Actor Adeel Akhtar and director Aleem Khan, might be new names for us, but the two artists of Pakistani descent, have been nominated in the best director and actor categories at BAFTAs 2022.
Adeel Akhtar has a Pakistani father. He has been nominated in the Leading Actor category for his role as Ali in the 2021 movie Ali & Ava. Akhtar has appeared in several other projects, including the hit TV show Sweet Tooth. The actor shared the big news of his nomination with his followers on social media.
“Alright!! This has just happened! Thank u,” he wrote on Instagram on a post where he disclosed his nomination with other bigwigs.
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The list includes Benedict Cumberbatch for The Power of the Dog, Stephen Graham for Boiling Point, Mahershala Ali for Swan Song and Leonardo DiCaprio for Don’t Look Up, while Will Smith picked up his first BAFTA nomination ever for playing Richard Williams, the formidable father and manager of tennis superstars Venus and Serena Williams, in King Richard.
Adeel, the British-Pakistani actor is also the first non-white male to win BAFTA award in 62 years history of the ceremony. He made BAFTA TV history by bagging the Best Actor trophy for his brilliant performance in BBC Three drama Murdered By My Father.
Other than him, Aleem Khan, a writer-director of mixed English-Pakistani heritage has been nominated in the best director category for After Love (2020). His other works includes the short film Three Brothers which was nominated in the Best British Short Film category in BAFTAs previously.
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Read: Riz Ahmed bags BAFTA nomination for leading actor
This year’s nominations are full of surprises that reflect a shifting membership. While James Bond movie No Time to Die, which grossed $131 million at the UK box office, was expected to lead nominations, that honor instead goes to Denis Villeneuve’s epic sci-fi thriller Dune, which earned 11 nods, with many of those in technical categories.
Jane Campion’s moody western The Power of the Dog scored eight nominations, while Kenneth Branagh’s personal coming-of-age drama Belfast received six. You can check the full list of nominations provided by Variety here.
