant said, "People keep telling me I should be terribly nervous." However, I'm not really deserving of the honor. I just have to distribute them.

Both the Holocaust drama "The Zone of Interest" and the historical epic "Killers of the Flower Moon" received nine nominations each for the awards, which are formally known as the EE BAFTA Film Awards.

The boarding school comedy "The Holdovers," the French courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Fall," and the Leonard Bernstein biographical "Maestro" each received seven nominations, while the class-war dramedy "Saltburn" and the grief-tinged love tale "All of Us Strangers" have six and five nominations, respectively.

"Barbie," which is half of the successful 2023 box office duo "Barbenheimer," is nominated for five more awards, but she did not get nominations for best picture or best director. Many consider the exclusion of Greta Gerwig, the filmmaker of "Barbie," from the Oscar and BAFTA categories to be a big blow.

In 2020, when all 20 candidates in the lead and supporting performance categories were white and no woman was nominated for best director for the eighth consecutive year, the British film academy made adjustments to broaden the awards' diversity.

Among the six nominations for best director, Justine Triet of "Anatomy of a Fall" is the only female. Celine Song for "Past Lives" and Emerald Fennell for "Saltburn" were both left off the list.

Oppenheimer is forth against "Poor Things," "Killers of the Flower Moon," "Anatomy of a Fall," and "The Holdovers" in the competition for best picture.

"Poor Things" is also included in the 10-strong list for the best British film category, which is rather broad and includes films such as the class-war dramedy "Saltburn," the imperial epic "Napoleon," the south London romantic comedy "Rye Lane," and the origin tale of the chocolate maker "Wonka."

With Fantasia Barrino for "The Color Purple" and Vivian Oparah for "Rye Lane" nominated with Sandra Hüller for "Anatomy of a Fall," Mulligan for "Maestro," Margot Robbie for "Barbie," and Emma Stone for "Poor Things," a woman of color might win best actress BAFTA for the first time.

In the best-actor category, Ireland is represented by Cillian Murphy for "Oppenheimer" and Barry Keoghan for "Saltburn," while no British performers are nominated. Cooper for "Maestro," Colman Domingo for "Rustin," Paul Giamatti for "The Holdovers," and Teo Yoo for "Past Lives" are their opponents.

The Associated Press and PBS's "Frontline" created the gripping war documentary "20 Days in Mariupol," which is nominated for best documentary and best picture not in English.

Hannah Waddingham, star of "Ted Lasso," and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who sang her 2001 hit song "Murder on the Dancefloor," which rocketed back up the charts after appearing in "Saltburn," are scheduled to perform musical selections during the event.

The June Givanni PanAfrican Cinema Archive founder and film curator Samantha Morton will receive the highest distinction from the academy, the BAFTA Fellowship, for her remarkable contribution to British cinema.

The event on Sunday will be shown in the UK on BBC One at 1900 GMT, and in the US, Canada, Australia, and South Africa on the streaming service BritBox.

Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by Press Time staff and has been published from a syndicated feed.