Daniel Craig Shut Out of BAFTA’s Lead Actor Race as Luca Guadagnino’s ‘Queer’ Earns No Nominations
Despite making the BAFTA Film Awards longlist, Daniel Craig was notably missing when the final nominees were unveiled Wednesday.
The Queer star was not recognized among his peers Ralph Fiennes (Conclave), Hugh Grant (Heretic), Adrien Brody (The Brutalist), Colman Domingo for prison drama Sing Sing, Timothée Chalamet for Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, and Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of Donald Trump in The Apprentice, who all made the shortlist.
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Craig was nominated for Golden Globe, Critics’ Choice, and SAG awards, though has been what many would call snubbed by the British Academy in his native U.K. He was part of The Hollywood Reporter‘s actor roundtable last month.
Beloved by Brits for his iconic role in the James Bond franchise, Craig took on the lead part in Luca Guadagnino’s Queer. He played William Lee, an American expat in his mid-50s leading a solitary existence in Mexico City. Addicted to opiates and alcohol, his life changes when a young man, Drew Starkey’s Eugene Allerton, arrives on the scene, stirring Craig’s character into earth-shattering infatuation. The film — sprinkled with racy, fleetingly full-frontal scenes and anal sex — culminates in the search for a drug that William believes will let him communicate with Eugene telepathically.
Queer was not honored with any mention on the BAFTA shortlists at all, unveiled by actors Will Sharpe and Mia McKenna-Bruce from the Academy’s central London headquarters Wednesday, and Craig was the only Queer actor who made the BAFTA longlists.
It is the most genre-diverse year ever for the BAFTA Film Awards as horror movies Heretic and The Substance, musical (or music-inspired) films, such as Wicked and A Complete Unknown, historical epics like Steve McQueen’s Blitz and big-budget action fare like Dune: Part Two and Gladiator II all earned nominations on Wednesday.
Edward Berger’s Conclave, based on the novel by Robert Harris, leads the way with 12 BAFTA nominations, ahead of Emilia Perez‘s 11 and The Brutalist‘s nine. See the full list of nominees here.
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