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Source: Universal

‘Belfast’

Belfast leads a strong UK showing for the 2022 Oscars, with seven nominations including best picture, best director for Kenneth Branagh, and supporting actor and actress for Ciaran Hands and Judi Dench respectively.

It is Branagh’s eighth nomination and second in the best director category. He is also nominated for best picture and original screenplay this year. Branagh has previously been nominated for directing and for his leading role in Henry V (1989), for his live-action short film Swan Song (1992), for his adapted screenplay for Hamlet (1996), and for his supporting role in My Week With Marilyn (2011).

Dench has scored her eighth nomination and third in the supporting actress category. She was nominated for her supporting roles in Shakespeare In Love (1998), for which she won the award, and Chocolat (2000); and for leading roles in Mrs. Brown (1997), Iris (2001), Mrs. Henderson Presents (2005), Notes On A Scandal (2006) and Philomena (2013).

Olivia Colman is also hoping for a second Oscar in the leading actress category for her role as a troubled mother in The Lost Daughter. This is her third nomination and second in this category. She won an Oscar for her leading role in The Favourite (2019) and was nominated last year for her supporting role in The Father (2021).

Although shot in New Zealand and not qualifying as a British film, Oscar front-runner The Power Of The Dog has strong UK elements running through it including lead actor nominee Benedict Cumberbatch and producers Tanya Seghatchian and Iain Canning. It was also developed and is backed by BBC Film.

It is Cumberbatch’s second nomination in the acting category, following 2014’s The Imitation Game. 

His competitors in best actor include Andrew Garfield, nominated for his performance as the Rent musical composer Jonathan Larson in Tick, Tick…Boom!. Garfield has been nominated once before, for Hacksaw Ridge in 2016.

UK actors have picked up nods in five of the 20 acting nominations. Irish actress Jesse Buckely is also nominated for her supporting role in The Lost Daughter.

Craft commendation

James Bond blockbuster No Time To Die has clocked up three craft nods, for visual effects for Charlie Noble, Joel Green, Jonathan Fawkner and Chris Corbould; sound for Simon Hayes, Oliver Tarney, James Harrison, Paul Massey and Mark Taylor; and original song, for Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell’s title track.

Disney’s Cruella, which filmed in the UK and qualifies as British, has nominations for make-up and hairstyling for Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne and Julia Vernon, and costume design for Jenny Beavan.

Kristen Stewart is nominated for her leading role as Princess Diana in Spencer, which is British in both content and production, through Joe Wright’s London-based Shoebox Films.

Working Title’s Cyrano, directed by Wright, picked up one nod in the costume design category for Massimo Cantini Parrini and Jacqueline Durran.

Another hotly-tipped title to score just one nomination is Ridley Scott’s House Of Gucci, recognised in the make-up and hairstyling category for Göran Lundström, Anna Carin Lock and Frederic Aspiras. It is produced by Scott’s Scott Free Productions, which is headquartered in both the US and UK.

Aadrman Animations’ Robin Robin for Netflix earned a nod for best animated short film for directors Dan Ojari and Mikey Please; while Aneil Karia and Riz Ahmed’s The Long Goodbye was also shortlisted in the best live-action short film category.

Five Screen UK-Ireland Stars of Tomorrow have been nominated this year: Cumberbatch (a Star in 2004), Garfield (2007), Buckley (2017), Karia (2014) and Ahmed (2006).

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