BAFTAs 2024: Oppenheimer wins the most awards, with Barbie and Killers of Flower Moon being totally ignored

The 77th British Academy Film Awards on Sunday saw the atomic bomb epic Oppenheimer win seven categories, including best picture, director, and actor, solidifying its position as the front-runner for the Oscars the following month.

Epic of history Killers of the Flower Moon is a biopic about Leonard Bernstein. Masterful, love tale tinged with melancholy Despite receiving several nominations, Saltburn, the class-war dramedy, and All of Us Strangers both came up empty.

Barbie, half of the year’s highest-earning movie and 2023’s Barbenheimer big office powerhouse, received no nods at all. Many people felt that Greta Gerwig, the director of Barbie, was seriously overlooked when she was not nominated for a directing honor at the BAFTAs or the Oscars.

Gothic Imagination The Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest took home three awards, while Poor Things took home five.

For his portrayal of scientist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, Irish actor Cillian Murphy took home the Best Actor BAFTA, while British-born director Christopher Nolan earned his first Best Director BAFTA for Oppenheimer.

Murphy expressed his gratitude for getting to portray a “colossally knotty, complex character.” After pointing out that the movie necessarily represents the nihilistic nature of nuclear weapons, Nolan thanked the film’s financiers and said, “Thank you for taking on something dark.”

Playing the wild and vivacious Bella Baxter in the steampunk-style visual spectacular Poor Things, which took home awards for production design, visual effects, cosmetics and hair, and costume design, earned Emma Stone the title of best actress.

Despite having a field-high 13 nominations, Oppenheimer was unable to match Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s 1971 record of nine prizes.

Against Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Anatomy of a Fall, and The Holdovers, it won the best film competition. Along with winning awards for editing, cinematography, and musical score, Oppenheimer also received recognition for Robert Downey Jr.’s performance as Lewis Strauss, the chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Da’Vine Playing a boarding school chef in The Holdovers, Joy Randolph won best supporting actress. She said that telling the tales of marginalized individuals like her character Mary felt like a “responsibility I don’t take lightly.”

Oppenheimer had fierce competition in what is seen as a historic year for film, with the conclusion of the months-long strikes by actors and writers igniting excitement for the Oscar season.

The Zone of Interest, a British-produced movie with a mostly German cast that was filmed in Poland, won the prizes for best British film and best picture not in English, which is a first, as well as best sound design, which has been called the movie’s true highlight.

The disturbing play by Jonathan Glazer is set in a family house that is just outside the gates of the Auschwitz death camp, where the atrocities are spoken about but not really seen.

Producer James Wilson said, “Walls are nothing new from before or since the Holocaust, and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza, Yemen, Mariupol, or Israel.” “We appreciate your recognition of a movie that challenges our preconceived notions.”

The Associated Press and PBS Frontline documentary 20 Days in Mariupol on the fighting in Ukraine took home the best documentary award.

“This is not about us,” said Mstyslav Chernov, a videographer who worked with an AP crew to document the terrifying realities of life in the besieged city. “This is about the people of Mariupol, about Ukraine.”

The history of the city and its subjugation by the Russians, according to Chernov, “is a symbol of struggle and a symbol of faith.” We appreciate you giving us a voice, and together, let’s continue the battle.

A glamorous, British-inspired prelude to Hollywood’s Oscar Awards, the gala was hosted by Doctor Who actor David Tennant, who made his entrance wearing a kilt and a sequined top while toting a dog called Bark Ruffalo. Many waited for clues about who would win at the Oscars on March 10.

The French courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall took home the Oscar for best original script. Justine Triet, the filmmaker, and Arthur Harari, her boyfriend, wrote the script for the movie about a woman on trial for her husband’s killing.

Triet remarked, “It’s a fiction, and we are reasonably fine.”

For the satirical film “American Fiction,” which follows the hardships of an African-American author, Cord Jefferson took home the Oscar for best-adapted screenplay.

With the film’s popularity, Jefferson expressed his hope that “people in charge of greenlighting films and TV shows might change their minds and become less risk-averse.”

In 2020, when all 20 candidates in the lead and supporting performance categories were white and no woman was nominated for best director for the seventh consecutive year, the British Film Academy made adjustments to broaden the awards’ diversity. Among the six candidates for best director this year, Triet was the only female.

The winner of the sole category selected by the general public, the Rising Actor Award, went to How to Have Sex actor Mia McKenna-Bruce.

Prior to the event, presenters Andrew Scott, Cate Blanchett, Idirs Elba, and David Beckham walked the red carpet at London’s Royal Festival Hall alongside candidates Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Emily Blunt, Rosamund Pike, Ryan Gosling, and Ayo Edebiri.

As the head of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, Prince William was the honored guest. His wife Kate, who had stomach surgery last month, was not there when he arrived.

Hannah Waddingham, who starred in Ted Lasso, sang Time After Time during the event, while Sophie Ellis-Bextor sang her 2001 hit song Murder on the Dancefloor, which rocketed back up the charts after appearing in Saltburn.

June Givanni, the creator of the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive and a film curator, was recognized for her remarkable contribution to British cinema, while actress Samantha Morton was awarded the BAFTA Fellowship, the highest honor bestowed by the academy.

According to Morton, who was raised in foster care and children’s homes, “representation matters.”

She said, “The stories we tell have the power to change people’s lives.” “Film transformed me, changed my life, and brought me to this place.”