The British Film Institute (BFI) and the British Consulate General in Los Angeles are celebrating a remarkable awards season for British film. British productions and co-productions received 40 total nominations, including five nominations for Best Picture at the next Academy Awards.
To mark the occasion, BFI CEO Ben Roberts and British Consul General Paul J.G. Rennie of the Order of the British Empire will host a British Film Oscars pre-reception on March 13th at Soho House Holloway in Los Angeles, Variety can exclusively reveal.
This season’s British headliner is Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet,” a comprehensive depiction of sadness rooted in the life of William Shakespeare. The film features an almost entirely British cast and creative team, including nominated producers Pippa Harris and Sam Mendes, composer Max Richter and production designer Alice Felton. Casting director Nina Gold made history by becoming the first British person to be nominated for the newly created Academy Award for Best Casting. Irish actress Jessie Buckley is nominated for Best Actress (if she wins, as expected, she will become the first person to win in the category), while Chao and Northern Irish novelist Maggie O’Farrell (on whom the film is based) are up for Best Original Screenplay. Shot in Herefordshire and Elstree Studios, the film is one of three Best Picture nominees to be filmed at least partially on mainland Britain, along with Joseph Kosinski’s F1 and Yorgos Lanthimos’ Bugonia.
Five of the 10 Best Picture nominees are British co-productions: Frankenstein, Hamnet, F1, Bugonia, which was funded by Film4, and Sentimental Value, which was supported by BBC Film.
Ryan Coogler’s Sinners has received 16 nominations, the most in Oscar history, with British actors Wunmi Mosaku (Best Supporting Actress) and Delroy Lindo (Best Supporting Actor) also nominated. Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” is nominated for original score by the late British producer Adam Somner and composer Jonny Greenwood (also lead guitarist for the Grammy-winning band Radiohead).
Directed by Guillermo del Toro, Frankenstein was filmed with support from Screen Scotland in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Arbroath, Glencoe and locations across the UK including Wilton House, Burley House and Elstree Studios. The film, based on the novel by British author Mary Shelley, is part of del Toro’s established relationship with British cinema. The manager will receive the organization’s highest honour, the BFI Fellowship, in May 2026.
In the short film category, “A Friend of Dorothy,” written and directed by Lee Knight, filmed in London and starring Miriam Margolyes and Stephen Fry, is nominated for Best Live-Action Short.
The BFI London Film Festival is once again an important starting point for awards season, with six of the ten Best Picture nominees (Bugonia, Frankenstein, Hamnet, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value and Train Dreams) making their UK debut at last year’s festival. All five films nominated for the Best International Feature Film award were also screened there: “It Was Just an Accident,” “Sirat,” “The Secret Agent,” “Sentimental Value,” and “The Voice of Hind Rajab.”
Roberts said in a statement: “I’m thrilled with all the incredible talent nominated for this year’s Oscars and extremely proud to have been nominated in the UK.” “As a co-producing country, it’s great to see the UK playing such a key role in so many of the nominated films, from world-class crews, iconic locations and studios to original stories rooted in our cultural heritage.”
The Academy Awards ceremony will be held on March 16th at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood.
