news BAFTA Film Winners: Best Film Goes to ‘Nomadland,’ Frances McDormand Wins Best Actress

The second night of EE British Academy Film Awards followed a Saturday showing that revealed the Brit voting body’s picks for crafts prizes and other below-the-line honors. Sunday night’s show was hosted by Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary. See the full list of winners below.

Big winners on Sunday include Best Picture “Nomadland” and Best Actress Frances McDormand, Best Actor Anthony Hopkins for “The Father,” Best Director Chloé Zhao for “Nomadland,” Daniel Kaluuya for Best Supporting Actor for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” Yuh-Jung Youn for Best Supporting Actress for “Minari,” “My Octopus Teacher” for Best Documentary, “Another Round” for Best Film Not in the English Language, “Soul” for Best Animated Film, and “Promising Young Woman” and “The Father” for screenplay prizes.

On Sunday, Hugh Grant presented the BAFTA Fellowship, the British Academy’s highest honor, to Ang Lee in a moving and witty tribute.

The first night of the BAFTAs saw big wins for Netflix’s “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” which picked up Costume Design and Makeup & Hair honors. The film is also contending in those categories at the stateside Academy Awards later this month.

David Fincher’s black-and-white ode to the Hollywood of yesteryear “Mank” won the BAFTA for Best Production Design, a prize the Netflix film is poised to also pick up at the Oscars on April 25. Amazon Studios’ “Sound of Metal” won the award for Best Sound for its immersion into the experience of a heavy-metal drummer, played by BAFTA and Oscar nominee Riz Ahmed, who begins to lose his hearing. Christopher Nolan’s summer espionage hit “Tenet,” meanwhile, picked up the prize for visual effects. The Warner Bros. will release will contend for that honor at the Oscars also.

Best Film
“The Father”
The Mauritanian”
“Nomadland”
“Promising Young Woman”
“The Trial Of The Chicago 7”

Leading Actress
Bukky Bakray, “Rocks”
Radha Blank, “The Forty-Year-Old Version”
Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces Of A Woman”
Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”
Wunmi Mosaku, “His House”
Alfre Woodard, Clemency”

Leading Actor
Riz Ahmed, “Sound Of Metal”
Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Adarsh Gourav, “The White Tiger”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”
Mads Mikkelsen, “Another Round”
Tahar Rahim, “The Mauritanian”

Supporting Actress
Niamh Algar, “Calm With Horses”
Kosar Ali, “Rocks”
Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Dominique Fishback, “Judas And The Black Messiah”
Ashley Madekwe, County Lines”
Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari”

Supporting Actor
Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas And The Black Messiah”

Barry Keoghan, “Calm With Horses”
Alan Kim, “Minari”
Leslie Odom Jr., “One Night In Miami…”
Clarke Peters, “Da 5 Bloods”
Paul Raci, “Sound Of Metal”

Outstanding British Film
“Calm With Horses”
“The Dig”
“The Father”
“His House”
“Limbo”
“The Mauritanian”
“Mogul Mowgli”
“Promising Young Woman”
“Rocks”
“Saint Maud”

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer
“His House,” Remi Weekes (Writer/Director)

“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock (Writer/Director), Irune Gurtubai (Producer) [Also Produced By Angus Lamont]
“Moffie,” Jack Sidey (Writer/Producer) [Also Written By Oliver Hermanus And Produced By Eric Abraham]
“Rocks,” Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (Writers)
“Saint Maud,” Rose Glass (Writer/Director), Oliver Kassman (Producer) [Also Produced By Andrea Cornwell]

EE Rising Star Award
Bukky Bakray

Conrad Kahn
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Morfydd Clark
Ṣọpẹ́ Dìrísù

Film Not In The English Language
“Another Round”

“Dear Comrades!”
“Les Misérables”
“Minari”
“Quo Vadis, Aida?”

Documentary
“Collective”
“David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet”
“The Dissident”
“My Octopus Teacher”
“The Social Dilemma”

Animated Film
“Onward”
“Soul”
“Wolfwalkers”

Director
“Another Round,” Thomas Vinterberg
“Babyteeth,” Shannon Murphy
“Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao
“Quo Vadis, Aida?,” Jasmila Žbanić
“Rocks,” Sarah Gavron

Original Screenplay
“Another Round,” Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg
“Mank,” Jack Fincher
“Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell
“Rocks,” Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
“The Trial Of The Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin

Adapted Screenplay
“The Dig,” Moira Buffini
“The Father,” Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller
“The Mauritanian,” Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao
“The White Tiger,” Ramin Bahrani

Original Score
“Mank,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
“Minari,” Emile Mosseri
“News Of The World,” James Newton Howard
“Promising Young Woman,” Anthony Willis
“Soul,” Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Casting

“Calm With Horses,” Shaheen Baig
“Judas And The Black Messiah,” Alexa L. Fogel
“Minari,” Julia Kim
“Promising Young Woman,” Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu
“Rocks,” Lucy Pardee

Cinematography

“Judas And The Black Messiah,” Sean Bobbitt
“Mank,” Erik Messerschmidt
“The Mauritanian,” Alwin H. Küchler
“News Of The World,” Dariusz Wolski
“Nomadland,” Joshua James Richards

Editing

“The Father,” Yorgos Lamprinos
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao
“Promising Young Woman,” Frédéric Thoraval
“Sound Of Metal,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen
“The Trial Of The Chicago 7,” Alan Baumgarten

Production Design
“The Dig,” Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
“The Father,” Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
“Mank,” Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale
“News Of The World,” David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan
“Rebecca,” Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Costume Design
“Ammonite,” Michael O’connor
“The Dig,” Alice Babidge
“Emma,” Alexandra Byrne
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Ann Roth
“Mank,” Trish Summerville

Make Up & Hair
“The Dig,” Jenny Shircore
“Hillbilly Elegy,” Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal
“Mank,” Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams
“Pinocchio,” Mark Coulier

Sound
“Greyhound,” Beau Borders, Christian P. Minkler, Michael Minkler, Warren Shaw, David Wyman
“News Of The World,” Michael Fentum, William Miller, Mike Prestwood Smith, John Pritchett, Oliver Tarney
“Nomadland,” Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, M. Wolf Snyder
“Soul,” Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker
“Sound Of Metal,” Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc

Special Visual Effects

“Greyhound,” Pete Bebb, Nathan Mcguinness, Sebastian Von Overheidt
“The Midnight Sky,” Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, David Watkins
“Mulan,” Sean Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury
“The One And Only Ivan,” Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher
“Tenet,” Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley

British Short Animation

“The Fire Next Time,” Renaldho Pelle, Yanling Wang, Kerry Jade Kolbe
“The Owl And The Pussycat,” Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf
“The Song Of A Lost Boy,” Daniel Quirke, Jamie Macdonald, Brid Arnstein

British Short Film
“The Present,” Farah Nabulsi

“Eyelash,” Jesse Lewis-Reece, Ike Newman
“Lizard,” Akinola Davies, Rachel Dargavel, Wale Davies
“Lucky Break,” John Addis, Rami Sarras Pantoja
“Miss Curvy,” Ghada Eldemellawy
 
The BAFTAs are a crucial marker in the Oscar race, because there’s an actual overlap between the British Academy and Oscar voters. But the outcome of this weekend’s BAFTA races, split into two virtual awards presentations, was less predictive than usual. That’s because while the British contingent of Oscar voters dominates the increasingly international Academy (25 percent of the 9,362 total), in order to combat #BAFTAsSoWhite this year, juries weighed in on the directing and acting categories, nominating a record 24 first-timers. This meant that not only were several Oscar-nominated players not competing, but that any American nominees that survived the always British-leaning BAFTAs were stronger than ever.

Landing seven nominations was a sign of strength for “Nomadland” (Searchlight), which went on to win four, including Best Film, Cinematography (British Joshua James Richards), Director (Chloé Zhao), and Actress Frances McDormand, notching her second BAFTA win after “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri.” However, the American McDormand was not up against Critics Choice winner Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”), SAG winner Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”), or Globe winner Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday”). “I thank Fran for discovering Fern with me and for bringing so much joy to our journey,” said Zhao.

While McDormand’s BAFTA win demonstrates the overall strength of “Nomadland,” it does nothing to clarify the Best Actress Oscar race. That suspenseful outcome will be declared on April 25 at multiple hubs in Los Angeles and London.

In an upset, Welsh star Anthony Hopkins in “The Father,” a British production, beat the late Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) for Best Actor for the first time, but Hopkins was not competing against Oscar nominees Gary Oldman (“Mank”) or Steven Yeun (“Minari”) in that category. There is a sense that as Oscar voters catch up with “The Father” and Hopkins’ volcanic performance, if anyone were to topple the posthumous Boseman narrative, it could be the 82-year-old thespian, who last won in 1992 for “The Silence of the Lambs.”

“The Father” also built momentum in another key race, beating “Nomadland” for Best Adapted Screenplay for writer/director Florian Zeller and British playwright Christopher Hampton, who helped Zeller to adapt his French play for the London production as well as the movie.

Nomadland Chloé Zhao Joshua James Richards Podcast

Chloé Zhao, Joshua James Richards and Frances McDormand on the set of “Nomadland”

Searchlight Pictures

The SAG Supporting Actress winner, “Minari” grandmother Yuh-Jung Youn, won again with a charming speech thanking the “snobby” Brits for rewarding her. While she was not competing with Oscar nominees Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) and Olivia Colman (“The Father”), she is expected to take the win on Oscar night for Lee Isaac Chung’s popular farm drama (A24).

In the Supporting Actor race, as predicted, Daniel Kaluuya won again for “Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros.) as he will inevitably do at the Oscars, although his prime competitor Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) was excluded by the BAFTA jury. Overlooked entirely by BAFTA voters was Aaron Sorkin’s “The Trial of the Chicago 7.”

Homegrown rookie writer/director Emerald Fennell’s “Promising Young Woman” (Focus Features) got a boost by winning both Original Screenplay and Outstanding British Film. The film was “a labor of love, certainly,” she said. “Everyone did it pretty much for a packet of crisps, because they believed in it. It was the greatest thing in my life, making this film, and I love everyone who made it and I’m so grateful to them and everyone who’s watched it and been insightful about it.”

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

“My Octopus Teacher”

Netflix

Otherwise, Netflix scored well, winning Documentary for South African pickup “My Octopus Teacher.” Co-director Pippa Ehrlich thanked producer-subject Craig Foster, “who shared his story with an open heart and vulnerability, and the little octopus who opened hearts around the world.”

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” picked up Costume Design and Makeup & Hair, beating out homegrown “Emma,” and David Fincher’s black-and-white Hollywood Golden Age homage “Mank” won the BAFTA for Best Production Design. All could repeat at the Oscars.

Amazon Studios’ immersion into the world of a suddenly deaf drummer, “Sound of Metal,” won both Best Editing and Sound, two categories that often go together, which bodes well for dual wins on Oscar night. Also possibly forecasting an Oscar repeat in the VFX category was BAFTA winner Christopher Nolan’s spy thriller “Tenet.”

Another Round

“Another Round”

Samuel Goldwyn Films /Courtesy Everett Collection

On the foreign-film front, Denmark took home the prize for “Another Round,” which is also the Oscar frontrunner. “I had a small suspicion that you Brits might like a movie about drinking,” said jubilant director Thomas Vinterberg, surrounded by family and friends. He took a more somber note as he dedicated the film to his late daughter Ida, killed in a freak car accident before the start of production. “She was more enthusiastic about this project than anyone else. It made her miss her hometown Copenhagen, and now we honor her.”

If there was a chance for Irish film “Wolfwalkers” to beat “Soul,” this was it, but the Pixar fable about a Black musician (Jamie Foxx) fighting to return to life took home both Best Animated Film and Score, en route to likely the same results at the Oscars.

As for the show, the glitches were edited out of the BBC broadcast as hosts (Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary), presenters (among them Tom Hiddleston, Cynthia Erivo, Pedro Pascal, Andra Day, and Hugh Grant), and music performers (high points were Leslie Odom, Jr. and Celeste) appeared from a hub in Los Angeles as well as the usual Royal Albert Hall theater. It was empty, with applause and reactions supplied by a virtual soundtrack from various members’ homes.

That audience sounded frustrated by the constantly delayed new Bond film “No Time to Die,” as well as shuttered theaters, which are scheduled to reopen in the UK next month. A sizzle reel of upcoming movies from “Dune” to “Black Widow” signaled cinematic pleasures to come.

Ang Lee graciously received this year’s BAFTA Academy Fellowship. “England has been very good to me,” he said. “It was the only market where ‘The Ice Storm’ made money. And making ‘Sense and Sensibility’ was like a second film school to me… Cinema is about the courage to open ourselves to truth.”

Best Film
“Nomadland”

Leading Actress
Frances McDormand, “Nomadland”

Leading Actor
Anthony Hopkins, “The Father”

Supporting Actress
Yuh-jung Youn, “Minari”

Supporting Actor
Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas And The Black Messiah”

Outstanding British Film
“Promising Young Woman”

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer
“His House,” Remi Weekes (Writer/Director)

Film Not In The English Language
“Another Round”

Documentary
“My Octopus Teacher”

Animated Film
“Soul”

Director
“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao

Original Screenplay
“Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell

Adapted Screenplay
“The Father,” Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller

Original Score
“Soul,” Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross

Casting
“Rocks,” Lucy Pardee

Cinematography
“Nomadland,” Joshua James Richards

Editing
“Sound Of Metal,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen

Production Design
“Mank,” Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale

Costume Design
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Ann Roth

Make Up & Hair
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal

Sound
“Sound Of Metal,” Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc

Special Visual Effects
“Tenet,” Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley

British Short Animation
“The Owl And The Pussycat,” Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf

British Short Film
“The Present,” Farah Nabulsi

Rising Star
Bukky Bakry (“Rocks”)
 
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