Picture: Niko Tavernise 2021 20th Century Studios
Musical theatre lovers are baffled and shocked by the BAFTA nominations just announced – West Side Story (tipped as a close third favourite to win the Oscar) has been ignored in the Best Picture category, while the movie’s director Steven Spielberg and star Rachel Zegler have missed out on Best Director and Best Actress nominations. Andrew Garfield has also been overlooked as Best Actor for Tick, Tick… Boom!
Perhaps most surprising of all is that West Side Story, tipped as a close third favourite to win the Oscar, hasn’t even received a Best Picture nomination.
Yes, Spielberg’s reimagining of West Side Story – the original’s ten Oscars in 1962 still stands as a record for a musical – picked up five nominations but only in the less high-profile categories, Best Supporting Actor, Actress, Casting, Production and Sound.
With Mike Faist’s Jets leader Riff a 20/1 outsider in Supporting Actor betting, West Side Story’s one realistic hope in the six big categories appears to lie with its Anita, Ariana DeBose. Reflecting her position as hot Oscar favourite, DeBose is odds-on at 4/7 to keep that gong in the WSS “family” – Rita Moreno won the same gong as Anita 60 years ago.
According to the odds-makers, this BAFTA is a straight fight between DeBose and Belfast’s Caitríona Balfe.
Spielberg isn’t the only big-name absentee from Best Director – Kenneth Branagh will be equally aggrieved that while his semi-autographical Belfast is vying with The Power of the Dog for Best Picture status, the director himself has been spurned.
The only certainty is that the new West Side Story has no chance of emulating the record-breaking success of the original. The lack of a Best Picture nomination for the 75th BAFTAs has led to WSS being pushed out to 7/2 third favourite behind Power of the Dog (6/4) and Belfast (11/4) for Best Picture Oscar.
It will be fascinating whether film musicals, with particular reference to West Side Story and Tick, Tick… Boom!, get a better deal when the nominations for the Oscars are revealed next Tuesday (8 February 2022).
Decision days for BAFTA and Oscars are 13 and 27 March respectively.
Jeremy Chapman
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