Adeel Akhtar and Aleem Khan bag nominations at BAFTA Awards 2022

Actor Adeel Akhtar and director Aleem Khan, who are of Pakistani descent, have been nominated in the best director and actor categories at the BAFTA Awards 2022.

Akhtar has been nominated in the Leading Actor category for his role as Ali in the Ali & Ava (2021). He has appeared in several other projects, including the hit TV show Sweet Tooth.

Sharing the news on his Instagram handle, the 41-year-old celebrated his nomination with his followers on social media.

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A post shared by Adeel Akhtar (@adeelakhtar)

On the other hand, English-Pakistani writer-director Aleem Khan has been nominated in the best director category for After Love (2020).

His other works include the short film Three Brothers which was nominated in the Best British Short Film category in BAFTAs previously.

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The BAFTAs will be held in person on March 13 in London, following a virtual event last year due to the pandemic.

Earlier in 2020, the majority had objected over the lack of diversity among an all-white acting nominees list and all-male best director contenders, BAFTA has expanded membership, added a long-list voting round and increased the acting and director categories.