BAFTA Film Head On Why ‘Barbie’ & ‘Killers Of The Flower Moon’ May Have Missed Out In Some Key Categories

deadline.com:

Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer continued its commanding awards showing this morning, clocking a leading 13 BAFTA noms. Disappearing from the season’s leading pack, however, was Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, which only clocked five noms after being longlisted in 15 categories.  “You can’t try to play a guessing game about what our nearly 8000 voters will vote for,” Anna Higgs, BAFTA head of film, said of this afternoon’s nominations and high-profile omissions.  “The field is so competitive.

This year, our entries are up, so we’ve had more films to consider, but our members have been watching more hours and more films than ever before.

We really are trying to level the playing field and see films on their own merit, so there is a broader range of films in there.”  Since its 2020 review, BAFTA has implemented vast structural changes to its voting regulations, including the introduction of ‘viewing groups’ where each voting member is provided a group of around 15 films which they are recommended to prioritize before casting their votes. “What we’re seeing numerically in the stats is that people are watching beyond their viewing group,” Higgs said of the new voter viewing regulations. “Anecdotally, I’m hearing from members that they love the viewing group.

They don’t feel it’s an imposition. Members are saying they’re watching films they would never have heard of.” High-profile names also missing in leading categories included Martin Scorsese in best director, and his Killers Of The Flower Moon lead, Lily Gladstone, in best actress.