1917 dominates BAFTAs as the acting prizes go to favourites

The First World War epic 1917 has emerged as the big success at this year’s BAFTA Film Awards, taking seven prizes on a star-studded night at the Royal Albert Hall.

1917 dominated the 2020 BAFTAs

Sir Sam Mendes was named the Best Director as 1917 took the prizes for both Best Film and Outstanding British Film. Roger Deakins won the cinematography award, for camerawork that makes the film appear to be two continuous takes, with only one fade-to-black in between. 1917 also won for its production design, sound and special effects.

Joker, which went into the ceremony with the most nominations, left with only three awards, including for its score and a new award honouring casting directors. But it’s Joaquin Phoenix’s award for his portrayal of the eponymous central character that will confirm him as the favourite for the Oscar next week.

The other main acting prizes also went to stars who’ve already been dominating their categories at other awards ceremonies in the past few weeks; Renée Zellweger was named the Best Actress for her portrayal of Judy Garland in Judy, Brad Pitt won the Best Supporting Actor trophy for Once Upon A Time…in Hollywood and Best Supporting Actress went to Laura Dern for playing a no-nonsense divorce lawyer in Marriage Story.

As well as taking the honours for the best film not in the English Language, South Korea’s Parasite also won the BAFTA for the Best Original Screenplay. The Best Adapted Screenplay prize went to Taika Waititi for Jojo Rabbit.

Little Women was controversially omitted from the Best Director category, but won the award for Best Costume Design.

For Sama was named the Best Documentary, Bait was the Best British Debut, Little Women won Best Costume and Best Hair and Make-up went to Bombshell.

Perhaps the only surprise of the night was that the Best Animated Feature prize didn’t go to Pixar’s Toy Story 4, Disney’s Frozen 2 or Aardman’s Farmageddon, but to the Netflix release Klaus.

Collecting his Best Actor prize, Joaquin Phoenix referenced the controversy of a lack of non-white actors among the nominees in the main categories, describing it as “systemic racism”. Announcing the producer Kathleen Kennedy as a new Fellow of BAFTA, the organisation’s president, Prince William, said the current situation simply couldn’t be right, in this day and age and he said BAFTA had launched “a full and thorough review of the entire awards process” to ensure that opportunities are available for everyone.

One award that might, perhaps, provide solace for those seeking to improve diversity in the industry is the Rising Star award, which is voted on by members of the public. It went to a black actor, Micheal Ward, who starred in Blue Story, the gang film that was controversially removed from some screens in the UK for a while, after armed gang members were detained in the foyer of a cinema that was showing it.

And here is the full list of this year’s BAFTA Film Award winners:

Best film

  • WINNER: 1917
  • The Irishman
  • Joker
  • Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood
  • Parasite

Outstanding British film

  • WINNER: 1917
  • Bait
  • For Sama
  • Rocketman
  • Sorry We Missed You
  • The Two Popes

Leading actress

  • Jessie Buckley – Wild Rose
  • Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story
  • Saoirse Ronan – Little Women
  • Charlize Theron – Bombshell
  • WINNER: Renée Zellweger – Judy

Leading actor

  • Leonardo DiCaprio – Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood
  • Adam Driver – Marriage Story
  • Taron Egerton – Rocketman
  • WINNER: Joaquin Phoenix – Joker
  • Jonathan Pryce – The Two Popes

Supporting actress

  • WINNER: Laura Dern – Marriage Story
  • Scarlett Johansson – Jojo Rabbit
  • Florence Pugh – Little Women
  • Margot Robbie – Bombshell
  • Margot Robbie – Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood

Supporting actor

  • Tom Hanks – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
  • Anthony Hopkins – The Two Popes
  • Al Pacino – The Irishman
  • Joe Pesci – The Irishman
  • WINNER: Brad Pitt – Once Upon a Time In Hollywood

Director

  • WINNER: Sam Mendes – 1917
  • Martin Scorsese – The Irishman
  • Todd Phillips – Joker
  • Quentin Tarantino – Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood
  • Bong Joon-Ho – Parasite

EE Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)

  • Awkwafina
  • Jack Lowden
  • Kaitlyn Dever
  • Kelvin Harrison Jr
  • WINNER: Micheal Ward

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

  • WINNER: Bait – Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
  • For Sama – Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
  • Maiden – Alex Holmes
  • Only You – Harry Wootliff
  • Retablo – Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio

Film not in the English language

  • The Farewell
  • For Sama
  • Pain and Glory
  • WINNER: Parasite
  • Portrait of a Lady On Fire

Documentary

  • American Factory
  • Apollo 11
  • Diego Maradona
  • WINNER: For Sama
  • The Great Hack

Animated film

  • Frozen 2
  • WINNER: Klaus
  • A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
  • Toy Story 4

Original screenplay

  • Booksmart – Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
  • Knives Out – Rian Johnson
  • Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach
  • Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
  • WINNER: Parasite – Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho

Adapted screenplay

  • The Irishman – Steven Zaillian
  • WINNER: Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi
  • Joker – Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
  • Little Women – Greta Gerwig
  • The Two Popes – Anthony McCarten

Original score

  • 1917 – Thomas Newman
  • Jojo Rabbit – Michael Giacchino
  • WINNER: Joker – Hildur Gudnadottir
  • Little Women – Alexandre Desplat
  • Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – John Williams

Cinematography

  • WINNER: 1917 – Roger Deakins
  • The Irishman – Rodrigo Prieto
  • Joker – Lawrence Sher
  • Le Mans ’66 – Phedon Papamichael
  • The Lighthouse – Jarin Blaschke

Costume design

  • The Irishman – Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell
  • Jojo Rabbit – Mayes C Rubeo
  • Judy – Jany Temime
  • WINNER: Little Women – Jacqueline Durrant
  • Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood – Arianne Phillips

Editing

  • The Irishman – Thelma Schoonmaker
  • Jojo Rabbit – Tom Eagles
  • Joker – Jeff Groth
  • WINNER: Le Mans ’66 – Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker
  • Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood – Fred Raskin

Production design

  • WINNER: 1917 – Lee Sandales
  • The Irishman – Bob Shaw, Regina Graves
  • Jojo Rabbit – Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková
  • Joker – Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran
  • Once upon a Time… In Hollywood – Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh

Make-up and hair

  • 1917 – Naomi Donne
  • WINNER: Bombshell – Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan
  • Joker – Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann
  • Judy – Jeremy Woodhead
  • Rocketman – Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

Sound

  • WINNER: 1917 – Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson
  • Joker – Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic
  • Le Mans ’66 – David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester
  • Rocketman – Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan
  • Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

Best special visual effects

  • WINNER: 1917 – Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy
  • Avengers: Endgame – Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick
  • The Irishman – Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman
  • The Lion King – Andrew R Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez
  • Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy

Best casting

  • WINNER: Joker – Shayna Markowitz
  • Marriage Story – Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler
  • Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood – Victoria Thomas
  • The Personal History of David Copperfield – Sarah Crowe
  • The Two Popes – Nina Gold

British short film

  • Azaar
  • Goldfish
  • Kamali
  • WINNER: Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl)
  • The Trap

British short animation

  • WINNER: Grandad Was A Romantic
  • In Her Boots
  • The Magic Boat

Outstanding Contribution

Andy Serkis

BAFTA Fellowship

Kathleen Kennedy