The Favourite will be flying the flag for the UK and Ireland at the 2019 Oscars, with its 10 nominations tying it top with Roma.
Yorgos Lanthimos’ film, a co-production between Ceci Dempsey at London-based Scarlet Films and Ed Guiney and Lee Magiday at Dublin and London-based Element Pictures, features in several major categories including best film. In that race it is up against Bohemian Rhapsody, a UK-US co-production, which sees UK-born and Los Angeles-based producer Graham King nominated for the fourth time.
Greek-born, UK-based Lanthimos is nominated for best director, along with the UK-based Polish director Pawel Pawlikowski, who is nominated for Cold War. The latter is a Poland-France-UK co-production that is also up for best foregn-laguage film and its Polish DoP Lukasz Zal has been nominated in the cinematography category.
UK public backers Film4 and the BFI will both be celebrating the 13 nominations across The Favourite and Cold War - Film4 put production finance into both (and development finance into The Favourite), and the BFI put production finance into Cold War and backed the development of The Favourite.
The Favourite also scored big in the acting nominations. The UK’s Olivia Colman is up for best actress and fellow Brit Rachel Weisz will compete for best supporting actress alongside co-star Emma Stone.
There are two further UK actors in the running for acting awards – Christian Bale for Vice and Richard E. Grant for Can You Ever Forgive Me?
The Favourite’s screenwriter Deborah Davis will compete in the original screenplay race (co-nominated with Australian writer Tony McNamara), and Irish cinematographer Robbie Ryan also scored his first Oscar nomination for the film.
UK set decorater Alice Felton has been nominated in the production design category for The Favourite, alonside Australian production designer Fiona Crombie. Further UK representation in that category comes from Nathan Crowley for his work on First Man.
UK costume designer Sandy Powell is nominated for her work on The Favourite and also separately for her work on Mary Poppins Returns, repeating her double nomination at the 2019 Baftas. Alexandra Bryne’s nod for Mary Queen Of Scots means the UK accounts for three out of the five nominations in the costume designer category.
In the shorts categories, the UK-Ireland co-production Detainment is nominated for live action short film, UK short Black Sheep is up for documentary short subject, and Irish short Late Afternoon is up for animated short film.
Elsewhere, the UK’s Jenny Shircore and Marc Pilcher are nominated for best makeup and hairstyling for their work on Vice, and the UK’s Paul Massey, Tim Cavagin and John Casali are up for achievement in sound mixing for Bohemian Rhapsody, while UK musician Mark Ronson is nominated in the original song category for his work on the track Shallow from A Star Is Born.
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