Almodóvar's 'lockdown' film with Penélope Cruz nominated for BAFTA

BRITISH film professionals have homed in on Spanish cinema this year, with a production starring Penélope Cruz nominated for an award.

Cult director Pedro Almodóvar's latest full-length feature film, Madres Paralelas ('Parallel Mothers') – which he wrote during lockdown - has been shortlisted for a BAFTA, and cast and crew will find out on Sunday, February 13 whether they will be collecting a trophy.

Pressure is mounting, in fact, given that the Goya Awards – Spain's national answer to the Oscars – will be presented the very day before the BAFTAs, making for a tense weekend for the industry worldwide.

For Almodóvar, though, this acclaim from the UK's film and television academy is nothing new – already, 10 of his productions have been nominated for BAFTAs in the 'foreign language' category, and three of them were successful.

The scriptwriter from Castilla-La Mancha has collected trophies on the British stage for Todo Sobre Mi Madre ('All About My Mother'), from 1999, which also starred Penélope Cruz; Hable Con Ella ('Talk To Her'), from 2002, and La Piel Que Habito ('The Skin I Live In'), from 2011, with Antonio Banderas.

The first two, in addition to Best Foreign Language Film, also won BAFTAs for Best Director and Best Original Screenplay, respectively.

This time, Almodóvar's film about the parallel lives of two single women who give birth at the same time, covering their children's first two years, is only nominated for one category – what used to be called Best Foreign Language Film, but is now referred to as Best Film Not in the English Language.

Penélope Cruz plays late-30s, elegant and successful professional photographer Janis, and her sophisticated agent, Elena, is fleshed out by another Almodóvar regular, Rossy de Palma.

Janis bonds with troubled teen mum-to-be Ana, played by Milena Smit, in a hospital room, and their back-stories turn out to be intrinsically linked.

Among rival nominations, Madres Paralelas will be up against French director Céline Sciamma's beautifully innocent time-travel feature, Petite Maman ('Little Mum'), which won the 'Audience Award' at San Sebastián Film Festival in September 2021.

Norway's Joachim Trier's latest film, a coming-of-age romantic comedy starring Renate Reinsve as main character Julie, titled The Worst Person in the World; Italian director Paolo Sorrentino's largely-autobiographical film La Mano di Dio ('The Hand of God'), about growing up in 1980s' Naples and how watching late Argentinian legend Diego Maradona play in his home city effectively saved his life; and Ryûsuke Hamaguchi's adaptation of Japanese novelist Haruki Murakami's short story Drive My Car are the other nominations for Best Film Not in the English Language.

In the full line-up, Denis Villeneuve's adaptation of Frank Herbert's 1960s' sci-fi novel Dune, starring Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides, Oscar Isaac as his father the Duke Leto, Zendaya as the Fremen woman Chani whom he is in love with, Rebecca Ferguson as his mum Lady Jessica, Charlotte Rampling as the fearsome Reverend Mother and Stellan Skarsgård as the evil Baron Harkonnen, is expected to sweep the board, with 11 nominations.

Jane Campion's gothic western, set in 1920s' Montana, The Power of the Dog, has eight nominations, including Best Actor for Benedict Cumberbatch as Kirsten Dunst's evil brother-in-law Phil Burbank, Best Supporting Actor for Jesse Plemons as George, Jane herself for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Director, Ari Wegner for Best Cinematography, and Jonny Greenwood for Best Original Score.

Both Dune and The Power of the Dog are up for Best Film, along with Kenneth Branagh's Belfast starring Judi Dench and Jamie Dornan during the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland; Adam McKay's Don't Look Up, with Leonardo di Caprio – himself, curiously, a wannabe 'Almodóvar Boy' - as one of the scientists who discovers a massive comet about to hit the Earth; and Paul Thomas Anderson's coming-of-age romantic comedy Licorice Pizza, featuring brand-new-on-the-scene lead actor and actress Cooper Hoffman and Alana Haim, the latter nominated for Best Actress.

Pop legend Lady Gaga gets two nominations, as Best Actress, and for the production she stars in itself, Ridley Scott's House of Gucci, one of the candidates for Outstanding British Film along with Belfast, Rebecca Hall's Passing, Cary Joji Fukunaga's No Time to Die, Clio Barnard's Ali & Ava, Philip Baratini's Boiling Point, Jonathan Butterell's Everybody's Talking About Jamie, Joe Wright's Cyrano, Edgar Wright's Last Night in Soho, and Aleem Khan's After Love.