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The politically infused thriller One Battle After Another triumphed at the British Academy Film Awards, securing six accolades, including the coveted best picture. This success boosts its profile as it heads into the race for Hollywood’s Academy Awards next month.
The blues-infused vampire saga Sinners and the gothic horror tale Frankenstein each garnered three awards. Meanwhile, the Shakespearean family tragedy Hamnet claimed two, including the honor of best British film.
Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, One Battle After Another tells the electrifying story of revolutionaries clashing with state forces. It took home awards for directing, adapted screenplay, cinematography, and editing, alongside Sean Penn’s recognition for his supporting role as a fervent military officer.
“This is an incredibly overwhelming and wonderful experience,” Anderson expressed while accepting the award for best director.
During his speech, he honored his longtime assistant director, Adam Somner, who sadly passed away from cancer in November 2024, just weeks after filming began.
“We have a line from Nina Simone that we used in our film, ‘I know what freedom is: It’s no fear,’” the director said.
“Let’s keep making things without fear. It’s a good idea.”
Bookies’ favourite Jessie Buckley won the best actress prize for playing grieving mother Agnes Hathaway, wife of William Shakespeare, in Hamnet.
She is the first Irish performer to win a best actress prize at the awards, known as BAFTAs.
In a major upset, Robert Aramayo won the best actor category for his performance in I Swear, a British indie drama about a campaigner for people with Tourette’s syndrome.
The 33-year-old British actor looked stunned and called the victory over Ethan Hawke, Michael B Jordan, Leonardo DiCaprio and Timothée Chalamet “absolutely mad”.
“I absolutely can’t believe this,” he said.
“Everyone in this category blows me away.”
Sinners took home trophies for director Ryan Coogler’s original screenplay, the film’s musical score and for Wunmi Mosaku’s supporting actress performance as herbalist and healer Annie.
The British-Nigerian actor said that in the role she found “a part of my hopes, my ancestral power and my connection, parts I thought I had lost or tried to dim as an immigrant trying to fit in”.
Hollywood stars and British celebrities, from Paddington Bear to the Prince and Princess of Wales, gathered at London’s Royal Festival Hall for the awards.
DiCaprio, Chalamet, Emma Stone, Cillian Murphy, Glenn Close, and Ethan Hawke were among the stars walking the red carpet before a black-tie ceremony hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming.
Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales also attended, three days after William’s uncle Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor was arrested by police and held for 11 hours over allegations he sent sensitive government information to the late financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
The scandal has rocked the royal family led by King Charles III, though William and Kate remain popular standard-bearers for the monarchy.
William was due to present an award in his role as president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Among the biggest receptions from gathered fans was for Paddington, the puppet bear who stars in a musical stage adaption of the beloved children’s classic.
The British prizes, officially called the EE BAFTA Film Awards, often provide hints about who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held this year on March 15.
Sinners has a record 16 Oscar nominations, followed by One Battle After Another with 13.
One Battle went into the BAFTAs ceremony with 14 nominations. Sinners was just behind with 13, while Hamnet had 11.
Ping-pong odyssey Marty Supreme also had 11 nominations but went home empty-handed.
Guillermo del Toro’s reimagining of Frankenstein and Norwegian family drama Sentimental Value each got eight nominations.
Frankenstein took awards for production design, costume design and for the hair and makeup artists who spent 10 hours a day transforming Jacob Elordi into the movie’s monstrous creature.
Sentimental Value won the prize for the best film not in English.
Cumming told the audience that it had been a strong year for cinema, if not a cheerful one, with nominated films tackling themes including child death, racism and political violence.
“Watching the films this year was like taking part in a collective nervous breakdown,” he said.
“It’s almost as though there are events going on in the real world that are influencing filmmakers.”
The ceremony was more glitz than gloom, though, including a performance by Ejae, Audrey Nuna and Rei Ami – the voices of animated band HUNTR/X in box office juggernaut KPop Demon Hunters – singing the movie hit Golden.
Putin critic wins best documentary
The best-documentary prize went to Mr Nobody Against Putin, about a Russian teacher who documented the propaganda imposed on Russian schools after the invasion of Ukraine.
The film’s American director David Borenstein said that teacher Pavel Talankin had shown that “whether it’s in Russia or the streets of Minneapolis, we always face a moral choice,” referring to the protests against US immigration enforcement in Minnesota.
“We need more Mr Nobodies,” he said.
It beat documentaries including Mstyslav Chernov’s harrowing Ukraine war portrait 2000 Metres to Andriivka, co-produced by The Associated Press and Frontline PBS.
Most BAFTA winners are chosen by 8500 members of the UK academy of industry professionals.
The Rising Star award, which is decided by public vote, went to Aramayo.
Donna Langley, the UK-born chairwoman of NBCUniversal Entertainment, was awarded the British Academy’s highest honor, the BAFTA fellowship.
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