Three Billboards adds some colour to BAFTAs

Jason Korsner

The long-time Awards Season favourite Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri has dominated the British Academy Film Awards, despite starting the night behind The Shape of Water in the nominations list.

Londoner Martin McDonagh’s drama about an American woman fighting for justice for her murdered daughter collected five BAFTAs, including Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Leading Actress for Frances McDormand and Supporting Actor for Sam Rockwell.

Frances McDormand said she had a problem with compliance, as she collected her Best Actress BAFTA, not wearing black. Photo courtesy BAFTA 2018

Collecting her trophy, McDormand, one of the few women in attendance at the Royal Albert Hall not wearing black – as part of the ongoing anti-harassment campaign – joked that as McDonagh had said, she had a problem with compliance. But she stressed that she stood in “full solidarity” with her “sisters in black.” She also praised organisations, such as the Justice for Grenfell campaign, which had used the “three billboards” motif to promote their messages.

The other main acting awards also followed the pattern of this awards season, with Gary Oldman continuing his march towards an Oscar for his portrayal of Churchill in Darkest Hour and Allison Janney collecting another prize for her portrayal of the infamous ice-skater Tonya Harding’s mother in I, Tonya.

The Shape of Water managed to convert only three of its twelve nominations into wins, taking the BAFTAs for the Best Original Music and Production Design. The only one of the big categories that it one was for the director, Guillermo del Toro, again repeating his success from the Golden Globes and the all-important Directors Guild of America, which is one of the most reliable Oscar-predictors.

The veteran British cinematographer Roger Deakins will be hoping that his award for Blade Runner 2049 will boost his chances at the Oscars, where he has been nominated for a fourteenth time, having never won. Christopher Nolan’s Dunkirk ended the night with only one award, for its Sound.

The only winner selected by members of the public, the EE Rising Star award, went to the Oscar-nominated Get Out star, Daniel Kaluuya, who used his acceptance speech to stress the importance of arts funding to new talent, before dedicating his award to his mother.

In addition to the Outstanding British Film, BAFTA also honours the first-film of a British writer, director of producer. This award went to Rungano Nyoni, for I Am Not a Witch. Ben Roberts, the Director of the BFI Film Fund, which backed the film, said he was especially proud of Nyoni and her producer Emily Morgan.

With the BAFTAs being one of the less reliable indicators of where the Academy Awards might end up, the Best Foreign Language film will also provide few clues, as two of the nominess – The Salesman and Elle – were nominated for Oscars last year, and the winner, South Korea’s The Handmaiden, isn’t even nominated for an Academy Award.

Here are the winners in full:

Best film

  • Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Call Me By Your Name
  • Darkest Hour
  • Dunkirk
  • The Shape Of Water

Outstanding British film

  • Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Darkest Hour
  • The Death of Stalin
  • God’s Own Country
  • Lady Macbeth
  • Paddington 2

Leading actress

  • Winner: Frances McDormand – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Annette Bening – Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool
  • Margot Robbie – I, Tonya
  • Sally Hawkins – The Shape Of Water
  • Saoirse Ronan – Lady Bird

Leading actor

Supporting actress

  • Winner: Allison Janney – I, Tonya
  • Kristin Scott Thomas – Darkest Hour
  • Laurie Metcalf – Lady Bird
  • Lesley Manville – Phantom Thread
  • Octavia Spencer – The Shape Of Water

Supporting actor

  • Winner: Sam Rockwell – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Christopher Plummer – All The Money In The World
  • Hugh Grant – Paddington 2
  • Willem Dafoe – The Florida Project
  • Woody Harrelson – Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Director

  • Winner: The Shape Of Water – Guillermo Del Toro
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Denis Villeneuve
  • Call Me By Your Name – Luca Guadagnino
  • Dunkirk – Christopher Nolan
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Martin McDonagh

EE Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)

  • Winner: Daniel Kaluuya
  • Florence Pugh
  • Josh O’Connor
  • Tessa Thompson
  • Timothee Chalamet

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

  • Winner: I Am Not A Witch
  • The Ghoul
  • Jawbone
  • Kingdom Of Us
  • Lady Macbeth

Film not in the English language

  • Winner: The Handmaiden
  • Elle
  • First They Killed My Father
  • Loveless
  • The Salesman

Documentary

  • Winner: I Am Not Your Negro
  • City Of Ghosts
  • Icarus
  • An Inconvenient Sequel
  • Jane

Animated film

  • Winner: Coco
  • Loving Vincent
  • My Life As A Courgette

Original screenplay

  • Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
  • Get Out
  • I, Tonya
  • Lady Bird
  • The Shape Of Water

Adapted screenplay

  • Winner: Call Me By Your Name
  • The Death Of Stalin
  • Film Stars Don’t Die In Liverpool
  • Molly’s Game
  • Paddington 2

Original music

  • Winner: The Shape Of Water – Alexandre Desplat
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Benjamin Wallfisch, Hans Zimmer
  • Darkest Hour – Dario Marianelli
  • Dunkirk – Hans Zimmer
  • Phantom Thread – Jonny Greenwood

Cinematography

  • Winner: Blade Runner 2049 – Roger Deakins
  • Darkest Hour – Bruno Delbonnel
  • Dunkirk – Hoyte van Hoytema
  • The Shape of Water – Dan Laustsen
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Ben Davis

Editing

  • Winner: Baby Driver – Jonathan Amos, Paul Machliss
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Joe Walker
  • Dunkirk – Lee Smith
  • The Shape Of Water – Sidney Wolinsky
  • Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri – Jon Gregory

Production design

  • Winner: The Shape Of Water – Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin, Shane Vieau
  • Beauty And The Beast – Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Dennis Gassner, Alessandra Querzola
  • Darkest Hour – Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
  • Dunkirk – Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis

Costume design

  • Winner: Phantom Thread – Mark Bridges
  • Beauty And The Beast – Jacqueline Durran
  • Darkest Hour – Jacqueline Durran
  • I, Tonya – Jennifer Johnson
  • The Shape Of Water – Luis Sequeira

Make-up and hair

  • Winner: Darkest Hour – David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick, Kazuhiro Tsuji
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Donald Mowat, Kerry Warn
  • I, Tonya – Deborah La Mia Denaver, Adruitha Lee
  • Victoria & Abdul – Daniel Phillips
  • Wonder – Naomi Bakstad, Robert A Pandini, Arjen Tuiten

Sound

  • Winner: Dunkirk – Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo, Mark Weingarten
  • Baby Driver – Tim Cavagin, Mary H. Ellis, Julian Slater
  • Blade Runner 2049 – Ron Bartlett, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, Mac Ruth
  • The Shape Of Water – Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

Special visual effects

  • Winner: Blade Runner 2049 – Gerd Nefzer, John Nelson
  • Dunkirk – Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson
  • The Shape Of Water – Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrell, Kevin Scott
  • Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Nominees TBC
  • War For The Planet Of The Apes – Nominees TBC

British short animation

  • Winner: Poles Apart
  • Have Heart
  • Mamoon

British short film

  • Winner: Cowboy Dave
  • Aamir
  • A Drowning Man
  • Work
  • Wren Boys

Fellowship

  • Sir Ridley Scott

Outstanding contribution to British cinema

  • National Film and Television School