Bafta nominations 2019: Six talking points as A Star is Born and Roma vie for best film and Bohemian Rhapsody loses out

The British Academy of Film Awards have celebrated both homegrown and international talent this year, with surprise nomination for Poland's 'Cold War'

BAFTAs 2018 Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri wins multiple awards

The road to the Academy Awards makes its second major pit stop, after last weekend’s Golden Globes, at the British Academy Film Awards. While the Globes’s division between genres – Drama and Comedy/Musical – make it less of a sturdy indicator of what’s to expect from the Oscars, the Baftas tend to be a better indicator of what to expect.

This year, the race has come down to Bradley Cooper's A Star is Born and Alfonso Cuarón's Roma, although UK production The Favourite is in the lead with 12 nominations, thanks to its boost in both the acting and technical categories.

Here are the five biggest talking points from this year's Bafta nominations. The ceremony will take place on 10 February at the Royal Albert Hall, hosted for a second time by Joanna Lumley.

Bohemian Rhapsody loses out Best Film nomination

It appears the Queen biopic’s surprise win at the Golden Globes was something of a fluke. Although Rami Malek is still nominated in the Best Actor category for his portrayal of frontman Freddie Mercury, the film itself lost out on the top prize, with the category instead being populated by BlacKkKlansman, The Favourite, Green Book, Roma, and A Star Is Born.

The revelation has essentially reconfirmed that the Best Picture is prize is a two-horse race between Roma and A Star is Born. The latter’s lack of wins on Globes night – outside of the inevitable Best Song prize for “Shallow” – suggests Alfonso Cuarón’s Mexico-set drama has the edge, but the Baftas will be key in solidifying the real odds for Oscar night.

The Baftas make up for its past omissions

Back in 2012, the howling omission of Olivia Colman from the Baftas’ Best Actress category, for her beautiful, devastating performance in Paddy Considine’s Tyrannosaur, made headlines. Her Peep Show co-star David Mitchell even called the decision “ridiculous”. When Meryl Streep went on to win for her role as Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady, in which Colman also appeared as Thatcher’s daughter Carol, she took to the podium and dubbed her co-star “divinely gifted”.

Clearly, she knew then what the Baftas have only now cottoned onto – that Colman was destined for greatness. Thank goodness they’ve not made the same mistake twice; Colman is nominated, and will most likely win, for her role as Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’s The Favourite.

Female directors (once again) lose out

As was the case with the Golden Globes, and as will no doubt be the case when the Oscar nominations are announced, there is not a sole woman on this year’s Best Director list. Where is Debra Granik’s nomination for Leave No Trace, her powerful, understated follow-up to Winter’s Bone? What about Marielle Heller, whose film, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, got an Adapted Screenplay nod, and earned Richard E Grant a Supporting Actor nomination.

Perhaps the most disappointing omission, though, is You Were Never Really Here director Lynne Ramsey. Given that the Baftas are usually champions of homegrown talent, it seems they’ve missed an open goal by failing to give the Scottish filmmaker her due recognition.

Cold War gives the Baftas an international flair

One of the less expected films to be honoured with several nominations here is Paweł Pawlikowski’s Cold War, a passionate love story set in the ruins of post-war Poland, as a man and a woman from vastly different backgrounds – separated by both politics and the machinations of fate – cross paths. The film earned a nomination for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, Best Cinematography, and Best Film Not in the English Language.

Pawlikowski won the award for Best Director at last year’s Cannes Film Festival and has been selected as Poland’s entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the Academy Awards. Whether it will earn nominations in any other categories at the Oscars is hard to guess.

Given that this year, Brits dominated even at the Golden Globes, it would have been unforgivable for the Baftas to fail to recognise homegrown talent. The Favourite’s Rachel Weisz and First Man’s Claire Foy have earned Supporting Actress nominations, and of course The Favourite’s Olivia Colman has been nominated for Best Actress.

As many surprised Golden Globes viewers were reminded earlier this week, Vice’s Christian Bale – nominated for Best Actor – is also, in fact, British, while this year’s obligatory idiosyncratic curveball is Steve Coogan’s nomination for Stan & Ollie. The fact that there’s an Outstanding British Film category, meanwhile, means that brilliant films like Beast and You Were Never Really Here, which might otherwise have been ignored, get to share a little of the spotlight too.

An Oscar favourite is snubbed

One of the more curious omissions from this year’s nominations is Barry Jenkins’s If Beale Street Could Talk, although it’s been recognised in both the categories for Original Music and Adapted Screenplay. The James Baldwin adaptation hasn’t quite picked up the same level of buzz as Jenkins’s previous film, Moonlight, although Regina King has so far been the favourite to win the Academy Award for Supporting Actress, so it’s unusual to see her not even make the nominations when it comes to the Baftas.

Amy Adams, Claire Foy, Emma Stone, and Rachel Weisz have all been nominated as expected, King’s place in the category has apparently been taken by Margot Robbie for her performance as Queen Elizabeth I in Mary Queen of Scots – presumably a case of a little preferential bias for a Brit production.

You can read the full nominations below.

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[9 January 2019 06:43 · clarisse.loughrey]

Hello and welcome to The Independent's live coverage of the 2019 Bafta nominations. 

[9 January 2019 07:00 · clarisse.loughrey]

Here's everything you need to know about the ceremony ahead of the nominations being announced

[9 January 2019 07:10 · clarisse.loughrey]

The nominations for the EE Rising Star Award have already been announced. You can see who's in the running here

[9 January 2019 07:15 · clarisse.loughrey]

Joanna Lumley will return to host the Baftas a second time

[9 January 2019 07:25 · clarisse.loughrey]

Black Mirror: Bandersnatch's Will Poulter and and I, Daniel Blake's Hayley Squires will reveal the nominations from the Baftas headquarters near Piccadilly Circus in London. 

[9 January 2019 07:44 · clarisse.loughrey]

Best Film

BlacKkKlansman

The Favourite

Green Book

Roma

A Star Is Born