“La La Land” dominates BAFTA nominations
LONDON -- The perky, pastel-hued jazz musical “La La Land” quick-stepped into an awards-season lead Tuesday, gaining 11 nominations for the British Academy Film Awards, the U.K. equivalent of the Oscars.
The sweet-tempered Ryan Gosling-Emma Stone romance is up for Best Film, Director, Actor and Actress at the British awards, which are considered a strong indicator of likely success at Hollywood’s prize-giving next month.
The nominations add to the musical’s momentum after it won seven trophies at the Golden Globes on Sunday.
Philosophical sci-fi yarn “Arrival” and psychological thriller “Nocturnal Animals” earned nine nominations each for the U.K. prizes, known as the BAFTAs. The contenders were announced Tuesday at the British academy’s London headquarters by actors Dominic Cooper and Sophie Turner.
Best Film nominees are “La La Land,” “Arrival,” welfare-state drama “I, Daniel Blake,” Miami coming-of-age story “Moonlight” and soul-baring domestic drama “Manchester by the Sea.”
In addition to Gosling for “La La Land,” the Best Actor nominees include Andrew Garfield (“Hacksaw Ridge”), Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”), Jake Gyllenhaal (“Nocturnal Animals”) and Viggo Mortensen (“Captain Fantastic”), while Stone is up for Best Actress against fellow contenders Amy Adams (“Arrival”), Emily Blunt (“The Girl on the Train”), Meryl Streep (“Florence Foster Jenkins”) and Natalie Portman (“Jackie”).
The BAFTAs differ from their U.S. counterpart in having a separate category for the best British film. Nominees are “I, Daniel Blake,” raucous road trip “American Honey,” courtroom drama “Denial,” wizarding adventure “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them,” documentary “Notes on Blindness” and Iran-set horror film “Under the Shadow.”
Winners of the British trophies will be announced at London’s Royal Albert Hall on Feb. 12, two weeks before the Oscars.
The full list of this year’s BAFTA nominations can be found here.
