The Orange British Academy Film Awards (a.k.a the BAFTA Awards) are the British equivalent of the Academy Awards in the U.S. BAFTA’s ceremony this year will be Sunday, February 12th, and audiences can watch on BBC America at 7:00pm.
Like the Academy Awards, the BAFTA Awards typically honor English-language films either from the U.S. or the U.K. The Academy tends to honor U.S. films, while BAFTA honors either in its main award for Best Picture since it also has a category honoring only British films.
The two separate organizations usually have at least ten of the same winners each year, so the BAFTA winners can sometimes help predict the winners on Oscar night (this year, Feb. 26th). If it seems like a close race, BAFTA many times honors the British nominees. In recent years, the best acting categories have only shared about half of the same winners. One award these two organizations haven’t agreed on lately is Best Foreign Language Film, but this year it very well could change with a nomination as strong as A Separation.
There are some notable BAFTA nominees not present in the Academy Award nominations list: Drive is up for Best Film, Best Supporting Actress (Carey Mulligan), Best Director (Nicolas Winding Refn), and Best Editing; We Need to Talk About Kevin is up for British Film of the Year, Best Actress (Tilda Swinton), and Direction (Lynne Ramsay); Shame is up for Best British Film of the Year and Best Actor (Michael Fassbender); and Berenice Bejo is suitably up for Best Actress and not Best Supporting Actress for The Artist.
BAFTA and the Academy have many of the same award honors, but BAFTA has a few not found at the Oscars, like the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star. Martin Scorsese will receive their Academy Fellowship and John Hurt will be honored for his Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.
It is getting ever nearer to Oscar night, so tune in to the BAFTA Awards since it is one of the last big award shows before then.
To view BAFTA’s website and find the complete list of nominations, click here.
For the Academy Awards’ website and a list of nominees, click here.
Keep an eye out for my BAFTA predictions.
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