The genre-bending music” Emilia Pérez” proved that it is still a candidate for an award at the 78th British Academy Film Awards, where it won four medals including best photograph and best picture despite a number of protracted reaction that appeared to have threatened its possibilities.
” The Brutalist” equaled the awards tally of” Conclave”, scooping four trophies, including best director for Brady Corbet and best actor for Adrien Brody. The Brooklyn docudrama” Anora” won the best actress award from Mikey Madison.
” Conclave”, which stars Ralph Fiennes as a cardinal luring conniving priests as they elect a new bishop, beat” The Brutalist”,” Emilia Pérez”, Bob Dylan film” A Complete Unfamiliar” to the top prize. ” Conclave” was also named outstanding British film and took trophies for editing and adapted screenplay.
Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldaa won the supporting actor awards for” Emilia Pérez,” which also received the award for best film not in the English language.
Saldaa won for her role as a lawyer who assists the title character in her transition from a woman to a life of crime. The movie presented” the most unique creative challenge of my life,” she said.
Best actress nominee Karla SofÃa Gascón, who stars as the titular transgender ex-cartel boss in” Emilia Pérez”, wasn’t at the ceremony. Gascón has withdrawn from promoting the film, which has 13 Oscar nominations, amid controversy over her social media posts disparaging Muslims, George Floyd and diversity at the Oscars.
Audiard has condemned those comments, but in his acceptance speech thanked Gascón and her co-stars Saldaña and Selena Gomez.
” I am deeply proud of what we have all achieved together”, he said.
From the BAFTAs to the OscarsStars including Cynthia Erivo, Hugh Grant, Ariana Grande, Lupita Nyong’o, Timothée Chalamet and Saoirse Ronan walked the red carpet at London’s Royal Festival Hall for the awards, known as BAFTAs.
In a strangely difficult-to-call awards season, the prizes will be watched for clues about who will win the Hollywood Academy Awards on March 2.
They also have a distinctive British accent. The ceremony kicked off with its kilt-wearing host, Scottish actor David Tennant, leading the audience in a rousing singalong of The Proclaimers ‘ anthem” I’m Gonna be ( 500 Miles )”.
Culkin’s award came for” A Real Pain”, about odd couple cousins on a trip to explore their roots. The film’s writer and co-star, Jesse Eisenberg, took the BAFTA for best original screenplay.
” I’d like to share this with my wife, who didn’t come because she didn’t think I’d win”, Eisenberg quipped.
After taking home the top prizes at the Producers Guild Awards and the Directors Guild Awards last week,” Anora,” a foreign dancer who is tangled with the son of a Russian oligarch, had been a top film winner.
” The Brutalist” had nine BAFTA nominations, while” Anora”, the sci-fi epic” Dune: Part Two” and musical” Wicked” hade seven each. ” A Complete Unknown” and Irish-language hip-hop drama” Kneecap” received six nominations apiece.
In” A Complete Unknown,” Brody defeated Fiennes and Chalamet, who play the young Dylan. The other male actors who received nominations were Sebastian Stan for his portrayal of a young Donald Trump in” The Apprentice,” Colman Domingo for his spooky role in the real-life prison drama” Sing Sing,” and Grant for his spooky role in the horror film” Heretic.”
Stan, who is also Oscar nominated, said it was “incredibly validating” to get recognition for the film, which initially struggled to find an American distributor. It’s a true origins story about Trump’s relationship with ruthless power broker Roy Cohn, who Jeremy Strong portrayed.
” We were told this was going to be a thankless job that was never going to lead to anything”, Stan said, describing the movie as a “fair” depiction of the president.
Best-actress nominees were Madison, Gascón, Demi Moore for body-horror film” The Substance”, Ronan for” The Outrun”, Erivo for” Wicked” and Marianne Jean-Baptiste for the Mike Leigh drama” Hard Truths”. The first non-white performer to win the leading actress BAFTA would have been Erivo or Jean-Baptiste.
Animated caper” Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl” won awards for best animated feature and best family and children’s film.
Sci-fi epic” Dune: Part Two” won prizes for sound and visual effects. ” The Brutalist” won for cinematography and musical score. Musical” Wicked” took the costume and production design trophies.
Rising stars and lifetime honorsThe British film academy made changes to the awards system to increase diversity in 2020, when no women were nominated for best director for the seventh consecutive year and all 20 nominees for lead and supporting performers were all white.
Most winners are chosen by 8, 000 members of the U. K. academy of industry professionals, with one — the Rising Star Award —- selected by public vote from a shortlist of nominees. This year’s winner was David Jonsson, star of high finance drama series” Industry” and London rom-com” Rye Lane”.
” Star, I don’t know”, he said. ” But rising, I guess”.
” Willow” and” Return of the Jedi” actor Warwick Davis received the academy’s top honor, the BAFTA Fellowship, for his screen career and work to create a more inclusive film industry.
He founded a talent agency for actors under 5 feet tall, because, he said,” short actors weren’t known for their talent, just their height”.
Sara Putt, the chairwoman of the BAFTA, sent a message of strength to everyone who was affected by the devastating wildfires that occurred last month in Los Angeles. Due to the fires, Jamie Lee Curtis, a supporting actress nominee for” The Last Showgirl,” was unavailable.
This year, the event was lacking in a dash of royal glamour. Neither Prince William, who is honorary president of the British film academy, nor his wife Kate are attending. The parents ‘ three children attend school on the same day as the awards.
Before the Rising Star Award was presented, William, 42, sent a recorded video message.
