Power of the Dog takes top BAFTAs as Americans dominate acting awards

One of the Awards season favourites, The Power of the Dog, has won the two top prizes at the British Academy – or BAFTA – Film Awards.

The Power of the Dog won Best Picture and Best Director but missed out in the acting categories.

It was named the Best Picture – as stars returned to a full post-Covid ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London – and Jane Campion was named the Best Director.

But its star, Benedict Cumberbatch, was beaten to the best actor prize by Will Smith, who portrayed the father of the tennis stars Venus and Serena Williams in King Richard, who’s turning out to be the clear favourite for the Oscars, in two weeks’ time.

Joanna Scanlan was the only British winner of one of the main BAFTA acting awards

The only British performer to take a top acting prize was Joanna Scanlon – until now best known for TV shows including The Thick of It and No Offence – who was named the best actress for her performance as a muslim convert in the low-key British film After Love. She beat the House of Gucci star Lady Gaga, who’d been nominated by BAFTA but overlooked for the upcoming Oscars; After Love didn’t register with the American Academy – in fact, none of the six nominated actresses received Oscar nominations too.

In the supporting categories, Ariana DeBose won for West Side Story and Coda star Troy Kotsur became the first deaf actor to win a BAFTA. Delivering his acceptance speech through an interpreter, he said it was great to have his work recognised “from all the way across the sea.”

CODA also won the Best Adapted Screenplay award, while the Best Original Screenplay prize went to Paul Thomas Anderson for Licorice Pizza, completing another American double.

And after weeks of topping the UK singles chart, Disney’s Encanto was named the best animated feature.

Sir Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical Belfast was named the Outstanding British Film

As the British academy, BAFTA likes to have awards to recognise specifically British talent, and Sir Kenneth Branagh’s semi-autobiographical tale Belfast was named the Outstanding British Film, while Jeymes Samuel, whose western The Harder The Fall, opened last year’s BFI London Film Festival, won the prize for the Outstanding British debut.

There was more British success in another category that recognises the talent of the future; James Bond’s replacement as 007 in No Time To Die, Lashana Lynch, won the Rising Star award, voted for by the public.  The Bond film also won the Best Editing BAFTA.

The most nominated film, going into awards night, was the sci-fi epic Dune, which went home with five awards, including best score for Hans Zimmer, as well as best cinematography, production design, sound and special effects.

After the traditional In Memoriam section of the ceremony, in which tributes were paid to industry figures who’ve died over the past years, the host of the night, the Australian comic Rebel Wilson, said, “Our thoughts are also at this time with the people afflicted by the conflict in Ukraine,” as many of the stars wore blue and yellow badges or ribbons, reflecting the Ukrainian flag.

Ahead of the ceremony, BAFTA’s chairman, Krishnendu Majumdar, told the audience, “We are hugely grateful to the journalists and film-makers covering Ukraine, many of whom are BAFTA members.”

And here is the full list of the night’s winners:

Best film

  • Winner: The Power of the Dog
  • Belfast
  • Don’t Look Up
  • Dune
  • Licorice Pizza

Outstanding British film

  • Winner: Belfast
  • After Love
  • Ali & Ava
  • Boiling Point
  • Cyrano
  • Everybody’s Talking About Jamie
  • House of Gucci
  • Last Night in Soho
  • No Time to Die
  • Passing

Leading actress

  • Winner: Joanna Scanlan – After Love
  • Lady Gaga – House of Gucci
  • Alana Haim – Licorice Pizza
  • Emilia Jones – Coda
  • Renate Reinsve- The Worst Person in the World
  • Tessa Thompson – Passing

Leading actor

  • Winner: Will Smith – King Richard
  • Adeel Akhtar – Ali & Ava
  • Mahershala Ali – Swan Song
  • Benedict Cumberbatch – The Power of the Dog
  • Leonardo DiCaprio – Don’t Look Up
  • Stephen Graham – Boiling Point1px transparent line

Supporting actress

  • Winner: Ariana DeBose – West Side Story
  • Caitriona Balfe – Belfast
  • Jessie Buckley – The Lost Daughter
  • Ann Dowd – Mass
  • Aunjanue Ellis – King Richard
  • Ruth Negga – Passing

Supporting actor

  • Winner: Troy Kotsur – Coda
  • Mike Faist – West Side Story
  • Ciaran Hinds – Belfast
  • Woody Norman – C’mon C’mon
  • Jesse Plemons – The Power of the Dog
  • Kodi Smit-McPhee – The Power of the Dog

Director

  • Winner: Jane Campion – The Power of the Dog
  • Aleem Khan – After Love
  • Ryusuke Hamaguchi – Drive My Car
  • Audrey Diwan – Happening
  • Paul Thomas Anderson – Licorice Pizza
  • Julia Ducournau – Titane

EE Rising Star Award

  • Winner: Lashana Lynch
  • Ariana DeBose
  • Harris Dickinson
  • Millicent Simmonds
  • Kodi Smit-McPhee

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

  • Winner: The Harder They Fall – Jeymes Samuel (writer/director)
  • After Love – Aleem Khan (writer/director)
  • Boiling Point – James Cummings (writer), Hester Ruoff (producer)
  • Keyboard Fantasies – Posy Dixon (writer/director), Liv Proctor (producer)
  • Passing – Rebecca Hall (writer/director)

Film not in the English language

  • Winner: Drive My Car
  • The Hand of God
  • Parallel Mothers
  • Petite Maman
  • The Worst Person in the World

Documentary

  • Winner: Summer of Soul (Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised)
  • Becoming Cousteau
  • Cow
  • Flee
  • The Rescue

Animated film

  • Winner: Encanto
  • Flee
  • Luca
  • The Mitchells vs The Machines

Original screenplay

  • Winner: Licorice Pizza – Paul Thomas Anderson
  • Being The Ricardos – Aaron Sorkin
  • Belfast – Sir Kenneth Branagh
  • Don’t Look Up – Adam McKay
  • King Richard – Zach Baylin

Adapted screenplay

  • Winner: Coda – Sian Heder
  • Drive My Car – Ryusuke Hamaguchi
  • Dune – Denis Villeneuve
  • The Lost Daughter – Maggie Gyllenhaal
  • The Power of the Dog – Jane Campion

Original score

  • Winner: Dune – Hans Zimmer
  • Being the Ricardos – Daniel Pemberton
  • Don’t Look Up – Nicholas Britell
  • The French Dispatch – Alexandre Desplat
  • The Power of the Dog – Jonny Greenwood

Casting

  • Winner: West Side Story – Cindy Tolan
  • Boiling Point – Carolyn McLeod
  • Dune – Francine Maisler
  • The Hand of God – Massimo Appolloni, Annamaria Sambucco
  • King Richard – Rich Delia, Avy Kaufman

Cinematography

  • Winner: Dune – Greig Fraser
  • Nightmare Alley – Dan Laustsen
  • No Time To Die – Linus Sandgren
  • The Power of the Dog – Ari Wegner
  • The Tragedy of Macbeth – Bruno Delbonnel

Costume design

  • Winner: Cruella – Jenny Beavan
  • Cyrano – Massimo Cantini Parrini
  • Dune – Robert Morgan, Jacqueline West
  • The French Dispatch – Milena Canonero
  • Nightmare Alley – Luis Sequeira

Editing

  • Winner: No Time To Die – Tom Cross, Elliot Graham
  • Belfast – Una Ni Dhonghaile
  • Dune – Joe Walker
  • Licorice Pizza – Andy Jurgensen
  • Summer Of Soul (Or, When The Revolution Could Not Be Televised) – Joshua L Pearson

Production design

  • Winner: Dune – Patrice Vermette, Zsuzsanna Sipos
  • Cyrano – Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
  • The French Dispatch – Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo
  • Nightmare Alley – Tamara Deverell, Shane Vieau
  • West Side Story – Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo

Make-up and hair

  • Winner: The Eyes of Tammy Faye – Linda Dowds, Stephanie Ingram, Justin Raleigh
  • Cruella – Nadia Stacey, Naomi Donne
  • Cyrano – Alessandro Bertolazzi, Sian Miller
  • Dune – Love Larson, Donald Mowat
  • House of Gucci – Frederic Aspiras, Jana Carboni, Giuliano Mariano, Sarah Nicole Tanno

Sound

  • Winner: Dune – Mac Ruth, Mark Mangini, Doug Hemphill, Theo Green, Ron Bartlett
  • Last Night In Soho – Colin Nicolson, Julian Slater, Tim Cavagin, Dan Morgan
  • No Time To Die – James Harrison, Simon Hayes, Paul Massey, Oliver Tarney, Mark Taylor
  • A Quiet Place Part II – Erik Aadahl, Michael Barosky, Brandon Proctor, Ethan Van Der Ryn
  • West Side Story – Brian Chumney, Tod Maitland, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom

Special visual effects

  • Winner: Dune – Brian Connor, Paul Lambert, Tristan Myles, Gerd Nefzer
  • Free Guy – Swen Gillberg, Bryan Grill, Nikos Kalaitzidis, Daniel Sudick
  • Ghostbusters: Afterlife – Aharon Bourland, Sheena Duggal, Pier Lefebvre, Alessandro Ongaro
  • The Matrix Resurrections – Tom Debenham, Huw J Evans, Dan Glass, JD Schwaim
  • No Time To Die – Mark Bakowski, Chris Corbould, Joel Green, Charlie Noble

British short film

  • Winner: The Black Cop
  • Femme
  • The Palace
  • Stuffed
  • Three Meetings of the Extraordinary Committee

British short animation

  • Winner: Do Not Feed the Pigeons
  • Affairs of the Art
  • Night of the Living Dread