Both ‘Nomadland – Survive in America’ and ‘Rocks’ have seven BAFTA nominations, but only Chloé Zhao’s film, which has received several awards in recent weeks, is in the Best Director and Best Picture categories.
‘Nomadland – Survive in America‘, Chloé Zhao’s third feature film, accompanies Fern (actress Frances McDormand), a woman who decides to abandon conventional life in the city, hit by an economic crisis, to be nomadic, in a van.
‘Rocks‘ is a drama about a teenager who lives on the street with her younger brother, after both have been abandoned by their mother.
Last year, the British academy was criticized for only nominating men for the Best Achievement category and for leaving out black actors and actresses in the acting awards, admitting at the time the apparently lacking diversity this year.
Bukky Bakray (‘Rocks’), Radha Blank (‘The Forty-Year-Old Version’), Vanessa Kirby (‘Pieces of a Woman’), Frances McDormand, Wunmi Mosaku (‘His House’) and Alfre Woodard (‘Clemecy’) are nominated for the BAFTA for best actress.
In the male category, they are named Riz Ahmed (‘Sound of Metal’), Chadwick Boseman (‘Ma Rainey: The mother of the blues’), Adarsh Gourav (‘The white tiger’), Anthony Hopkins (‘The Father’), Mads Mikkelsen (‘Another round’) and Tahar Rahim (‘The Mauritanian’).
BAFTA for Best Achievement – dominated by women – nominated Thomas Vinterberg (‘Another Round’), Shannon Murphy (‘Babyteeth’), Lee Isaac Chung (‘Minari’), Jasmila Zbanic (‘Quo Vadis, Aida?’) and the already mentioned Chloé Zhao and Sara Gavron.
For Best Picture were selected ‘The Father’, ‘The Mauritanian’, ‘Nomadland – Survive in America’, ‘Promising Young Woman – A girl with potential’, and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’.
The BAFTA for Best Non-English Language Film will be played between ‘Another Round’, ‘The Miserable’, ‘Minari’ and ‘Quo Vaids, Aida?‘, While the Best Animated Film will be between ‘Soul‘, ‘Onward’ and ‘Wolfwalkers‘.
This year, the BAFTA ceremony should have taken place in February, but it was pushed to April because of the covid-19, following the decision made by the Academy of Oscars, which postponed the delivery until late April.