The BAFTA nominations are in.
The good news: A female-centric film, "Carol," is tied for most nominations (with "Bridge of Spies"). The romance about a floundering shop girl (Rooney Mara) and a confident older woman (Cate Blanchett) received nine nominations. Several films with female protagonists scored an impressive number of noms ("Mad Max: Fury Road," seven; "Brooklyn," six; "The Danish Girl," five; "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," four.)
The bad news: It’s unlikely we’ll see any women directors accepting awards at the February 14 ceremony. You see, in order for their name to be called, they’d have to be on the ballot. And, unfortunately, none of the directors duking it out in the Director category are female. Exactly zero of the films competing for Best Film are directed or co-directed by women, as is the case for the nominees for Outstanding British Film, Film Not In the English Language and Animated Film.
Perhaps most disappointing of all is the fact that "Suffragette" was completely snubbed. Sarah Gavron’s drama, which depicts the violent, tumultuous fight for women’s right to vote in the U.K., received no warmer warmer reception in its home country’s award circuit than it did here in the U.S. This well-made story about a critical, landmark moment in British — nay, world — history has received too little recognition.
Two woman, however, are nominated in the Outstanding Debut By a British Writer, Director or Producer category: Debbie Tucker Green for writing and directing "Second Coming," which follows a family in London dealing with a mysterious pregnancy, and Elhum Shakerifar for producing "A Syrian Love Story," a documentary about a couple who meet in Syrian prison and later flee the country.
Jennifer Peedom’s "Sherpa" is among the nominees for Documentary. "Sherpa" depicts an Everest trek from the Sherpa’s point of view. In an interview with Women and Hollywood, Peedom told us that she worked over a decade as a director and a camera operator in the Himalayas, including three expeditions with the Sherpa team the doc focuses on. The film also explores how the Sherpa community recovered in the wake of great tragedy — the worst disaster in the history of Everest, which resulted in the deaths of 16 Sherpas.
Both Phyllis Nagy ("Carol") and Emma Donoghue ("Room") made the cut for the Adapted Screenplay category. Meg LeFauve is the sole woman up for the Original Screenplay award for co-writing "Inside Out."
Alicia Vikander scored double nominations (Leading Actress for "The Danish Girl" and Supporting Actress for "Ex Machina"), as did costume designer Sandy Powell ("Carol" and "Cinderella").
We were pleased to see female nominees in two fields that women are especially underrepresented in: Editing and Special Visual Effects. Margaret Sixel is among the contenders in the former category for "Mad Max: Fury Road," and Sara Bennett in the latter for "Ex Machina."
Check out the complete list of nominees below, courtesy of a press release. We’ve adapted the list by identifying the women nominees in bold.
BEST FILM
THE BIG SHORT Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt
BRIDGE OF SPIES Kristie Macosko Krieger, Marc Platt, Steven Spielberg
CAROL Elizabeth Karlsen, Christine Vachon, Stephen Woolley
THE REVENANT Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Arnon Milchan, Mary
Parent, Keith Redmon
SPOTLIGHT Steve Golin, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, Michael Sugar
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
45 YEARS Andrew Haigh, Tristan Goligher
AMY Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees
BROOKLYN John Crowley, Finola Dwyer, Amanda Posey, Nick Hornby
THE DANISH GIRL Tom Hooper, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Anne Harrison,
Gail Mutrux, Lucinda Coxon
EX MACHINA Alex Garland, Andrew Macdonald, Allon Reich
THE LOBSTER Yorgos Lanthimos, Ceci Dempsey, Ed Guiney, Lee Magiday,
Efthimis Filippou
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR
PRODUCER
ALEX GARLAND (Director) Ex Machina
DEBBIE TUCKER GREEN (Writer/Director) Second
Coming
NAJI ABU NOWAR (Writer/Director) RUPERT LLOYD (Producer) Theeb
SEAN MCALLISTER (Director/Producer), ELHUM SHAKERIFAR (Producer) A
Syrian Love Story
STEPHEN FINGLETON (Writer/Director) The Survivalist
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE ASSASSIN Hou Hsiao-Hsien
FORCE MAJEURE Ruben Östlund
THEEB Naji Abu Nowar, Rupert Lloyd
TIMBUKTU Abderrahmane Sissako
WILD TALES Damián Szifron
DOCUMENTARY
AMY Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees
CARTEL LAND Matthew Heineman, Tom Yellin
HE NAMED ME MALALA Davis Guggenheim, Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald
LISTEN TO ME MARLON Stevan Riley, John Battsek, George Chignell, R.J.
Cutler
SHERPA Jennifer Peedom,
Bridget Ikin, John Smithson
ANIMATED FILM
INSIDE OUT Pete Docter
MINIONS Pierre Coffin, Kyle Balda
SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE Mark Burton, Richard Starzak
DIRECTOR
THE BIG SHORT Adam McKay
BRIDGE OF SPIES Steven Spielberg
CAROL Todd Haynes
THE MARTIAN Ridley Scott
THE REVENANT Alejandro G. Iñárritu
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BRIDGE OF SPIES Matthew Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
EX MACHINA Alex Garland
THE HATEFUL EIGHT Quentin Tarantino
INSIDE OUT Josh Cooley,
Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve
SPOTLIGHT Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE BIG SHORT Adam McKay, Charles Randolph
BROOKLYN Nick Hornby
CAROL Phyllis Nagy
ROOM Emma Donoghue
STEVE JOBS Aaron Sorkin
LEADING ACTRESS
ALICIA VIKANDER The Danish Girl
BRIE LARSON Room
CATE BLANCHETT Carol
MAGGIE SMITH The Lady in the Van
SAOIRSE RONAN Brooklyn
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
ALICIA VIKANDER Ex Machina
JENNIFER JASON LEIGH The Hateful Eight
JULIE WALTERS Brooklyn
KATE WINSLET Steve Jobs
ROONEY MARA Carol
ORIGINAL MUSIC
BRIDGE OF SPIES Thomas Newman
THE HATEFUL EIGHT Ennio Morricone
THE REVENANT Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai
SICARIO Jóhann Jóhannsson
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS John Williams
CINEMATOGRAPHY
BRIDGE OF SPIES Janusz Kamiński
CAROL Ed Lachman
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD John Seale
THE REVENANT Emmanuel Lubezki
SICARIO Roger Deakins
EDITING
THE BIG SHORT Hank Corwin
BRIDGE OF SPIES Michael Kahn
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Margaret
Sixel
THE MARTIAN Pietro Scalia
THE REVENANT Stephen Mirrione
PRODUCTION DESIGN
BRIDGE OF SPIES Adam
Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo
CAROL Judy Becker, Heather
Loeffler
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Colin
Gibson, Lisa Thompson
THE MARTIAN Arthur Max, Celia Bobak
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Rick Carter, Darren Gilford, Lee Sandales
COSTUME DESIGN
BROOKLYN Odile Dicks-Mireaux
CAROL Sandy Powell
CINDERELLA Sandy Powell
THE DANISH GIRL Paco Delgado
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Jenny Beavan
MAKE UP & HAIR
BROOKLYN Morna Ferguson,
Lorraine Glynn
CAROL Jerry DeCarlo, Patricia
Regan
THE DANISH GIRL Jan Sewell
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Lesley
Vanderwalt, Damian Martin
THE REVENANT Sian Grigg,
Duncan Jarman, Robert Pandini
SOUND
BRIDGE OF SPIES Drew Kunin, Richard Hymns, Andy Nelson, Gary
Rydstrom
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Scott Hecker, Chris Jenkins, Mark Mangini, Ben Osmo,
Gregg Rudloff, David White
THE MARTIAN Paul Massey, Mac Ruth, Oliver Tarney, Mark Taylor
THE REVENANT Lon Bender, Chris Duesterdiek, Martin Hernandez, Frank
A. Montaño, Jon Taylor, Randy Thom
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher
Scarabosio, Matthew Wood, Stuart Wilson
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
ANT-MAN Jake Morrison, Greg Steele, Dan Sudick, Alex Wuttke
EX MACHINA Mark
Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul
Norris, Andrew Whitehurst
MAD MAX: FURY ROAD Andrew Jackson, Dan Oliver, Tom Wood, Andy
Williams
THE MARTIAN Chris Lawrence, Tim Ledbury, Richard Stammers, Steven
Warner
STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett, Paul
Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
EDMOND Nina Gantz, Emilie
Jouffroy
MANOMAN Simon
Cartwright, Kamilla Kristiane Hodol
PROLOGUE Richard Williams, Imogen Sutton
BRITISH SHORT FILM
ELEPHANT Nick Helm, Alex
Moody, Esther Smith
MINING POEMS OR ODES Callum Rice, Jack Cocker
OPERATOR Caroline Bartleet,
Rebecca Morgan
OVER Jörn Threlfall, Jeremy Bannister
SAMUEL-613 Billy Lumby, Cheyenne Conway
THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
BEL POWLEY
BRIE LARSON
DAKOTA JOHNSON
JOHN BOYEGA
TARON EGERTON