BAFTA rolls out red carpet for foreign films including 'All Quiet'
Entertainment
Yeoh's kung-fu science-fiction film received 10 BAFTA nominations.
London (AFP) – Germany, Ireland and Chinese martial arts loom large as British cinema hands out its BAFTA awards on Sunday, with less than a month to go to the Oscars.
With 14 nods, German director Edward Berger's "All Quiet on the Western Front" is the joint most-nominated foreign-language film in the BAFTA academy's 76-year history.
It has tied with Ang Lee's martial arts drama "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", co-starring Michelle Yeoh, which won the same number of nominations in 2001.
Yeoh is nominated for best actress this year as a worn-down laundromat owner who transforms into a high-kicking heroine, in the wildly inventive "Everything Everywhere All At Once".
Yeoh's kung-fu science-fiction film received 10 BAFTA nominations, as did the pitch-black Irish comedy "The Banshees of Inisherin" co-starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
"Elvis", Baz Luhrmann's biopic of the king of rock 'n' roll, is on nine nominations, with classical music psychological drama "Tar" in line for five awards including best actress for Cate Blanchett.
The main awards of the ceremony, the highlight of the British film calendar and a key indicator to the Oscars on March 12, will be handed out at London's Royal Festival Hall from 1900 GMT.
Kremlin critic 'banned'
The awards suffered controversy two years ago when BAFTA gave a lifetime achievement award to British actor and producer Noel Clarke, only for a series of sexual misconduct allegations to emerge against him.
This time, Bulgarian investigative journalist and Kremlin critic Christo Grozev says he has been "banned" from attending the awards, where a documentary about dissident Alexei Navalny is nominated.
Grozev, who is credited with helping to reveal a plot to kill Navalny, appears in the documentary.
London's Metropolitan police said only that "some journalists face the hostile intentions of foreign states whilst in the UK", while BAFTA said the safety of its guests and staff was a priority.
And BAFTA has faced criticism for overlooking women.
