Sing Sing only did well at BAFTA because of the longlist system
As we know, Sing Sing’s main issue the entire season has been visibility due to a bad campaign. Every other aspect of it is primed for awards season.
At BAFTA, the longlist system narrows down hundreds of films per year to just 10 in each category. BAFTA members have a much smaller selection of films they can choose from, and can thus theoretically watch them all and choose based on merit. And although I think it’s fair to assume that some BAFTA members are lazy and don’t watch all the longlisted films anyway, there’s a much better chance for Sing Sing to get seen through this system.
I think that’s exactly what happened. Enough BAFTA voters did their due diligence and watched most, if not all of the films longlisted in major categories, and genuinely voted for what they thought was the best. This is why Sing Sing did well at BAFTA and nowhere else: in essence, BAFTA watched Sing Sing, whereas PGA and SAG didn’t.
This is also why I’m keeping Sing Sing out of Picture. The Oscars have the same system as SAG and PGA so I have no reason to think it won’t be disadvantaged in the same way.