BAFTA Nominations Announced 2017: Lineup Includes 'La La Land' Love, Denzel Snub [VIDEO]
La La Land continues its incredible awards dominance with the arrival of the 2017 BAFTA nominations, where it once again tops the list.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars, have released their nominations for the film year 2016. La La Land leads all nominations with 11, followed by Arrival and Nocturnal Animals with nine, Manchester by the Sea with six, Lion with five, Florence Foster Jenkins, I, Daniel Blake and Moonlight with four and Doctor Strange, Hell or High Water and Jackie with three.
Nominees for Best Film include Arrival, I, Daniel Blake, La La Land, Manchester by the Sea and Moonlight, and each of their respective directors are nominated for Best Director, with the exception of Barry Jenkins for Moonlight. Tom Ford of Nocturnal Animals is the other Best Director nominee.
The biggest snub from this year's nominees is Denzel Washington of Fences, long thought to be the strongest contender to potentially beat Manchester by the Sea's Casey Affleck in Best Actor. Oddly enough, BAFTA has never nominated Washington in his entire career, despite the actor netting two Oscars, for Training Day and Glory. And it's not as if BAFTA didn't respond to Fences, considering Viola Davis is nominated in Best Supporting Actress.
Other notable snubs include Martin Scorsese's Silence, which didn't receive a single nomination, and Lucas Hedges of Manchester by the Sea in Best Supporting Actor, though he is at least nominated in the Rising Star Award category.
Some of the bigger surprise inclusions on this list include Jake Gyllenhaal for Nocturnal Animals in Best Actor, Emily Blunt for The Girl on the Train for Best Actress and Hayley Squires for I, Daniel Blake. They were all able to knock out presumed-to-be-stronger contenders like Joel Edgerton and Ruth Negga from Loving, Annette Bening from 20th Century Women and Octavia Spencer from Hidden Figures.
So what does this mean for the Oscars? Well, predictors should probably place their bets on many of the BAFTA acting nominees to be nominated. A total of 14 actors have received nominations at all the major precursors: the Critics' Choice, the Golden Globes, the Screen Actors Guild and now BAFTA. This list includes:
Amy Adams - Arrival
Casey Affleck - Manchester by the Sea
Mahershala Ali - Moonlight
Jeff Bridges - Hell or High Water
Viola Davis - Fences
Andrew Garfield - Hacksaw Ridge
Ryan Gosling - La La Land
Naomie Harris - Moonlight
Nicole Kidman - Lion
Dev Patel - Lion
Natalie Portman - Jackie
Emma Stone - La La Land
Michelle Williams - Manchester by the Sea
Add in the "Best Comedy Actor" category at the Critics' Choice Awards and you also have Hugh Grant - Florence Foster Jenkins and Viggo Mortensen - Captain Fantastic getting nominations at every precursor.
But of course, the Oscars like to throw in a few curveballs now and then, so you shouldn't be too confident about any nomination.
Here's the full list of BAFTA nominees.
The 2017 BAFTAs will go down on Feb. 12, with host Stephen Fry.
