Western front line – Newspaper Kommersant No. 10 (7455) dated 01/20/2023

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the nominees for its Film Awards. The leader among them was the first German adaptation of Remarque’s novel All Quiet on the Western Front, staged by Edward Berger. It is nominated for 14 awards, including Best Picture. Second place was shared by Martin McDonagh’s The Banshee of Inisherin and Dan Kwan’s and Daniel Scheinert’s postmodern exercise Everything Everywhere, with ten nominations for each film. comments Yulia Shagelman.

Success “All Quiet on the Western Front” making it the second most nominated foreign language film in BAFTA history. The previous record holder was Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in 2001, also nominated in 14 categories. Of these, the picture won four, including Best Foreign Language Film and Best Director, but lost the top prize to Ridley Scott’s Gladiator.

But if British film academies name Edward Berger’s massive epic, which realistically demonstrates the horrors of war for two and a half hours, the best film of the year, it will be quite in the spirit of the BAFTA – foreign films have repeatedly received this award.

The tradition began with Vittorio de Sica’s Bicycle Thieves in 1949 and includes Grigory Chukhrai’s Ballad of a Soldier in 1961, which shared the award with Robert Rossen’s Billiard Player.

In addition to the main award “All Quiet on the Western Front” nominated in the nomination “Best Foreign Language Film”as well as “Best Adapted Screenplay” (Edward Berger, Leslie Paterson, Ian Stockell) “The best work of the operator” (James Friend) “Best Film Music” (Volker Bertelman) and in almost all “technical” categories, from costumes to sound and special effects. In addition, Edward Berger is nominated as best directorand Albrecht Schuch, who played Stanislav “Kat” Katchinsky, as best supporting actor.

To win in the category “Best movie” also claim the “Banshees of Inisherin”, “Everything is everywhere and at once”biopic “Elvis” Baz Luhrmann, which comes in third place with nine nominations, and Todd Field’s Tar, an uncompromising drama about a female conductor nominated by a total score in five categories. Martin McDonagh, the directors of “Everything is everywhere at once”, which are usually called simply Daniels, and Todd Field will compete with a German colleague in director’s nominationwhich also includes Park Chan-wook (“The Decision to Leave”) and Gina Prince-Bythewood (“Warrior Queen”). Thus, there is only one woman in this category, despite the fact that when changing its rules two years ago, BAFTA specifically emphasized that it hoped to increase the chances of a nomination for female directors. But the category “Best Debut by a British Screenwriter, Director or Producer” came out entirely female: Charlotte Wells’ Sunshine Is Mine, Georgia Oakley’s Blue Jeans, Marie Liden’s Electrical Illness, Maya Kenworthy’s Riot, and Love on Call, written by debutante Cathy Brand, are put forward in it.

In the acting categories, following the BAFTA tradition following the change in voting order, the majority of nominees are first-time nominees – 14 out of 24, although the percentage of “newcomers” has decreased compared to the previous two years.

At the same time, all award season frontrunners were included: Austin Butler (Elvis), Colin Farrell (Banshee Inisherina) and Brandon Fraser (Kit) in the Best Actor nomination, Cate Blanchett (Tar) and Michelle Yeoh (Everything Everywhere, All At Once) for Best Actress, Angela Bassett (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) and Ke Huy Kuan (Everything Everywhere, All At Once), nominated for Best Supporting Actress and Actor respectively. However, there were some surprises – these include nominations for Emma Thompson and Daryl McCormack (“Best Actress” and “Best Actor”, respectively), who played in “Love on Call”, which remained almost unnoticed by other awards. In addition to those mentioned in the category “Best Actor” Nominated by Paul Mescal (“My Sunshine”) and Bill Nighy (“To Live”), and “Best Actress” by Viola Davis (“Warrior Queen”), Danielle Dedwyler (“Till”) and Ana de Armas (“Blonde”) .

Among those whom BAFTA chose not to notice is Steven Spielberg and his Fabelmans: the film received only one nomination for the original screenplay, co-written by Spielberg and Tony Kushner. Also, the British completely ignored the Indian anti-colonial saga with songs and dances “RRR: Revolution Roars Nearby”, noted at the Golden Globe and close to Oscar nominations – either historical trauma is to blame, or all the same new voting rules. Last year’s box office hits Top Gun: Maverick and Avatar remained in the “technical” corral, and even there the first was nominated in only four categories, and the second in two. It is unlikely that this will greatly affect the chances of all these films at the Oscars (American film academics are now voting and announcing their nominations on January 24), but it is already noticeable how every year the two film awards are increasingly moving away from each other, which makes BAFTA much less predictable than before. Perhaps we will be surprised by the final awards, which will be presented in London on February 19th.