The 75th British Academy Film Awards, also known as the BAFTAs, were held on 13 March 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2021. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2021.
The nominations were announced on 3 February 2022. The Rising Star Award nominees, which is the only category voted for by the British public, were announced on 1 February 2022; the nomination and eventual win of Lashana Lynch confused commentators, who did not consider her "rising".
The epic science fiction film Dune received the most nominations with eleven; The Power of the Dog and Belfast followed with eight and six, respectively. The former ultimately won two—Best Film and Best Director (Jane Campion); Dune received the most wins, with five, but did not take home any major category awards.
The ceremony was hosted by actress and comedian Rebel Wilson. Many winners were not present to collect their awards, though the ceremony was exclusively in-person. This allowed the speeches of winners who were present to go on at length. While many awards were won by frontrunners in the Oscars race, a surprise win came in the Best Actress category – already populated by no Oscar nominees – for Welsh actress Joanna Scanlan for her performance in After Love.
Winners and nominees
The nominees were announced on 3 February 2022. The winners were announced on 13 March 2022.
This year, BAFTA did not hand out two of its honorary awards—BAFTA Fellowship and BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema Award—as it plans to implement new vetting processes following the previous year's controversy surrounding Noel Clarke.
Awards Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.
The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion, Iain Canning, Roger Frappier, Tanya Seghatchian and Emile Sherman Belfast – Laura Berwick, Kenneth Branagh, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas Don't Look Up – Adam McKay and Kevin Messick Dune – Cale Boyter, Mary Parent and Denis Villeneuve Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson, Sara Murphy and Adam Somner | valign="top" width="50%"| Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza Audrey Diwan – Happening Julia Ducournau – Titane Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car Aleem Khan – After Love Will Smith – King Richard as Richard Williams Adeel Akhtar – Ali & Ava as Ali Mahershala Ali – Swan Song as Cameron Turner Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog as Phil Burbank Leonardo DiCaprio – Don't Look Up as Dr. Randall Mindy Stephen Graham – Boiling Point as Andy Jones Joanna Scanlan – After Love as Mary Hussain Lady Gaga – House of Gucci as Patrizia Reggiani Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza as Alana Kane Emilia Jones – CODA as Ruby Rossi Renate Reinsve – The Worst Person in the World as Julie Tessa Thompson – Passing as Irene Redfield Troy Kotsur – CODA as Frank Rossi Mike Faist – West Side Story as Riff Ciarán Hinds – Belfast as Pop Woody Norman – C'mon C'mon as Jesse Jesse Plemons – The Power of the Dog as George Burbank Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog as Peter Gordon Ariana DeBose – West Side Story as Anita Caitríona Balfe – Belfast as Ma Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter as Young Leda Caruso Ann Dowd – Mass as Linda Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor – King Richard as Oracene "Brandy" Price Ruth Negga – Passing as Clare Bellew Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson Being the Ricardos – Aaron Sorkin Belfast – Kenneth Branagh Don't Look Up – Adam McKay King Richard – Zach Baylin CODA – Sian Heder Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe Dune – Eric Roth, Jon Spaihts and Denis Villeneuve The Lost Daughter – Maggie Gyllenhaal The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion Encanto – Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer Luca – Enrico Casarosa and Andrea Warren Flee – Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Monica Hellström The Mitchells vs. the Machines – Mike Rianda, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson, David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent, and Joseph Patel Becoming Cousteau – Liz Garbus and Dan Cogan Cow – Andrea Arnold and Kat Mansoor Flee – Jonas Poher Rasmussen and Monica Hellström The Rescue – Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin, John Battsek and P.J. van Sandwijk Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Teruhisa Yamamoto The Hand of God – Paolo Sorrentino and Lorenzo Mieli Parallel Mothers – Pedro Almodóvar and Agustín Almodóvar Petite Maman – Céline Sciamma and Bénédicte Couvreur The Worst Person in the World – Joachim Trier and Thomas Robsahm West Side Story – Cindy Tolan Boiling Point – Carolyn McLeod Dune – Francine Maisler The Hand of God – Massimo Appolloni and Annamaria Sambucco King Richard – Rich Delia and Avy Kaufman Dune – Greig Fraser Nightmare Alley – Dan Laustsen No Time to Die – Linus Sandgren The Power of the Dog – Ari Wegner The Tragedy of Macbeth – Bruno Delbonnel Cruella – Jenny Beavan Cyrano – Massimo Cantini Parrini Dune – Robert Morgan and Jacqueline West The French Dispatch – Milena Canonero Nightmare Alley – Luis Sequeira No Time to Die – Tom Cross and Elliot Graham Belfast – Úna Ní Dhonghaíle Dune – Joe Walker Licorice Pizza – Andy Jurgensen Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Joshua L. Pearson The Eyes of Tammy Faye – Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram and Justin Raleigh Cruella – Naomi Donne and Nadia Stacey Cyrano – Alessandro Bertolazzi and Siân Miller Dune – Love Larson and Donald Mowat House of Gucci – Frederic Aspiras, Jana Carboni, Giuliano Mariano and Sarah Nicole Tanno Dune – Hans Zimmer Being the Ricardos – Daniel Pemberton Don't Look Up – Nicholas Britell The French Dispatch – Alexandre Desplat The Power of the Dog – Jonny Greenwood Dune – Patrice Vermette and Zsuzsanna Sipos Cyrano – Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer The French Dispatch – Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo Nightmare Alley – Tamara Deverell and Shane Vieau West Side Story – Adam Stockhausen and Rena DeAngelo Dune – Ron Bartlett, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini and Mac Ruth Last Night in Soho – Tim Cavagin, Dan Morgan, Colin Nicolson and Julian Slater No Time to Die – James Harrison, Simon Hayes, Paul Massey, Oliver Tarney and Mark Taylor A Quiet Place Part II – Erik Aadahl, Michael Barosky, Brandon Proctor and Ethan Van der Ryn West Side Story – Brian Chumney, Tod A. Maitland, Andy Nelson and Gary Rydstrom Dune – Brian Connor, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles and Gerd Nefzer Free Guy – Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis and Dan Sudick Ghostbusters: Afterlife – Aharon Bourland, Sheena Duggal, Pier Lefebvre and Alessandro Ongaro The Matrix Resurrections – Tom Debenham, Huw J. Evans, Dan Glass and J. D. Schwalm No Time to Die – Mark Bakowski, Chris Corbould, Joel Green and Charlie Noble Belfast – Kenneth Branagh, Laura Berwick, Becca Kovacik and Tamar Thomas After Love – Aleem Khan and Matthieu de Braconier Ali & Ava – Clio Barnard and Tracy O'Riordan Boiling Point – Philip Barantini, Bart Ruspoli, Hester Ruoff and James Cummings Cyrano – Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Guy Heeley and Erica Schmidt Everybody's Talking About Jamie – Jonathan Butterell, Peter Carlton, Mark Herbert and Tom MacRae House of Gucci – Ridley Scott, Mark Huffam, Giannina Scott, Kevin J. Walsh, Roberto Bentivegna and Becky Johnston Last Night in Soho – Edgar Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Nira Park and Krysty Wilson-Cairns No Time to Die – Cary Joji Fukunaga, Barbara Broccoli, Michael G. Wilson, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade and Phoebe Waller-Bridge Passing – Rebecca Hall, Margot Hand, Nina Yang Bongiovi and Forest Whitaker The Harder They Fall – Jeymes Samuel (Writer/Director) [also written by Boaz Yakin] After Love – Aleem Khan (Writer/Director) Boiling Point – James Cummings (Writer) and Hester Ruoff (Producer) [also written by Philip Barantini and produced by Bart Ruspoli] Keyboard Fantasies – Posy Dixon (Writer/Director) and Liv Proctor (Producer) Passing – Rebecca Hall (Writer/Director) Do Not Feed the Pigeons – Vladimir Krasilnikov, Jordi Morera and Antonin Niclass Affairs of the Art – Les Mills and Joanna Quinn Night of the Living Dread – Danielle Goff, Hannah Kelso, Ida Melum and Laura Jayne Tunbridge The Black Cop – Cherish Oteka Femme – Sam H. Freeman, Ng Choon Ping, Sam Ritzenberg and Hayley Williams The Palace – Jo Prichard Stuffed – Joss Holden-Rea and Theo Rhys Three Meetings of the Extraordinary Committee – Max Barron, Daniel Wheldon and Michael Woodward Lashana Lynch Ariana DeBose Harris Dickinson Millicent Simmonds Kodi Smit-McPhee
Ceremony information
The ceremony was broadcast on BBC One, BBC One HD and BBC iPlayer at 7:00 p.m on 13 March 2022, the day of the ceremony, and was available to stream exclusively on BritBox in North America and South Africa simultaneously with the UK broadcast. The broadcast was not live with the awards presentation, and some parts were edited out, including host Rebel Wilson ranting about a film production gone awry and cursing the production company. Wilson was selected as host after having presented an award at the previous in-person BAFA ceremony in February 2020; in his live coverage of the 2022 ceremony for The Guardian, British film journalist Stuart Heritage wrote that Wilson had been the only funny part of the 2020 ceremony.
While Heritage enjoyed many parts of Wilson's opening monologue at the 2022 ceremony, including jokes about the demise of the BAF(T)As and her own weight loss, he was unimpressed with her wordplay regarding Tom Hiddleston's "low key" (Loki) appearance at the ceremony; Heritage went on to note throughout the broadcast that Wilson's various skits (including drawing nipples on a flip chart, inviting Andy Serkis to defile a cake shaped like Benedict Cumberbatch, and throwing her bras into the audience) were bad. NME wrote that, while the hosting was troubled, Wilson improved towards the end of the ceremony, particularly her one-liners. Digital Spy, by collecting popular tweets about the ceremony, reported that many viewers were off-put by Wilson's unfunny hosting, though some enjoyed the fact she did not hold back when it came to topical humour. The BBC (which broadcast the ceremony) agreed that Wilson's monologue and one-liners were her strongest points, writing that some of her other jokes fell flat, but they thought "on the whole [she] did a fine job". The Telegraph was instead highly negative of Wilson's hosting and the mismatched tone of the ceremony she created, but praised her ability to "plough on" anyway; it also noted that in coming on after a strong opening song, Wilson was already at a disadvantage.
The de facto theme of the ceremony was "all things Bond". Opening the ceremony, to mark the 60th anniversary of the James Bond franchise, Dame Shirley Bassey, who is connected with the franchise after contributing to the soundtrack of multiple Bond films throughout her career, performed a rendition of the title song from Diamonds Are Forever (1971), the seventh installment of the franchise, with NME praising that her voice was as good as ever, writing: "At 85, her voice remains fully capable of filling the Royal Albert Hall to the rafters." Before the ceremony, it was announced that Bassey would perform an iconic Bond theme, only to be revealed on the night. Also performing live during the ceremony was English actress and singer Emilia Jones, nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in CODA. She performed a rendition of Joni Mitchell's "Both Sides, Now", which her character sings in the film; she was joined by two translators signing the song in American Sign Language (ASL) and British Sign Language (BSL).