BAFTA Awards Reveal What’s Up on Oscar Night
LONDON (AP) — The politically charged thriller “One Battle After Another” took six awards, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, gaining momentum ahead of the Oscars next month.
The blues-laden vampire epic “Sinners” and the gothic horror story “Frankenstein” won three awards each, while Shakespeare’s family tragedy “Hamnet” was named best British film.
Jessie Buckley, as widely predicted, won best actress for playing Agnes Hathaway, a grieving mother and wife of William Shakespeare, in “Hamnet.”
In a big surprise, Robert Aramayo took home the best actor award for the British independent film “I Swear,” beating out stars like Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet.
“One Battle After Another,” Paul Thomas Anderson’s explosive film about a group of revolutionaries in conflict with the state, won awards for directing, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing and supporting acting by Sean Penn.
“This is very overwhelming and wonderful,” Anderson said in accepting the directing award.
Stuart Wilson/BAFTA via Getty Images
Tristan Fewings/BAFTA via Getty Images
Hollywood stars and British celebrities, from Paddington Bear to the Princess of Wales, gathered for the awards ceremony on Sunday, where “One Battle” and “Sinners” led the nominations.
“Sinners” took home trophies for original screenplay, musical score and Wunmi Mosaku’s performance as a supporting actress.
Stars including DiCaprio, Chalamet, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Glenn Close and Ethan Hawke were among those who walked the red carpet outside London’s Royal Festival Hall ahead of a gala ceremony hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming.
Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, also attended, three days after William’s uncle, Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, was arrested by police and held for 11 hours over allegations he sent sensitive government information to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The scandal has rocked the royal family led by King Charles III, although William and Kate remain popular standard-bearers for the monarchy. William is due to present an award in his role as president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
One of the biggest receptions from the assembled fans was that of Paddington, the puppet bear who stars in a musical adaptation of the beloved children’s classic.
The reference of the Oscars
“One Battle” came into the ceremony with 14 nominations, including best picture and performance for five of its actors. “Sinners” was just behind with 13, while “Hamnet” and the ping-pong odyssey “Marty Supreme” earned 11 nominations each.
Stuart Wilson/BAFTA via Getty Images
Tristan Fewings/BAFTA via Getty Images
Guillermo del Toro’s reinvention of “Frankenstein” and the Norwegian family drama “Sentimental Value” each earned eight nominations.
“Frankenstein” took home awards for production design, costume design and for the hair and makeup artists who spent 10 hours a day transforming Jacob Elordi into the film’s monstrous creature.
“Sentimental Value” won best non-English language film.
The British awards, officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards, often give clues about who will win at the Hollywood Academy Awards, held this year on March 15. In the Oscar nominations, “Sinners” leads the race with a record 16 nominations, followed by “One Battle After Another” with 13.
Cumming told the audience that it had been a strong, if not joyful, year for film, with nominated films tackling issues such as child death, racism and political violence:
“Watching the movies this year was like participating in a collective nervous breakdown,” he said. “It’s almost as if events are happening in the real world that influence the filmmakers.”
Stuart Wilson/BAFTA via Getty Images
However, the ceremony was more glitzy than somber, and included a performance by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami (the voices of the animated band HUNTR/X in the KPop blockbuster “Demon Hunters”) singing the hit movie “Golden.”
Putin critic wins best documentary award
The award for best documentary went to “Mr. Nobody Against Putin,” about a Russian teacher who documented the propaganda imposed on Russian schools after the invasion of Ukraine.
The film’s American director, David Borenstein, said that Professor Pavel Talankin had shown that “whether in Russia or on the streets of Minneapolis, we are always faced with a moral choice”, referring to protests against US immigration laws in Minnesota.
“We need more nobodies,” he said.
It beat out documentaries like Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing portrait of the Ukraine war “2000 Meters to Andriivka,” co-produced by The News and Frontline PBS.
Most BAFTA winners are chosen by 8,500 members of the UK’s academy of industry professionals. Contenders for the Rising Star award, the only award decided by public voting and a trusted selector of future A-listers, are Infiniti, Aramayo, “Sinners” star Miles Caton and British actors Archie Madekwe and Posy Sterling.
Donna Langley, the British-born president of NBCUniversal Entertainment, will receive the British Academy’s highest honor: the BAFTA fellowship.
The ceremony airs on the BBC in the UK from 7 pm (1900 GMT) and on E! in the US at 8 pm EST.
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News writer Hilary News contributed to this report.