Baftas 2017: eOne and Lionsgate score record number of nominations

Entertainment One (eOne), the UK’s leading indie at the box office in 2016, has topped the list of distributors nominated for Bafta film awards this year with 20 nods, a company record.

Denis Villeneuve’s Arrival was the company’s top title, securing nine nominations, the joint second-highest for an individual film.

Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake received five nominations, while Pablo Larrain’s Jackie received three. Further eOne titles to secure nods included Captain Fantastic, Denial, and The Girl On The Train.

Impressively, Lionsgate secured a record 18 nominations, including 11 for red hot favourite La La Land, the highest individual total on the day.

The company also received five nods for Mel Gibson’s Hacksaw Ridge, as well as one apiece for The Pass and Deepwater Horizon.

The total of 18 nominations is double Lionsgate’s previous record haul of nine from 2009: “The breadth and diversity of our nominations across four titles, including the upcoming Hacksaw Ridge solidifies what a hugely successful year for us it’s been, both commercially and critically,” commented Zygi Kamasa, CEO of Lionsgate’s European office.

Universal placed third in the distributor chart with 12 nominations. The studio received the majority of its nominations (nine) for Tom Ford’s Nocturnal Animals, and added solitary nods for American Honey, Hai Caesar! and Kubo And The Two Strings.

Studiocanal was fourth with 11 nods, including six for Manchester By The Sea, three for Hell Or High Water, and one apiece for Dheepan and documentary The Beatles.

Disney, which set a new record for box office takings in the UK in 2016, placed fifth with nine nominations. The company received three nods for Marvel title Doctor Strange, two for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, alongside single nods for Finding Dory, The Jungle Book, Moana, and Zootropolis.

Warner Bros clocked up six nominations, including five for Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts And Where To Find Them and one for The Girl With All The Gifts.

Four companies secured five nominations: Altitude (four for Moonlight and one for documentary The Eagle Huntress), Curzon Artificial Eye (three for documentary Notes On Blindness, one apiece for Mustang and Son Of Saul), Entertainment Film Distributors (five for Lion), and Pathe (four for Florence Foster Jenkins and one for Julieta (jointly distributed with Twentieth Century Fox)).

Having led the way for both of the previous two years, Twentieth Century Fox mustered only a pair of nominations this year, one each for Hidden Figures and Julieta (jointly distributed with Pathe).

Paramount also secured two nominations (one for Allied and one for Fences) as did Vertigo (both for Under The Shadow) and documentary specialists Dogwoof (one each for 13th and Weiner).

Soda received one nomination for Toni Erdmann, while Metrodome also clocked one nod for The Hard Stop.