Christopher Nolan’s film wins best picture, director, leading and supporting actor, while Emma Stone named best actress – and The Zone of Interest surprises to take three
Christopher Nolan, one of the most celebrated and successful British film-makers of the century, has finally won his first Bafta award, as his biopic of the man behind the atomic bomb took best picture and best director.
Nolan, 54, has previously been nominated for eight Baftas but – bar an honorary award in 2010 – was yet to win one. On Sunday night, Oppenheimer, his Imax epic starring Cillian Murphy as nuclear physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, dominated the British film industry’s most prestigious prizes, taking seven Baftas, including leading actor for Cillian Murphy and supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.
Nolan said he felt his film – which concludes with Oppenheimer voicing his fear that the atomic bomb has hastened the end of the world, rather than helped save it – ends with “a dramatically necessary note of despair”. But, he added, many people and organisations had successfully helped further nuclear disarmament, with a 90% reduction since 1967.
That, said Nolan, has now “gone the wrong way. But it’s important to acknowledge their work, which shows the necessary and potential of efforts for peace.” The victories further cement Oppenheimer’s position as frontrunner at next month’s Oscars, where the film is also in the running for 13 awards.
However, the evening’s awards were shared more widely than many expected. Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos’s steampunk fantasy starring Emma Stone as a woman with the brain of a child, took five awards, including leading actress.
Concluding her speech, Stone thanked her mother, “because she’s the best person in the world. Without her, none of this would exist, including my life. So thank you, mom!”
Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest took three awards, for best sound, outstanding British film – and best film not in the English language. A radical drama about the domestic utopia created by Hedwig and Rudolph Höss in their home just outside the wall of Auschwitz, where he was camp commander, the film was made by Film4 and a British production team, with a German cast and shot entirely in Poland.
On stage, the film’s producer James Wilson highlighted the film’s message about the perils of selective empathy. A friend had recently written to him, he said, explaining that they “couldn’t stop thinking about the walls we construct in our lives which we choose not to look behind”.
Wilson continued: “Those walls aren’t new from before or during or since the Holocaust, and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen in the same way think about innocent people killed in Mariupol or in Israel. Thank you for recognising a film that asks you to think in those spaces.”
The words were warmly greeted in the room. Earlier, a Stop the War Coalition poster bearing the message “Gaza: Stop the Massacre” was borne on the red carpet by Ken Loach and his fellow The Old Oak film-makers.
Meanwhile, 20 Days in Mariupol, a harrowing look at the first three weeks of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine through the eyes of the local reporters for the Associated Press, won best documentary.
Its weary-sounding director, Mstyslav Chernov, highlighted the recent fall of Avdiivka into Russian hands, saying: “Mariupol is a symbol of everything that happens, of struggle, of faith. Thank for empowering our voice, and let’s keep fighting.”
Barbie, Oppenheimer’s running mate – and rival – in last summer’s extraordinary box office phenomenon, left the awards empty-handed, as did Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon, Celine Song’s Past Lives and Bradley Cooper’s Maestro.
There was some disappointment for The Holdovers, Alexander Payne’s 1970s-set comedy, which missed out on leading actor for Paul Giamatti, but did take the casting award for Susan Shopmaker and supporting actress for Da’Vine Joy Randolph, who made a rousing and emotional acceptance speech.
Randolph has won every award in the category this season, and her victory in London, beating homegrown stars such as Rosamund Pike (for Saltburn) and Emily Blunt (for Oppenheimer) cements her position as the surest Oscar bet in recent memory.
There was a surprise in the best debut category, as former GB volleyball player Savanah Leaf won for Earth Mama over the much-fancied Molly Manning Walker, writer-director of How to Have Sex. The star of that film, Mia McKenna-Bruce, took the rising star award, which is voted for by the public.
The Bafta fellowship went to Samantha Morton, who dedicated her award to “every child in care today, or who has been in care, or who is suffering, or who didn’t survive”.
The ceremony was hosted by David Tennant, who played it safe with a script whose jabs were mostly confined to friends such as Michael Sheen. In attendance was Bafta president Prince William, sitting next to Cate Blanchett, in the absence of his wife, Kate. A standing ovation met Michael J Fox, the subject of Bafta-nominated documentary Still, who presented the best picture award.
This year’s Oscars take place in three weeks, on 10 March. Although there is considerable overlap between the almost 8,000 Bafta voters and the 10,000 Oscar voters, last year’s winners diverged dramatically from the Academy Awards, when German-language war film All Quiet on the Western Front swept the former, while madcap comedy Everything Everywhere All At Once dominated the latter.
Cate Blanchett and Austin Butler won leading actor awards at the Baftas, for Tár and Elvis, while The Whale’s Brendan Fraser and Everything Everywhere All At Once’s Yeoh took the equivalent Oscars.
Source: The Guardian
Best film
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Poor Things
Outstanding British film
All of Us Strangers
How to Have Sex
Napoleon
The Old Oak
Poor Things
Rye Lane
Saltburn
Scrapper
Wonka
The Zone of Interest – WINNER!
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
Blue Bag Life – Lisa Selby (director), Rebecca Lloyd-Evans (director, producer), Alex Fry (producer)
Bobi Wine: The People’s President – Christopher Sharp (director) [also directed by Moses Bwayo]
Earth Mama – Savanah Leaf (writer, director, producer), Shirley O’Connor (producer), Medb Riordan (producer) – WINNER!
How to Have Sex – Molly Manning Walker (writer, director)
Is There Anybody Out There? – Ella Glendining (director)
Best film not in the English language
20 Days in Mariupol
Anatomy of a Fall
Past Lives
Society of the Snow
The Zone of Interest – WINNER!
Best documentary
20 Days in Mariupol – WINNER!
American Symphony
Beyond Utopia
Still: A Michael J Fox Movie
Wham!
Best animated film
The Boy and the Heron – WINNER!
Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget
Elemental
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best director
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
Alexander Payne, The Holdovers
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Best original screenplay
Anatomy of a Fall – WINNER!
Barbie
The Holdovers
Maestro
Past Lives
Best adapted screenplay
All of Us Strangers
American Fiction – WINNER!
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Best leading actress
Fantasia Barrino, The Color Purple
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Vivian Oparah, Rye Lane
Margot Robbie, Barbie
Emma Stone, Poor Things – WINNER!
Best leading actor
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Barry Keoghan, Saltburn
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Teo Yoo, Past Lives
Best supporting actress
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers
Sandra Hüller, The Zone of Interest
Rosamund Pike, Saltburn
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers – WINNER!
Best supporting actor
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr, Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Jacob Elordi, Saltburn
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers
Dominic Sessa, The Holdovers
Best casting
All of Us Strangers
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers – WINNER!
How to Have Sex
Killers of the Flower Moon
Best cinematography
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Best editing
Anatomy of a Fall
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
Best costume design
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things – WINNER!
Best makeup and hair
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things – WINNER!
Best original score
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer – WINNER!
Poor Things
Saltburn
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best production design
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things – WINNER!
The Zone of Interest
Best sound
Ferrari
Maestro
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest – WINNER!
Best special visual effects
The Creator
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon
Poor Things
– WINNER!
Best British short animation
Crab Day – WINNER!
Visible Mending
Wild Summon
Best British short film
Festival of Slaps
Gorka
Jellyfish and Lobster – WINNER!
Such a Lovely Day
Yellow
EE Rising Star award (voted for by the public)
Phoebe Dynevor
Ayo Edebiri
Jacob Elordi
Mia McKenna-Bruce – WINNER!
Sophie Wilde
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