Difficult to exist in the face of the Oppenheimer steamroller. The favorite with 13 nominations, Christopher Nolan’s biopic took up a good part of the Bafta, the British Caesars, on Sunday. The portrait of the architect of the atomic bomb walked away with seven trophies: best film, director, editing, cinematography, music, actor and supporting role.
Christopher Nolan, whose first victories at the Baftas are, dedicated his statuette for best director “to all the organizations and activists who fight against the proliferation of nuclear weapons”. “My film ends on a note of despair. But with this trophy, I want to pay tribute to the efforts of these men and women who fight for peace and show how necessary it is. Since 1967, a lot of progress has been made before recently heading back in the wrong direction.”
Sunday’s ceremony provides a little more clarity on the road to the Oscars, which will take place on March 10. Just under ten percent of American Film Academy voters come from the United Kingdom. A Bafta victory gives the winners a head start for the future. The list confirmed that the supporting roles categories have their ready-made champions by anointing the winners of the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.
A formidable bereaved cook in Winter Break, Da’Vine Joy Randolph wins among the actresses. The bittersweet Christmas comedy, by Alexander Payne, was also distinguished for its cast.
Among the men, Robert Downey Jr, who plays the senator who is the enemy of the physicist, concocted a tasty acceptance speech by retracing his career in a few minutes. “When I was 15, I wanted to be Peter O’Toole. When I was 25, I toured with Richard Attenbourgh and Anthony Hopkins. When I was 35, I finally understood why Richard thought Tony would be a better role model for me than Peter,” said Downey Jr. “At 42, I did two Sherlock Holmeses for Guy Ritchie: great Hollywood films with a British civil touch. I then played a guy named Tony in the MCU for about 12 years. Recently this guy Christopher Nolan gave me one last chance to regain my credibility….”
In the very tight categories of best actor and best actress, the Baftas gave the advantage to Oppenheimer’s interpreter, Irishman Cillian Murphy. That gives the Peaky Blinders star a little leg up on his most dangerous rival: Winter Break’s grumpy professor Paul Giamatti. “Cinema allows us to explore two sides of the same reality: a man can be a hero for some, a monster for others,” greeted the winner.
Sandra Hüller from Anatomy of a Fall was unable to create a surprise against the favorite Emma Stone, powerful in the skin of a woman discovering the world and desire in Poor Creatures. A Bafta victory for Sandra Hüller would have hinted at the possibility of shaking up the duel between Emma Stone and Lily Gladstone from Killers Of The Flower Moon at the Oscars. Surprisingly, the Native American actress was not in the running for the Baftas, which did not award anything to Martin Scorsese’s great fresco. Next stop in this pas de deux, the Actors Guild Awards next week. Other big losers of the evening: Barbie and Bradley Cooper’s portrait of composer Leonard Bernstein Maestro.
Competing in seven categories, including best film, foreign film, actress and direction, Anatomy of a Fall by Justine Triet was unable to fight against the Oppenheimer wave. The trial film opened the awards show by winning the Bafta for best original screenplay. Justine Triet wanted to reassure voters: “The last time I was in London, a spectator told me that she had called her ex to tell him to see my film to understand why she had left him. But everything is fine with my companion and co-writer Arthur Harari. The latter, facetiously, admitted to being a little worried. Like the victim in Anatomy of a Fall, he renovates his attic. “Task that pleases him, if I must indicate it for posterity in case something happens to me.”
This unique, and already formidable, victory suggests that Anatomy of a Fall’s best chance of success at the Oscars, where the drama competes in five categories, is for best original screenplay.
Also read: From Cannes to the Oscars, how Anatomy of a Fall is conquering the world
The rest of the evening was less sumptuous. The Palme d’Or was snatched from the statuette for best foreign film by The Zone of Interest. Jonathan Glazer’s sound dive into the hell of Auschwitz also won the trophy for best British film (beating Saltburn and Without Knowing Us) and best sound. Jonathan Glazer had a thought for all the victims of the conflicts that are bloodying the world: Gaza, Israel, Yemen, Ukraine.
Nominated eleven times, Poor Creatures, a satirical and feminine version of the Frankenstein myth, prospered in the technical categories, winning best sets, special effects and costumes.
Small surprise, Oppenheimer had to bow in the best adaptation category in favor of the satire American Fiction, about the underbelly of the publishing world.
In the sections reserved for British cinema, the graceful Mia McKenna-Bruce, a young girl losing her virginity to violence in How To Have Sex, managed to break through.
Hosted by one of the most popular performers in the legendary Doctor Who series, the vibrant David Tennant, the ceremony had a pop touch. The actor appeared on stage with a dog in his arms and mobilized his accomplice Michael Sheen for this dog-sitting act. Singer Sophie Ellis-Baxtor set the stage on fire with a cover of her 2000s hit Murder On The Dance Floor which dark comedy Saltburn took back to the top of the top 50. Stars of Apple TV comedy Ted Lasso Nick Mohammed and Hannah Waddingham offered beautiful moments of laughter and emotion.
Like Samantha Morton, winner of an honorary Bafta at the end of a tribute led by Tom Cruise. The Minority Report actress paid tribute to her popular roots, remembering the class screening of a Ken Loach film and the “revelation of seeing people suffering from poverty like her”. “Being represented on screen matters. To everyone who grew up struggling like me, you can rise above government statistics. Culture is one of these stepping stones.”
