Feinberg Snapshot: Down to the Wire

Best Actor

Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer

The Irishman is thought to be in a tight race with The Holdovers’ Paul Giamatti, so his Feb. 18 BAFTA win and 60 Minutes segment, after his latest film, Small Things Like These, opened the Berlin Film Festival on Feb. 15, provided a nice shot of momentum.

Best Adapted Screenplay

American Fiction

After Cord Jefferson appeared on The Daily Show on Feb. 15, he headed to the U.K. for the BAFTA Awards, at which his script won this award over fellow Oscar nominees Oppenheimer, Poor Things and The Zone of Interest. It previously won the Critics Choice Award over the first two.

Best Animated Feature

The Boy and the Heron/Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse

It looks like a neck-and-neck race between these two. The former won the BAFTA Award, while the latter dominated the Annie Awards on Feb. 18, winning seven, including best feature. (Heron won two Annies, in lower-profile categories.)

Best Documentary Feature

20 Days in Mariupol

After its Feb. 10 DGA Award win, Mstyslav Chernov’s look at Russia’s attack on a Ukrainian city won the BAFTA over a field with no other overlap with Oscar nominees but that included two portraits of celebrities from streamers, American Symphony and Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie.

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

Maestro

So much for the prosthetic Leonard Bernstein nose being an issue! For their work on Bradley Cooper’s film, Kazu Hiro and team were awarded best period and/or character makeup and best special makeup effects at the Make-Up Artists & Hair Stylists Guild Awards on Feb. 18.

Best Sound

The Zone of Interest

In perhaps the BAFTAs’ biggest surprise, voters rewarded subtlety (e.g., distant gunshots) over volume by choosing Zone over Oppenheimer. Could the same upset occur at the Oscars, or might the winner there be The Creator, Maestro or Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One?

This story first appeared in the Feb. 21 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine. Click here to subscribe.