German anti-war drama “Im Westen nichts Neues” (“All Quiet on the Front”) won seven BAFTAs on Sunday, including best film at the British Academy Film Awards, adding to its momentum heading into next year’s Oscars. month.
The Irish comedy comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” and the Elvis Presley biopic “Elvis” each took home four awards.
“Im Westen nichts Neues,” a stark portrayal of life and death in the trenches of World War I, won Edward Berger the best director award. His other trophies included Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Best Original Score, Best Sound, and Best Foreign Language Film.
Austin Butler surprised by taking the best actor award for “Elvis”. Baz Lurhmann’s ostentatious biopic and musical also took home awards for casting (cast selection), costume design, hair and makeup. Cate Blanchett won the best actress award for the drama about a female orchestra conductor “Tár”.
Martin McDonagh’s “Banshees”, the dark comedy about two friends in a fight, was named best British film.
“The award for best what?” McDonagh jokingly asked, about the film shot in Ireland with a primarily Irish cast and crew. The film has British funding and McDonagh was born in Britain to Irish parents.
“Banshees” also won the award for original screenplay for McDonagh and the trophy for best supporting actress for Kerry Condon and best supporting actor for Barry Keoghan.
The awards, officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards, are the British equivalent of Hollywood’s Academy Awards and are often closely watched as an indicator of who might win at the Oscars, which this year will be handed out on 12 of March.
The zany multiverse tale “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” the top Academy Award nominee, won just one of the 10 BAFTAs it was nominated for, per edition.
Mexican director Guillermo del Toro took home an award for “Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio” (“Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio”), winner in the best animated film category.
Actor Richard E. Grant was a humorous and self-deprecating emcee, with the help of TV presenter Alison Hammond, for the ceremony at London’s Royal Festival Hall, where the British academy highlighted its efforts for greater diversity , but recognized that there was still work to be done.
Grant joked about Will Smith’s famous slap to Chris Rock at last year’s Oscars.
“No one will receive palm strikes under my watch. Except in the back,” she said.
Among the guests and presenters who walked the red carpet on the south bank of the River Thames were Colin Farrell, Eddie Redmayne, Brian Cox, Florence Pugh, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Cynthia Erivo, Julianne Moore, Lily James, the Cuban-Spanish actress Ana de Armas and del Toro.
Prince William, heir to the British throne and who is president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, was in the audience along with his wife Catherine, Princess of Wales. Guillermo wore a tuxedo with a black velvet jacket, Catalina wore a long white Alexander McQueen dress that she also wore to the 2019 BAFTAs.
Helen Mirren paid tribute to William’s grandmother, Queen Elizabeth II, who passed away in September. Mirren, who played the monarch in the film “The Queen” and on stage in “The Audience,” called Elizabeth “the lady who led the nation.”
The British film academy introduced changes to increase the diversity of its awards in 2020, when no women were nominated for best directing for the seventh consecutive year and all 20 nominees in the acting categories were white.
This year there were 11 female directors competing in all categories, including documentaries and animated features. But only one of the nominees in the main category for best direction was a woman: Gina Prince-Bythewood for “The Woman King.”
BAFTA president Krishnendu Majumdar said the academy’s reflection had been a “necessary and sobering” process. He said that “vital work to level the field” for the awards competition will continue.
“West Side Story” star of Puerto Rican descent (“Amor sin barreras”) Ariana DeBose kicked off the ceremony by performing “Sisters are Doin’ it for Themselves,” with a rapped salute to some of the women nominees, including Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis and Michelle Yeoh.
Blanchett said that this had been “an extraordinary year for female performers. To be considered among them is really special.”
It was also a good year for British actors at the BAFTAs, with nominees including Deryl McCormack in the rising star category, Condon, Keoghan, Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the final four for “Banshees”.
McCormack called the gala “the Irish BAFTAs”.
“It’s a small country, but to see the talent coming out of there is pretty incredible,” he said.
Writer-director Charlotte Wells won best British debut for her father-daughter drama “Aftersun.” Three-time Oscar winner Sandy Powell became the first costume designer to receive the highest honor from the BAFTA Fellowship. Emma Mackey won the rising star award.
The harsh reality of the outside world spilled over into the awards hall when Bulgarian journalist Christo Grozev, who works for the investigative site Bellingcat, said he was unable to enter the ceremony due to a public safety risk. Grozev starred in “Navalny,” a film about imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny that won best documentary at the BAFTAs.
“Navalny” producer Odessa Rae dedicated the award to Grozev, “our Bulgarian nerd with a laptop, who couldn’t be with us tonight because his life is threatened by the Russian government and Vladimir Putin.”
Jamie Lee Curtis, a best supporting actress nominee for “Everything Everywhere,” said the award season opportunity to celebrate filmmaking is more important than who wins.
“It’s a celebratory moment in the middle of everything,” Curtis told The Associated Press on the red carpet. “Things are difficult outside. Everywhere. At the same time. All the time”.
