A strong performance by UK film industry talent at the Bafta awards last month suggests the country’s best hopes for Oscar success could lie in the categories that celebrate achievement behind the camera.
Two of the UK’s most promising Oscar contenders are Daniel Blumberg, up for best original score, and Lol Crawley, for best cinematography.
Both have been nominated for their work on the epic period drama The Brutalist – and both triumphed in their respective categories at the Baftas two weeks ago.
Another UK pair who could see a repeat of recent Bafta success are the production designers Nathan Crowley and Lee Sandales, who have been nominated for an Academy Award for their efforts on the musical fantasy Wicked.
Laura Blount, Frances Hannon and Sarah Nuth, the British team responsible for make-up and hairstyling in Wicked, missed out on a Bafta but are among the nominees for an Oscar – though they face tough competition from the all-French team that worked on body horror film The Substance.
The religious thriller Conclave delivered two Baftas for the UK this year, one for Nick Emerson for best editing and one for Peter Straughan for best adapted screenplay.
Both individuals have been nominated at the Oscars.
Ralph Fiennes, who plays the lead in Conclave, is the only British hopeful among the nominees for best actor.
Despite appearing in films for more than 30 years, Fiennes has never won an Academy Award.
But he faces very stiff competition from his fellow nominees, particularly frontrunner Adrien Brody, US star of The Brutalist.
No UK performers have been nominated for best supporting actor – for the third year in a row – while Felicity Jones is the sole UK nominee in the supporting actress category, for The Brutalist.
Cynthia Erivo is the only UK nominee up for best actress, for her role in Wicked.
A win for Erivo would mark only the third time in the history of the Oscars that the award has gone to a non-white performer.
The last time the UK won an Oscar in any of the acting categories was in 2021, when Sir Anthony Hopkins was named best actor for The Father and Daniel Kaluuya picked up best supporting actor for Judas & The Black Messiah.
There is a big hitter for the UK among the hopefuls for best animated feature film, in the shape of Bafta-winning Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl.
A win would represent the UK’s first victory in this category since 2006, when – in a neat bit of symmetry – the award went to Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The Were-Rabbit.
Elsewhere, the UK is represented three times in the category for best sound: by Paul Massey, one of the team who worked on the Bob Dylan biographical film A Complete Unknown; by Gareth John, one of the group of sound editors for the science fiction epic Dune: Part Two; and Simon Hayes and Andy Nelson, both part of the team who worked on Wicked.
Further chances for success could come in the categories for best visual effects, where British talent appears in two of the five teams of nominees, and for best costume design, where Janty Yates and Dave Crossman are jointly nominated for Gladiator II.
Sir Elton John has a chance of securing the third Oscar of his career, for the song Never Too Late, co-written with his long-time collaborator Bernie Taupin plus US artists Brandi Carlile and Andrew Watt.
The song appears in the documentary of the same name, which focuses on Sir Elton’s recent farewell tour.
His previous Oscar wins came in 1995, for the song Can You Feel The Love Tonight from the animated film The Lion King, and 2020, for the song (I’m Gonna) Love Me Again, from the film Rocketman.
Success in some of the writing and technical categories could spare the UK’s blushes at failing to bag the more high-profile acting and directing awards.
Last year, the UK was responsible for two of the five Oscar nominees for best director, including the winner Christopher Nolan.
This year, not a single nominee for best director is from the UK.
None of the 10 movies nominated for best film this year are wholly UK productions, though three are co-productions between the UK and other countries: The Brutalist, Conclave and The Substance.
