Let’s wrap up the liveblog with Peter Bradshaw’s take on the flubs and snubs that make for an entertaining awards race. The Bafta film awards are taking place in London on Sunday 8 February. We’ll be here through the evening reporting on the winners and whiners. See you then!
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Video of the key nominees
Bit and bobs on the films leading the Bafta nominations:
- The Guardian Film Show team review The Grand Budapest Hotel
- Eddie Redmayne and Felicity Jones talk The Theory of Everything
- Benedict Cumberbatch and Keira Knightley on playing The Imitation Game
- Nightcrawler’s Jake Gyllenhaal on getting ahead in Hollywood
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The signs were there that The Grand Budapest Hotel might do well in today’s nominations. Released in the UK a full 10 months ago, it’s pulled in more than $100m (£66m) in international box office receipts to date, making it Wes Anderson’s highest-grossing film so far. A solid Metacritic score (88/100) shows its popularity with critics, while our own Peter Bradshaw called it a “deeply pleasurable immersion”. Let’s see if Oscar has a vacancy for it come February
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Selma, so far …
Catherine Shoard has just pointed out that Selma got absolutely nothing. That’s a damning verdict from the Brits, but doesn’t necessarily mean the Martin Luther King Jr biopic will be shut out of the Oscars. We reckon the Americans will take more kindly to it. Nightcrawler, on the other hand, might struggle to gather the nominations it’s got here come Oscar time. It’s scathing about LA, the media and the American Dream. The Academy’s favourite things … after Meryl Streep, of course.
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Twitter reaction
Let’s see what the wise folk on Twitter are saying about the list …
@ElyzabethSB got all physical over Grand Budapest Hotel’s haul …
@MarsRich expressed amazement at the Spall snub
While @TheCriticalReel wondered where the award season was wandering off to
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Here’s our first take news on this morning’s nominations. We’ll have Peter Bradshaw’s reaction to Bafta’s picks in a bit
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Random thoughts for the Bafta befuddled:
- Boyhood has lost a bit of lustre - Richard Linklater’s film - shot over 12 years - is an extraordinary achievement. You’d perhaps expect more than five nominations, even if they are in categories (actor - Ethan Hawke, actress - Patricia Arquette, director etc) that make sense.
- Nightcrawler has done well - Tony Gilroy’s sickly satire on the TV news industry has been left on snooze up to this point. It’s four nominations here (screenplay, editing, supporting actress (Rene Russo) and actor (Jake Gyllenhaal)) could give it a welcome boost going into the Oscars
- Mr Turner hasn’t - Mike Leigh’s Turner biopic has fallen on its bum a bit. It picked up four nominations in technical categories. Timothy Spall could feel rightfully aggrieved for not getting a best actor nod. Our reaction? Gnrgghhhh.
- Whiplash is upping the tempo - Damien Chazelle - a whipper-snapper at 29 - should be excited this morning. People have been banging the drum for JK Simmons’ best supporting actor chances for a while, but Chazelle’s nominations (for screenplay and directing) were unexpected.
- Under the Skin is under the radar - No suprises that our film of 2014 wasn’t nominated in the major categories. It’s too alien for most and struggles against competition that’s neater and nicer.
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The Grand Budapest Hotel leads with 11 nominations
Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel opens its doors to 11 nominations, including best film, director and original screenplay. Star Ralph Fiennes is also up for best actor.
The Theory of Everything and Birdman are chasing with 10 each. The Imitation Game is there with nine. Whiplash follows them with a plucky little five.
You can see a full list of the nominations here.
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Eyes down
Here we go then … 11 categories are getting an airing today. Fry and Claflin are on stage and we’re rolling …
A grab bag of thoughts: Rene Russo is up for best supporting actress in Nightcrawler, which is a pleasant surprise. Whiplash’s Damien Chazelle is deservedly up for director ... there’s The ’Batch in best actor with Redmayne and Keaton ... best actress field is as predicted – Moore heads the bunch ... best film: Birdman, Boyhood, Grand Budapest Hotel, Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything
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Predictions
So who and what’s getting nominated?
Boyhood’s the daddy and must be in with a best picture shout. We’d expect to see Birdman up there too, along with maybe Selma, The Imitation Game and The Theory of Everything?
Michael Keaton will probably lead the pack in the best actor category. Other potential gong-grabbers could be Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) and David Oyelowo (Selma). Perhaps Steve Carell for Foxcatcher and maybe even The ’Batch for The Imitation Game.
In a strangely weak year for female leads best actress will likely be dominated by Julianne Moore for Still Alice. Felicity Jones (Theory of Everything) and Reese Witherspoon (Wild) could be there, too. Rosamund Pike could join them for Gone Girl.
Finally – for now – best director. We’d called Iñárritu (Birdman), Linklater (Boyhood), DuVernay (Selma) and Fincher maybe (Gone Girl). Could Mike Leigh grab one for Mr Turner, too?
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Still a few minutes to go before it all kicks off. In the meantime ,let’s have look at this year’s Rising Star award nominees, the slobbering young pups who Bafta is hoping will mess all over the carpet for years to come. They are ... Jack O’Connell, skinny in Unbroken; Gugu Mbatha-Raw, classy in Belle; Shailene Woodley, feisty in Divergent; Miles Teller, thumpy in Whiplash and Margot Robbie, sexy in The Wolf of Wall Street. It’s not her fault she’s a woman in a Scorsese movie. Anyway! Good luck youngsters!
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Our hosts are Sam Claflin and Stephen Fry, who’ll be popping up to start the announcing from 7:37AM GMT. Sam was the bloke standing next the bloke you sort of recognised in The Hunger Games. Stephen Fry is famous. One of them is hosting the Bafta ceremony on 8 February.
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Good morning and welcome to the 2015 Bafta nominations liveblog. Liveblog enthusiasts will remember that the last time we did this we tried to type at the speed of speech and got ourselves in an awful tizzy. This time around we’ll be taking it slow: commenting on the highlights, noting the omissions and rounding up reaction from Twitter. We’ll link to a full list of nominees as and when we have one and follow that up with news stories, a gallery and the thoughts of our lead film critic, Peter Bradshaw. Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and take a look around once in a while, you could miss it.
