Britain likely to set new record for best actor Baftas
A win for Gary Oldman would mean the UK overtakes the United States.
Britain is poised to overtake the United States at this Sunday’s Baftas and set a new record for the highest number of wins in the best actor category.
Both countries are currently tied on 22.
Gary Oldman is favourite to take the award this year, for his performance as Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
Victory for Oldman would mean Britain’s tally rises to 23.
Fellow Britons Jamie Bell, Daniel Day-Lewis and Daniel Kaluuya are all nominated in the same category.
The only non-British actor up for the award is Timothee Chalamet, who is American.
A win for Day-Lewis would be the fifth time he has triumphed in this category.
He has previously won for My Left Foot, Gangs Of New York, There Will Be Blood and Lincoln – already a record number of wins for a British actor.
One category where no records will be set on Sunday is best director.
All of the nominees are male, meaning Kathryn Bigelow remains the only woman to date to have won the award, for her film The Hurt Locker in 2010.
But this year Bafta voters have chosen not to nominate Greta Gerwig for her film Lady Bird – unlike their counterparts in America, where Gerwig has been nominated for a best director Oscar.
The award has gone to a non-white director only three times in Bafta history: in 1981 (Akira Kurosawa, for Kagemusha); 2001 (Ang Lee, for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon); and 2006 (Ang Lee, for Brokeback Mountain).
