London: Germany, Ireland and Chinese martial arts loomed large as British cinema handed out its BAFTA awards on Sunday, with the Oscars less than a month away.
With 14 nods, German director Edward Berger’s “All Quiet on the Western Front” is the joint most nominated foreign language film in the BAFTA academy’s 76-year history.
It is tied with Ang Lee’s martial arts drama “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”, with Michelle Yeoh, which won the same number of nominations in 2001.
Yeoh is nominated for best actress this year as a broke laundromat owner who turns into a high-kicking heroine, in the wildly inventive “Everything Everywhere All At Once”.
Yeoh’s kung-fu science-fiction film received 10 BAFTA nominations, as did the dark Irish comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
“Elvis”, Baz Luhrmann’s biopic of the king of rock ‘n’ roll, has nine nominations, with the classical psychological musical drama “Tar” in line for five awards including the most good actress for Cate Blanchett.
The main awards ceremony, the highlight of the British film calendar and an important indicator of the Oscars on March 12, will be presented at the Royal Festival Hall in London from 1900 GMT.
