Last Updated on August 5, 2021

The BAFTA Film nominations for 2021 have been announced and while the organization has been accused of a lack of diversity and representation in the past, the year's nominees showcase a highly diverse field led by Nomadland and Rocks.

Nomadland and Rocks scored seven nominations each, including mentions for their female directors Chloé Zhao and Sarah Gavron, respectively. What's already making headlines just moments after the nominations were revealed is how diverse BAFTA went with their choices this year. It was one year ago that BAFTA received heavy backlash for a lack of diversity among its nominees which led to a seven-month review that that included a long-list system in an effort to increase viewership of all submitted films and increasing all four acting categories and best director categories to six nominees.

The changes definitely yielded different results with this year's nominees. Four women have been nominated in the director category, which is a first for BAFTA, and 15 of the 24 actors that received nominations today are Black or Asian. Last year all of the acting nominees were white and the reaction to those nominations was very swift. It was almost immediate that BAFTA came under fire for the lack of diversity in their nominees and it would appear that this is something they wanted to change this year. Chair of BAFTA, Krishnendu Majumdar, had this to say about this year's nominees:

"This year’s nominations showcase and celebrate the remarkable range of performances and nominees behind the camera from 50 films and we’re delighted to recognize such high-quality work. We are also delighted to see the strength of British film shine through in all categories. After last year’s nominations, we started the BAFTA Review process with the intention of leveling the playing field and introduced? a range of measures to ensure that all entered films were seen by our members and judged on merit. We hope today you can see some of those changes reflected in the breadth and depth of those nominated and we congratulate all our nominees."

Nomadland was one of six nominations in the best film category that also included Promising Young Woman, The Trial of the Chicago 7, The Father, and The Mauritanian. Nomadland and Rocks lead all nominees with seven nods but four other films followed close behind with six nominations with The Father, Mank, Minari, and Promising Young Woman also making a strong showing.

The BAFTA Awards will be held virtually on April 11, 2021, and two shows will be broadcast from London's Royal Albert Hall across that weekend. The first show will be a celebration of the craft of film, which will broadcast on April 10, 2021, on BBC Two and BBC Two HD. The main show the following day will be broadcast on BBC One and BBC One HD. Both shows are set to be broadcast in major territories worldwide. 

Do YOU agree with the nominations? You can check out the full list of nominees below!

BEST FILM

THE FATHER Philippe Carcassonne, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt

THE MAURITANIAN TBC

NOMADLAND Mollye Asher, Dan Janvey, Frances McDormand, Peter Spears, Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Ben Browning, Emerald Fennell, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Stuart Besser, Marc Platt

 

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

CALM WITH HORSES Nick Rowland, Daniel Emmerson, Joe Murtagh

THE DIG Simon Stone, Gabrielle Tana, Moira Buffini

THE FATHER Florian Zeller, Philippe Carcassone, Jean-Louis Livi, David Parfitt, Christopher Hampton

HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes, Martin Gentles, Edward Kings, Roy Lee

LIMBO Ben Sharrock, Irune Gurtubai, Angus Lamont

THE MAURITANIAN Kevin Macdonald, Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven

MOGUL MOWGLI Bassam Tariq, Riz Ahmed, Thomas Benski, Bennett McGhee

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell, Ben Browning, Ashley Fox, Josey McNamara

ROCKS Sarah Gavron, Ameenah Ayub Allen, Faye Ward, Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson

SAINT MAUD Rose Glass, Andrea Cornwell, Oliver Kassman

 

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

HIS HOUSE Remi Weekes (Writer/Director)

LIMBO Ben Sharrock (Writer/Director), Irune Gurtubai (Producer) [also produced by Angus Lamont]

MOFFIE Jack Sidey (Writer/Producer) [also written by Oliver Hermanus and produced by Eric Abraham]

ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (Writers)

SAINT MAUD Rose Glass (Writer/Director), Oliver Kassman (Producer) [also produced by Andrea Cornwell]

 

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen

DEAR COMRADES! Andrei Konchalovsky, Alisher Usmanov

LES MISÉRABLES Ladj Ly

MINARI Lee Isaac Chung, Christina Oh

QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbani?, Damir Ibrahimovich

 

DOCUMENTARY

COLLECTIVE Alexander Nanau

DAVID ATTENBOROUGH: A LIFE ON OUR PLANET Alastair Fothergill, Jonnie Hughes, Keith Scholey

THE DISSIDENT Bryan Fogel, Thor Halvorssen

MY OCTOPUS TEACHER Pippa Ehrlich, James Reed, Craig Foster

THE SOCIAL DILEMMA Jeff Orlowski, Larissa Rhodes

 

ANIMATED FILM

ONWARD Dan Scanlon, Kori Rae

SOUL Pete Docter, Dana Murray

WOLFWALKERS Tomm Moore, Ross Stewart, Paul Young

 

DIRECTOR

ANOTHER ROUND Thomas Vinterberg

BABYTEETH Shannon Murphy

MINARI Lee Isaac Chung

NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao

QUO VADIS, AIDA? Jasmila Žbani?

ROCKS Sarah Gavron

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

ANOTHER ROUND Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg

MANK Jack Fincher

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Emerald Fennell

ROCKS Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Aaron Sorkin

 

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

THE DIG Moira Buffini

THE FATHER Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller

THE MAURITANIAN Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven

NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao

THE WHITE TIGER Ramin Bahrani

 

LEADING ACTRESS

BUKKY BAKRAY Rocks

RADHA BLANK The Forty-Year-Old Version

VANESSA KIRBY Pieces of a Woman

FRANCES McDORMAND Nomadland

WUNMI MOSAKU His House

ALFRE WOODARD Clemency

 

LEADING ACTOR

RIZ AHMED Sound of Metal

CHADWICK BOSEMAN Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

ADARSH GOURAV The White Tiger

ANTHONY HOPKINS The Father

MADS MIKKELSEN Another Round

TAHAR RAHIM The Mauritanian

 

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

NIAMH ALGAR Calm With Horses

KOSAR ALI Rocks

MARIA BAKALOVA Borat Subsequent Moviefilm

DOMINIQUE FISHBACK Judas and the Black Messiah

ASHLEY MADEKWE County Lines

YUH-JUNG YOUN Minari

SUPPORTING ACTOR

DANIEL KALUUYA Judas and the Black Messiah

BARRY KEOGHAN Calm With Horses

ALAN KIM Minari

LESLIE ODOM JR. One Night in Miami…

CLARKE PETERS Da 5 Bloods

PAUL RACI Sound of Metal

 

ORIGINAL SCORE

MANK Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

MINARI Emile Mosseri

NEWS OF THE WORLD James Newton Howard

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Anthony Willis

SOUL Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

 

CASTING

CALM WITH HORSES Shaheen Baig

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Alexa L. Fogel

MINARI Julia Kim

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu

ROCKS Lucy Pardee

 

CINEMATOGRAPHY

JUDAS AND THE BLACK MESSIAH Sean Bobbitt

MANK Erik Messerschmidt

THE MAURITANIAN Alwin H. Küchler

NEWS OF THE WORLD Dariusz Wolski

NOMADLAND Joshua James Richards

 

EDITING

THE FATHER Yorgos Lamprinos

NOMADLAND Chloé Zhao

PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN Frédéric Thoraval

SOUND OF METAL Mikkel E.G. Nielsen

THE TRIAL OF THE CHICAGO 7 Alan Baumgarten

 

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE DIG Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald

THE FATHER Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone

MANK Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale

NEWS OF THE WORLD David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan

REBECCA Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

 

COSTUME DESIGN

AMMONITE Michael O’Connor

THE DIG Alice Babidge

EMMA. Alexandra Byrne

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Ann Roth

MANK Trish Summerville

 

MAKE UP & HAIR

THE DIG Jenny Shircore

HILLBILLY ELEGY Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle

MA RAINEY’S BLACK BOTTOM Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal

MANK Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams

PINOCCHIO Mark Coulier

 

SOUND

GREYHOUND TBC

NEWS OF THE WORLD Michael Fentum, William Miller, Mike Prestwood Smith, John Pritchett, Oliver Tarney

NOMADLAND Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, M. Wolf Snyder

SOUL Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker

SOUND OF METAL Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc

 

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

GREYHOUND Pete Bebb, Nathan McGuinness, Sebastian von Overheidt

THE MIDNIGHT SKY Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, David Watkins

MULAN Sean Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury

THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher

TENET Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley

 

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION

THE FIRE NEXT TIME Renaldho Pelle, Yanling Wang, Kerry Jade Kolbe

THE OWL AND THE PUSSYCAT Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf

THE SONG OF A LOST BOY Daniel Quirke, Jamie MacDonald, Brid Arnstein

 

 

BRITISH SHORT FILM

EYELASH Jesse Lewis Reece, Ike Newman

LIZARD Akinola Davies, Rachel Dargavel, Wale Davies

LUCKY BREAK John Addis, Rami Sarras Pantoja

MISS CURVY Ghada Eldemellawy

THE PRESENT Farah Nabulsi

 

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

BUKKY BAKRAY

KINGSLEY BEN-ADIR

MORFYDD CLARK

??P? DÌRÍSÙ

CONRAD KHAN