It’s up against four others including Paul Verhoeven’s Elle, but Park Chan-wook’s Handmaiden has made the shortlist announced yesterday for best feature film not in the English language. The shortlist was determined by an “opt-in chapter” of BAFTA voting members. The winners will be announced on 18 February.
Films are only eligible to be entered into the BAFTA awards process “if they have been theatrically exhibited publicly to a paying audience on at least ten commercial screens in the UK for at least seven days in aggregate (not including festival screenings).” Maybe I’m imagining it, but I can’t think of another Korean film that has had as widespread a release here as Handmaiden.
Good luck to the team for the final round of voting. LKL’s review of Handmaiden is here. (We also rather liked Elle)