Oppenheimer was the big winner at the 2024 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Film Awards on Sunday, February 18, with the Christopher Nolan epic winning seven awards including the top honours for best director, best actor, and best supporting actor. Oppenheimer, which was one of the highest-grossing movies of 2023, won awards for lead actor Cillian Murphy who portrayed the American theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, supporting actor Robert Downey Jr, editing, cinematography, and original score.
Oppenheimer was followed by Poor Things which received five awards, with Emma Stone winning Best Actress. Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things is centred around a young woman brought back to life by an unorthodox scientist, after which she runs off with a lawyer on a whirlwind adventure across the continents.
Cillian Murphy started his acceptance speech with the words: "Oh boy! Holy moly." He then applauded Nolan and producer Emma Thomas, saying: "Thanks for seeing something in me that I didn't see in myself." He described them as his "Oppen-homies" — to laughter from the glitterati audience. Cate Blanchett presented the award.
In his acceptance speech, Nolan said that while his movie has finished on a "dramatically necessary note of despair," he wanted to spotlight the organisations who have worked over the years to "reduce the number of nuclear weapons in the world".
Receiving her best actress award, Emma Stone (Poor Things) thanked someone very important in her acceptance speech, notes BBC. She said: "Since we are in London, I'd like to start by thanking our dialect coach ... he did not laugh at me when I had to say water."
Justine Triet and her partner Arthur Harari picked up the award for Best Original Screenplay for the French courtroom drama, Anatomy of a Fall, which tells the story of a writer accused of her husband's murder.
Host David Tennant wound up the night with a joke: "Now as a wise person once said, come on Barbie, let's go party."
The camera then cut to Ryan Gosling and Margot Robbie's faces, as they laughed and clapped, BBC reports. But Barbie walked away empty-handed from the night, as was the case with for Bradley Cooper’s Maestro about Leonard Bernstein.
The BAFTA, meanwhile, faced backlash over its omission of Friends star Matthew Perry from the In Memoriam segment of the film awards night. This year's In Memoriam segment, set to a special arrangement of Cyndi Lauper's 'The After Time' performed by Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, featured Jane Birkin, Shirley Anne Field, Richard Roundtree, Michael Gambon, Tom Wilkinson, and Carl Weathers among others.The Academy has confirmed that Matthew Perry will be honoured at its TV awards later this year.
Perry, who died last October, was best known for his 10-year stint as Chandler Bing on hit TV show Friends, but he has also acted in several popular feature films including The Whole Nine Yards alongside Bruce Willis, Fools Rush In opposite Salma Hayek, and 17 Again starring Zac Efron.
Here's the full list of winners:
Best film: Oppenheimer
Outstanding British film: The Zone Of Interest
Best leading actress: Emma Stone for Poor Things
Best leading actor: Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer
Best supporting actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers
Best supporting actor: Robert Downey Jr for Oppenheimer
Best director: Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer: Earth Mama
Best film not in the English language: The Zone Of Interest
Best documentary: 20 Days In Mariupol
Best animated film: The Boy and the Heron
Best original screenplay: Anatomy Of A Fall
Best adapted screenplay: American Fiction
Best casting: Susan Shopmaker for The Holdovers
Best cinematography: Oppenheimer
Best editing: Oppenheimer
Best costume design: Poor Things
Best makeup and hair: Poor Things
Best original score: Ludwig Goransson for Oppenheimer
Best production design: Shona Heath, James Price and Zsuzsa Mihalek for Poor Things
Best sound: Johnnie Burn and Tarn Willers for The Zone Of Interest
Best special visual effects: Poor Things
Best British short animation: Crab Day
Best British short film: Jellyfish And Lobster
EE Rising Star award (voted for by the public): Mia Mckenna-Bruce
With inputs from IANS