BAFTA Film Awards: Will lead nominee 'Oppenheimer' be the big winner?

[February 16, 2024]  By Marie-Louise Gumuchian

LONDON (Reuters) - Historical drama "Oppenheimer" leads nominations for the BAFTA Film Awards in London this weekend, but will the movie about the making of the atomic bomb during World War Two, which has already picked up prizes elsewhere, be the winner on the night?

Directed by Briton Christopher Nolan, "Oppenheimer", one of last year's highest-earning movies, has 13 nods at Britain's top movie honours, followed by sex-charged gothic comedy "Poor Things" starring Emma Stone, with 11.

"The Zone of Interest", about a family living next to Auschwitz, has nine nominations, and like "Poor Things", it is in the running for outstanding British film.

“Because it is the BAFTAs, you do get this local love. So you might see a bit more wins for 'The Zone Of Interest'," Digital Spy movies editor Ian Sandwell told Reuters.

"...But I just feel 'Oppenheimer' is so strong in all the categories that it's going to end up with most of the wins.”

"Oppenheimer" dominated the Golden Globes with five wins and leads nominations for next month's Academy Awards.

At the BAFTAs, it will compete for best film alongside "Poor Things", "Killers of the Flower Moon", about the murders of members of the Osage Nation in the 1920s, courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Fall" and "The Holdovers", a comedy set in a boys' boarding school.

“I think 'Oppenheimer' certainly for best film," Tim Richards, founder and CEO of cinema operator Vue International, told Reuters.

"Chris Nolan is...a Brit and...with the BAFTAs, he's certainly one of the most highly respected and much loved directors in the business and I think he's got to be in there for best director as well."

Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Cillian Murphy, Emily Blunt, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh and Matt Damon attend a photo call for "Oppenheimer" in London, Britain, July 12, 2023. REUTERS/Maja Smiejkowska/File Photo

Based on the 2005 biography "American Prometheus" by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin, "Oppenheimer" features Cillian Murphy as the American theoretical physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Murphy and Stone currently lead betting odds to win the leading acting categories. Da'Vine Joy Randolph has already picked up several awards for her supporting actress role in "The Holdovers" and is widely expected to win again at the BAFTAs. But will Murphy's "Oppenheimer" cast mate and fellow Golden Globe winner Robert Downey Jr. also triumph for supporting actor?

“I think (supporting actor) is the one where it's most likely we'll get a bit of a surprise, and I think it'll be Paul Mescal (for 'All of Us Strangers')," Sandwell said.

"Barbie", the highest grossing film of 2023, has five nominations overall, but the omission of Greta Gerwig from the director category raised some eyebrows.

“'Barbie' was...the clear one that seems to have been passed over both by the Academy (Awards) and by BAFTA members and it's a mystery why," Richards said.

The BAFTAs will be held on Sunday at London's Royal Festival Hall.

(Reporting by Marie-Louise Gumuchian; editing by Jonathan Oatis)

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