When the #Barbenheimer hashtag emerged last summer, encouraging filmgoers to watch two radically different blockbusters as a double bill, Christopher Nolan’s epic study of atom bomb pioneer J Robert Oppenheimer appeared almost as an afterthought to the frothy, comedic doll-centred Barbie, its seriousness and three-hour length weighing it down. The box office battle – Barbie’s $1.4bn worldwide revenue convincingly defeating Oppenheimer’s $959.9m – appeared conclusive. But as the awards season nears its climax, Oppenheimer looks set to eclipse Barbie at both the Oscars and the Baftas, with the stage set for a triumphant homecoming for Nolan at the Baftas in London on Sunday.
Despite his status as a major Hollywood auteur, with his films having earned over $6bn and critical hosannas by the bucket-load, Nolan is yet to win an Oscar or a Bafta. With 12 features under his belt as director, Nolan’s work has ranged from innovative thrillers such as Memento to superhero epics including Batman Begins and The Dark Knight, and sci-fi adventures such as Inception, Interstellar and Tenet. Oppenheimer continues Nolan’s interest in historical drama, after 2017’s Dunkirk. But despite five previous Oscar nominations and five Baftas, Nolan is yet to take home a single statuette.
This year could be different. Oppenheimer leads the nominations count at the Baftas with 13, and scored the same amount at the Oscars; the director also has personal nominations in three categories – best film, best director and best adapted screenplay – at both awards. While it isn’t possible to predict voter outcomes with certainty, it would count as a major shock if he did not walk away with at least the best director award from both organisations.
Charles Gant, awards editor of Screen International magazine, says that, despite Nolan not winning for the previously nominated Inception or Dunkirk, he would be loth to suggest Bafta, Nolan’s home academy, is somehow biased against this extremely successful film-maker. “It’s easy to see it as some kind of tall-poppy syndrome in effect, but I don’t think it’s that. Inception is a sci-fi action blockbuster, and not typically the kind of film Bafta clutches to its heart. Dunkirk lost to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in best film, and The Shape of Water’s Guillermo Del Toro in director. I’m not seeing an anti-Nolan prejudice here. The votes just went that way.”
Gant, who is a Bafta voter, agrees that Oppenheimer could see a change in Nolan’s fortunes. “In a competitive year, Oppenheimer seems to be cutting through. It is a highly achieved biographical drama that took a very serious subject and created a global box office blockbuster, despite challenges including a very lengthy run time, and a preponderance of scenes featuring a bunch of men talking in rooms. Although Oppenheimer isn’t necessarily my personal choice to win the big categories, I respect that achievement. They made the film seem like an event. I don’t see a rival delivering a knockout blow.”
Nolan’s triumphal tour would appear to have already begun, with two Golden Globes and the Directors Guild of America award under his belt already this year, and the award of the prestigious BFI Fellowship “in recognition of outstanding contribution to film or television culture” at an event attended by the prime minister on Wednesday. And while nearly all of Nolan’s films have been made in and funded by the US studio system, Oppenheimer’s dominance at this year’s Bafta ceremony throws into sharp relief Bafta’s vital balancing act between acknowledging Hollywood’s dominance in English-language film-making, and making room for homegrown British productions. Gant says now “we expect” to see British acting talent performing strongly: Bafta this year sees Carey Mulligan (Maestro), Vivian Oparah (Rye Lane) and Claire Foy (All of Us Strangers) up for nods, while the Irish contingent includes Cillian Murphy (Oppenheimer), Barry Keoghan (Saltburn) and Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers). “Bafta has always stated that the awards elevate British talent by judging them on a platform alongside the best from all over the world,” says Gant. “Although in practice that principally means the best from North America. I think Bafta is successfully walking the line it has chosen to walk.”
However, there has been considerable disquiet over the omission of Andrew Scott, the Irish star of All of Us Strangers, from the best leading actor category, with Bafta’s jury system coming in for criticism. The new nomination system, in which specially-convened juries pick half of the nominees in high profile categories, was intended by Bafta to increase the diversity of its awards, but in this case Scott, a high-profile gay actor, appears to have lost out despite two of his co-stars receiving supporting performer nominations.
Gant, who has served as a Bafta jury member in the past, defends the system, saying its expansion “was a necessary correction after the 2020 #BaftaSoWhite year, and I think the pros outweigh the cons”. But like many others he is baffled by Scott’s omisson. “It is a bizarre outcome. Bafta juries always proceed with great care and diligence, but in this case the jurors collectively delivered a decision that is hard to comprehend.”
The Bafta film awards take place on Sunday 18 February at the Royal Festival Hall in London.
