Strong Irish contingent of Murphy, Keoghan and Mescal lead 2024 Bafta nominations

Irish actors Cillian Murphy, Barry Keoghan and Paul Mescal are among the nominees for the British Academy of Film and Television (BAFTA) film awards.

Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic about atomic bomb creator J Robert Oppenheimer, has swept the Bafta film awards nominations with 13 nods.

The film’s star Cillian Murphy, who plays the title role, is nominated in the best actor category, going head-to-head with fellow Irishman Barry Keoghan for Saltburn.

Murphy’s co-stars Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr are also nominated for supporting prizes, while Nolan has scored a best director nod and the drama is recognised in the best film category.

Murphy and Keoghan will compete against Bradley Cooper for Maestro, Colman Domingo for Rustin, Paul Giamatti for The Holdovers, and Teo Yoo for Past Lives to take home the best actor prize. Irish star Andrew Scott missed out on a nomination despite being widely tipped for his role in All of Us Strangers, but his co-star Paul Mescal was nominated for best supporting actor.

Mescal will compete against Robert Downey Jr, who has already won a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice award for his performance as Lewis Strauss, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission in Oppenheimer, Robert De Niro for Killers Of The Flower Moon, Jacob Elordi for Saltburn, Ryan Gosling for Barbie and Dominic Sessa for The Holdovers for the supporting actor prize.

The best actress prize sees Barbie star Margot Robbie compete against Poor Things star Emma Stone, Carey Mulligan for Maestro, Sandra Huller for Anatomy Of A Fall, Fantasia Barrino for The Colour Purple and Vivian Oparah for British romantic comedy Rye Lane.

German actress Huller is also nominated in a second category, picking up a supporting actress nod for The Zone Of Interest, alongside Oppenheimer’s Blunt, Rosamund Pike for Saltburn, Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers, Danielle Brooks for The Colour Purple and Claire Foy for All Of Us Strangers.

Oppenheimer, which was a box office juggernaut when it was released in cinemas last year on the same day as Barbie – sparking the Barbenheimer phenomenon – marks a crowning achievement for British filmmaker Nolan, who has never won the directing Bafta.

He will face competition from All Of Us Strangers director Andrew Haigh, Anatomy Of A Fall’s Justine Triet, The Holdovers’ Alexander Payne, Maestro’s Cooper and Jonathan Glazer for The Zone Of Interest.

For the best film prize, Oppenheimer will compete against the gothic fairytale Poor Things, which scored 11 nods.

Also in the running is French courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall, Martin Scorsese’s western crime thriller Killers Of The Flower Moon and The Holdovers, about a cranky prep school teacher forced to remain on campus over the holidays with a troubled student.

Notably absent from the category is Barbie, which was the highest-grossing film of 2023, with director Greta Gerwig also absent from the directing category.

Gerwig is, however, recognised in the original screenplay alongside her husband and co-writer Noah Baumbach.

The contenders for outstanding British film are All Of Us Strangers, How To Have Sex, Napoleon, The Old Oak, Poor Things, Rye Lane, Saltburn, Scrapper, Wonka and The Zone Of Interest.

The EE Bafta film awards will be hosted by David Tennant at the Royal Festival Hall on February 18 and will air on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.