A diverse set of contenders and panoply of worthy potential winners mean 2022’s ceremony can get the Baftas back on track
- Baftas 2022: the full list of nominations
- Dune and The Power of the Dog lead Baftas as awards move on from Noel Clarke
Bafta must hope that its nominations mark a fresh start after a year of pure mortification for that body caused by the Noel Clarke debacle: screenwriter-actor-director Clarke was presented in 2021 with the outstanding contribution to cinema award, despite accusations against him of bullying and abuse. Clarke denied accusations of sexual misconduct and the award finally had to be suspended. But this year’s list is very lively: the best director section is not lacking in inclusivity and good taste: Aleem Khan, Ryûsuke Hamaguchi, Audrey Diwan, Paul Thomas Anderson, Jane Campion and Julia Ducournau. (All fascinating choices – though I personally am a Titane refusenik, finding that film inferior to Ducournau’s debut, Raw.)
Leading the nominations tally is Denis Villeneuve’s gigantic sci-fi adaptation Dune with 11 (though no director nod), then it’s Jane Campion’s enthralling The Power of the Dog with eight, and below that is Kenneth Branagh’s wonderfully heartfelt and sympathetic personal movie Belfast with six, based on his own early memories of a boyhood in Northern Ireland at the beginning of the Troubles. I was surprised actually not to see Belfast going higher than this and not actually leading the field, as it seems tailor-made to appeal to Bafta voters.
