While BAFTA voters largely rejected big Hollywood studio films this year, Variety has reported that the nominees did not skew “quite as rogue” as in recent years since the organization changed its voting system. Among changes in voting which resulted, in the last two years, with at least 50% of nominees in the Director category being female, the same results could not be found this year– with just one out of six nominations featuring a female director (Gina Prince-Bythewood for The Woman King) from an initially gender-equal longlist.

This did not keep arthouse films like Todd Field’s Tár from joining the group, with five nominations for Best Film, while foreign-language film All Quiet on the Western Front made an unpredicted sweep with 14 nominations for Best Film. The surprise Netflix underdog received the most BAFTA nominations since 2011’s The King’s Speech. While typical Hollywood nods Top Gun: Maverick and The Fabelmans did not make the BAFTA Best Film category this year, Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic reportedly made the list as the only traditional Hollywood studio film. With nine nominations, the film joined The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All at Once (both sporting ten nominations each) as the more offbeat major successes that have been sweeping up on the recent awards circuit.

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Not As Much Competition

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In total, directors from four films in the Best Film category are expected to compete in the Director category for the final prize: Edward Berger (All Quiet on the Western Front), Todd Field (Tár), Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (Everything Everywhere), and Martin McDonagh (The Banshees of Inisherin). Director nominees Gina Prince-Bythewood (The Woman King) and Park Chan-wook (Decision to Leave) are not expected to displace them.

While new jury-assisted voting in the Director category resulted in a larger gender balance in previous years, changes to wider membership voting in the Best British Film category are predicted to make it more difficult for successful indie flicks to upset more dominant films being represented. As a result, British Independent Film Award winner Aftersun is not suspected to be able to compete with Best Film nominee The Banshees of Inisherin. Regardless, it joins eight other nominees in the category, including Brian and Charles, Empire of Light, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Living, Matilda the Musical, See How They Run, The Swimmers, and The Wonder. While critic Guy Lodge did not see this category as much of a competition, it remains until the BAFTA Awards on Feb. 19 to be seen.

The complete list of 2023 BAFTA categories and nominees is available here.