‘The Artist’ Leads The Field At The 2012 BAFTA Film Awards

This year’s BAFTA Film Awards nominations are out, and for once, the biggest film of the year appears to be French, and in black and white…and silent. The Artist is very well represented indeed, being up for awards in the big four categories – Best Film, Best Director, Best Actor AND Best Actress.

Other notable award magnets include Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, We Need To Talk About Kevin, and The Iron Lady, which can boast a Best Actress/Best Supporting Actor nominations double whammy.

And let’s not forget, where BAFTA goes, Oscar often follows. So here’s a rundown of the most notable awards categories (you can compare with EW.com’s own longlist of Academy Awards predictions), with a look at the likelihood that the winner will end up having to find shelf-space for a tall gold man next to the winkyface man.

Best Film

Of the past five winners of the Best Film Academy Award, three have also been BAFTA winners, the exceptions being The Queen in 2007 (the Oscar went to The Departed),  and Atonement in 2008 (beating No Country For Old Men). The nominees are:

The Artist
The Descendents
Drive
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Best Actor

Again, three out of the past five winners have been a direct match, Mickey Rourke’s astonishing work in The Wrester took BAFTA gold over the Academy-preferred Sean Penn in 2009, and Colin Firth getting his BAFTAs in early for A Single Man in 2010. He won both the following year for The King’s Speech. The BAFTA nominations are:

Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney – The Descendents
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame

Best Actress
Here we’re on even safer ground, with four of the past five winners being a direct match. The sole exception being Carey Mulligan, who won the BAFTA for her role in An Education, where Sandra Bullock won the Oscar for The Blind Side.

Bérénice Bejo – The Artist
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn
Tilda Swinton – We Need To Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis – The Help

Best Supporting Actor

And once again the two academies are in almost total accord, with Geoffrey Rush’s win last year for The King’s Speech being the sole exception over the past five years. Christian Bale won the Oscar for The Fighter.

Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Jim Broadbent – The Iron Lady
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Ides of March

Best Supporting Actress

Had Melissa Leo not won the Academy Award last year, and allowed Helena Bonham Carter to sweep in regally and swipe it for her performance as The Queen Mother in The King’s Speech, there would be a clean sweep of accord between our two nations. So close, and yet…

Carey Mulligan – Drive
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Judi Dench – My Week With Marilyn
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer – The Help

Best Director

Here, we’re on shakier ground again, with only three out of five shared winners. Last year, David Fincher won the BAFTA for The Social Network, whereas the Oscar went to Tom Hooper for The King’s Speech. And back in 2007, Paul Greengrass won the BAFTA while Martin Scorsese took the Academy Award.

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin

Elsewhere in the BAFTA nominations sheet, there are a couple of noteworthy categories that have no equal at the Oscars:

Outstanding British Film
My Week With Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Tinker Tailer Soldier Spy
We Need To Talk About Kevin

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director or Producer
Attack The Block – Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
Black Pond – Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)
Coriolanus – Ralph Fiennes (Director)
Submarine – Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)

Some critics have already noted that Olivia Colman has been cruelly snubbed for her astonishing performance in Tyrannosaur, either as Best Supporting Actress or even Best Actress. So if you want our tip for a future awards dead cert, it is her.

The full list of nominees is here.

The BAFTA Film Awards will air on BBC America, Sunday, February 12 at 8 pm ET, followed by the second Absolutely Fabulous special at 11 pm ET.