The New Year heralds the start of another red carpet award season and the nominees for this year’s BAFTAs have just been announced. Contenders include a marmalade guzzling bear, a couple of pioneering scientists and a hotel farce to rival Fawlty Towers.
Two of the most talked about (and easy on the eye) actors of the moment, Benedict Cumberbach and Eddie Redmayne battle it out in the best actor category, each for their portrayal of a ground-breaking scientist – Cumberbach as Alan Turing, the Enigma code-breaker in The Imitation Game, and Redmaybe as Professor Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything (a role he’s already scooped an award for at Sunday’s Golden Globes). Redmayne’s co-star, the excellent Felicity Jones, is nominated in the best actress category for her role as Hawking’s first wife Jane Wilde in the film.
The Hawking biopic leads the way in the nominations alongside Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel, a farce set in a European hotel starring Ralph Fiennes who’s up for best actor. Superhero drama Birdman and The Imitation Game are also hotly tipped.
Otherwise it’s a refreshingly open field with a diverse range of films represented in the nominations – serious drams sitting alongside comedy, sci-fi thrillers and animation.
Former Bond Girl Rosamund Pike is nominated in the best actress category for her acclaimed role as bunny-boiler Amy in Gone Girl, up against award regulars Reese Witherspoon, Julianne Moore and Amy Adams, as well as her compatriot Jones.
Everyone’s favourite bear Paddington is nominated for Outstanding British film and although Angelina Jolie missed out on any nominations for Unbroken she’ll no doubt be chuffed to see her protégée, British actor Jack O’Connell, nominated in the Rising Star category.
The awards, with regular host Stephen Fry, take place in London on. 8 February.