Welcome to British Isles Friday! British Isles Friday is a weekly event for sharing all things British and Irish — reviews, photos, opinions, trip reports, guides, links, resources, personal stories, interviews, and research posts. Join us each Friday to link your British and Irish themed content and to see what others have to share. The link list is at the bottom of this post. Pour a cup of tea or lift a pint and join our link party!

Last week, Sim continued her virtual walk in London with an exploration of the delightfully picturesque sights in Dulwich Village, complete with paintings. Heather reviewed Strange Gods, a mystery set in British East Africa in the early 20th century. Tina told us about the British show, Doc Martin.

The 69th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTAs) will be handed out at a gala event at the Royal British Opera House in London on Valentine’s Day, two weeks before the Academy Awards in the US.

Idris Elba as Luther in a promotional photograph for the series on BBC

Since the BAFTAs honor all the films shown in the UK during the previous year, their list of nominees aren’t that different from the award-season lists here. Although they did manage to avoid some of the #OscarsSoWhite controversy (see Variety’s cover article last week for more information) by nominating Idris Elba and Benicio del Toro in the best supporting actor category.

More interesting, from a British Isles Friday perspective, are the two categories that focus on British films.

Film poster for 45 Years

The nominees for Outstanding British Film in 2016 are:

• The Danish Girl
• Brooklyn
• Ex Machina
• Amy
• 45 Years
• The Lobster

The nominees for Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director or Producer in 2016 are:

• Sean Mcallister, Elhum Shakerifar for A Syrian Love Story
• Naji Abu Nowar, Rupert Lloyd for Theeb
• Debbie Tucker Green for Second Coming
• Stephen Fingleton for The Survivalist
• Alex Garland for Ex Machina

I’ve already seen Ex Machina and it wasn’t my favorite movie of the year although the special effects and setting were good. I thought the writer should have read Isaac Asimov who did much more interesting things with robots, in part because he didn’t allow them to do the stuff that makes stories like this too easy.

I’m staying away from Amy, so far. I wasn’t paying much attention to music when Amy Winehouse was active, so I don’t have a big interest. Without that interest, I fear it will just be depressing.

A Syrian Love Story isn’t showing up on Netflix. What’s up with that?

Otherwise, I’ve got all of these saved to Netflix and I’m looking forward to seeing them. Have you seen any of them?