Film4 backed films secured 13 Oscar nominations today, the second highest number of nominations the organisation has ever received in one year.

The Favourite was nominated for Best Picture and Directing (Yorgos Lanthimos); Olivia Colman continued her run of success with a nomination for Actress in a Leading Role, while co-stars Emma Stone and Rachel Weisz were both nominated for Actress in a Supporting Role; Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara were nominated for Original Screenplay; and in the craft categories the film picked up nominations for Cinematography (Robbie Ryan), Editing (Yorgos Mavropsaridis), Production Design (Fiona Crombie, Alice Felton) and Costume Design (Sandy Powell, with her 13thOscar nomination).

Cold War’s Pawel Pawlikowski was also nominated for Directing, and the film was further nominated for Foreign Language Film and Cinematography (Lukasz Zal).

Director of Film4 Daniel Battsek comments: “Congratulations to Yorgos, Pawel and all our partners in The Favourite and Cold War. We’re so grateful that the Academy has recognised so many of these film’s creative talents. Everyone at Film4 is delighted to have played a part in bringing these bold, distinguished films to the screen, and to be helping British backed films reach audiences around the world.”

Film4’s Oscar history (prior to today):

• Film4 films have produced 125 Oscar nominations and 34 wins in the organisation’s 36-year history.
• In the last 10 years, Film4 films have picked up 56 nominations winning 18 Oscars.
• Most nominated films – Slumdog Millionaire with 10, closely followed by 12 Years a Slave and Howard’s End with 9 apiece.
• Biggest Oscar winner – Slumdog Millionaire with 8 wins.
• Most Film4 nominations in one year - 15 in 2016 and 1993.
• Most recent winners – Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2018.

The Favourite, Film4’s third collaboration with director Yorgos Lanthimos, has been steadily accruing awards since launching at the Venice Film Festival, where it collected the Grand Jury Prize and Olivia Colman picked up her first Best Actress Award. Olivia has since won a Golden Globe, a BIFA a National Society of Film Critics Award and this weekend was crowned Actress of the Year by the London Critics Circle. The film led the BAFTA nominations with 12. 

Cold War began its journey at last year’s Cannes Film Festival where Pawel Pawlikowski won Best Director. The film swept the European Film Awards winning five, was crowned Best Foreign Language Film of the Year by both the New York and London Film Critics Circle, and is nominated for 4 BAFTAs.