- The BAFTA Awards are essentially the British equivalent of the US Academy Awards.
- BAFTA Award nominations were announced on January 7, 2020.
- The BAFTA Awards presentation will take place on February 2, 2020.
The 73st British Academy Film Awards will be held in London on February 2, 2020 at the Royal Albert Hall. The awards are under the auspices of the British Academy for Film and Television Arts aka BAFTA. The British Academy Television Awards are held separately and will take place later in the year. The official title of this year’s awards is the ‘EE British Academy Film Awards’ due to a sponsorship deal with the UK cellphone company EE.
The mission statement of BAFTA is very similar to that of the US Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. BAFTA exists to “support, develop and promote the art forms of the moving image, by identifying and rewarding excellence, inspiring practitioners and benefiting the public”. The purpose of the British Academy Film Awards specifically is to “honour the best British and international contributions to film.” The award categories are also very similar to the Academy Awards with the addition of a few that are unique to the British Awards. The one for ‘Best British Film’ should be obvious enough. There’s also a category called ‘Best Rising Star’–this award was created to honor casting director Mary Selway after her death in 2004. The ‘Rising Star’ award serves to ‘recognize new talents in the acting industry’.
The BAFTA Awards are considered to be a ‘precursor’ to the Academy Awards despite minimal overlap in the voting membership of the British Academy and the US Academy. Much of that has to do with the (relatively) similar cultural tastes shared between the US and Great Britain as well as the common language. BAFTA has been quick to change rules to reflect new societal and technological trends. In the past couple of years they’ve changed rules to ‘encourage diversity’ in casting and direction as well as to allow films that were made for on-demand streaming platforms (eg: Netflix and Amazon) to be considered for awards despite not having a theatrical release.
As you can see from the nominations lists, many of the films and individuals recognized by BAFTA are also under consideration for US Academy Awards. Here’s the SPORTSINSIDER.COM odds on the major categories as well as the ‘Rising Star’ and ‘Best British Films’ award:
2020 BAFTA FILM AWARDS BETTING ODDS
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST FILM
1917 +150 Once Upon A Time In Hollywood +250 Parasite +250 The Irishman +500 Joker +750
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST DIRECTOR
Sam Mendes/1917 +150 Quentin Tarantino/Once Upon A Time In Hollywood +250 Bong Joon Ho/Parasite +250 Martin Scorsese/The Irishman +500 Todd Phillips/Joker +750
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR LEADING ACTOR
Joaquin Phoenix/Joker +150 Taron Egerton/Rocketman +300 Leonardo DiCaprio/Once Upon a Time in Hollywood +300 Adam Driver/Marriage Story +450 Jonathan Pryce/The Two Popes +450
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR LEADING ACTRESS
Renee Zellweger/Judy +155 Saoirse Ronan/Little Women +220 Charlize Theron/Bombshell +450 Scarlett Johansson/Marriage Story +450 Jessie Buckley/Wild Rose +450
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR SUPPORTING ACTOR
Brad Pitt/Once Upon A Time In Hollywood +125 Al Pacino/The Irishman +300 Joe Pessci/The Irishman +350 Tom Hanks/A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood +500 Anthony Hopkins/The Two Popes +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Laura Dern/Marriage Story +135 Florence Pugh/Little Women +250 Margot Robbie/Bombshell +450 Scarlett Johansson/JoJo Rabbit +450 Margot Robbie/Once Upon A Time In Hollywood +450
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood +200 Parasite +225 Marriage Story +350 Knives Out +350 Booksmart +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Jojo Rabbit +200 Little Women +225 The Irishman +225 Joker +450 The Two Popes +700
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
1917 -115 The Lighthouse +250 Joker +450 Ford v. Ferrari +700 The Irishman +700
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Little Women +150 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood +250 Judy +340 Jojo Rabbit +450 The Irishman +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST EDITING
Ford v. Ferrari +175 The Irishman +200 Once Upon a Time in Hollywood +350 Joker +500 Jojo Rabbit +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST MAKEUP & HAIR
Bombshell +125 Rocketman +225 Joker +450 1917 +450 Judy +600
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood +150 1917 +200 Joker +450 JoJo Rabbit +450 The Irishman +450
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
Joker +200 1917 +250 Little Women +300 JoJo Rabbit +350 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker +450
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST SOUND
1917 +150 Rocketman +225 Ford v. Ferrari +350 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker +500 Joker +600
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Avengers: Endgame +150 1917 +250 The Lion King +350 The Irishman +500 Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST CASTING
Once Open a Time in Hollywood +115 Marriage Story +250 Joker +500 The Two Popes +500 Personal History of David Copperfield +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
American Factory +200 Apollo 11 +250 For Sama +250 The Great Hack +500 Diego Maradona +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
Toy Story 4 -145 Klaus +300 Frozen II +300 Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon +500
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR BEST FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Parasite -250 The Farewell +500 Pain and Glory +500 For Sama +750 Portrait of a Lady on Fire +750
TO WIN BAFTA AWARD FOR OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
1917 -300 Rocketman +600 The Two Popes +750 Sorry We Missed You +750 For Sama +1250 Bait +1500
TO WIN BAFTA EE RISING STAR AWARD
Awkwafina -150 Jack Lowden +300 Kaitlyn Dever +500 Michael Ward +750 Kelvin Harrison, Jr +750
