Join Carl for his comprehensive roundup of all the winners and losers from this year’s BAFTA awards
The UK has usually been a bit behind our US counterparts when it comes to giving awards out. It wasn’t long ago that the Oscars were handed out before the BAFTAS, the United Kingdom’s version of the film awards. Nowadays, however, the BAFTAS is held a week before the Oscars, gaining a great degree of respect ahead of the award season closer. In fact, it is fair to say that the BAFTAS have become a cherished prize to win. Tonight has seen the BAFTAS handed out once more. Many celebrities have graced the red carpet ahead of the ceremony including Joaquin Phoenix, Renee Zellweger, Saoirse Ronan, Florence Pugh, Scarlett Johansson, Charlize Theron, Margot Robbie, Al Pacino, John Boyega, Robert De Niro and Taika Waititi. The awards were attended by their Royal highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. So without further ado, let’s discover who the winners were:
Outstanding British Film: 1917
Sam Mendes’ film has won the award this year, beating out the likes of Bait, For Sama, Rocketman, Sorry We Missed You and The Two Popes to scoop the opening prize at the ceremony.
Best Animated Film: Klaus
Repeating its success at the Golden Globes, ‘Klaus‘ has, perhaps still surprisingly, beat out the likes of ‘Frozen II‘,’ A Shaun The Sheep Movie: Farmageddon‘ and ‘Toy Story 4‘ to win the Bafta.
Best Make-Up And Hair: Bombshell
Not too much of a surprise here. The team behind the make-up and hair design for the film deserved the prize for making Charlize Theron almost unrecognisable in her role of Megyn Kelly in the movie.
Best Short Film: Learning To Skateboard In A Warzone (If You’re A Girl)
I’m going to be straight forward and honest here. This is the winner that I’m so happy about. The film has been discussed, digested and brought to my attention by British Daytime Television and it intrigued me enough to check it out. And it is a worthy winner. My sincere congratulations go to Carol Dysinger and Elena Andreichevea for the film.
Best Short Animation: Granddad Was A Romantic
I haven’t seen this one yet so I can’t comment on whether or not it is a worthy winner.
Original Score: Joker
The Year’s highest nominated and leading film has an award on the board as Hildur Guonadottir takes the prize for the film ahead of Little Women, Jojo Rabbit, Thomas Newman for ‘1917‘ and the legendary John Williams for ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker‘.
Best Sound: 1917
The First World War epic has grabbed a second award at this year’s ceremony, beating the likes of ‘Le Mans ’66 (Ford V Ferrari), ‘Joker‘, ‘Rocketman’ and ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker‘ to the honour.
Production Design: 1917
And let’s make it a Hattrick for the film as it scoops the third award.
Best Costume Design: Little Women
Jacqueline Durran has taken home the award for her work on the film ahead of ‘The Irishman’, ‘Jojo Rabbit‘, ‘Judy’ and ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood‘
Best Editing: Le Mans ’66 (Ford V Ferarri)
Best Cinematography: 1917
Roger Deakins takes home his fifth Bafta this year after wins previously for ‘The Man Who Wasn’t There’. ‘No Country For Old Men’, ‘True Grit’ and ‘Blade Runner 2049‘.
Best Supporting Actress: Laura Dern
Laura Dern has snagged the award ahead of the likes of Scarlett Johansson, Margot Robbie (Twice nominated In This Category) and Florence Pugh.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Jojo Rabbit.
Can I say I just punched the air in delight? This is a fantastic win and a much-deserved one for Taika Waititi. From out of nowhere, the film made its way onto my top ten list of films in 2019 in the third position and is one of the best films I have seen for a long, long time. I’m so happy that the film took home the prize and I along with other members of Future Of The Force send our most sincere congratulations to him.
Best Original Screenplay: Parasite
A bit of a surprise here. ‘Parasite‘ is deserving of the award but the smart money was on ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood‘ to take the award. Could this be a pointer to the Oscars next week and a shock loss for Quentin Tarantino?
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer: The award goes to ‘Bait’
Best Visual Effects: 1917
Looks like the film is on a roll now as it takes home yet another award, this time ahead of ‘Avengers: Endgame‘, ‘The Irishman’, ‘The Lion King‘ and ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker‘.
Best Film Not In The English Language: Parasite
Completely no surprise here as Bong Joon Ho takes home the accolade ahead of ‘The Farewell’, ‘For Sama’, ‘Pain And Glory’ and ‘Portrait Of A Lady On Fire’.
Best Supporting Actor: Brad Pitt
Again, a completely expected win here. Pitt wins ahead of Tom Hanks, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci. Sadly though, the actor is unable to collect the award in person due to ‘Family Obligations’ so instead, has asked his co-star in ‘Once Upon A Time In Hollywood‘, Margot Robbie to collect it on his behalf. And he has given her an acceptance speech to read out for him. And oh boy! Will this be in the papers in the morning! Most people would just thank everyone for the award. Not Brad Pitt! In his opening thank you speech he says and I quote “Hey Britain, heard you just became single again, welcome to the club! Wishing you the best with the divorce settlement”. Margot Robbie added ‘He says he is going to name this (award) Harry because he is really excited about bringing it back to the States with him. His words, not mine!’ Thank you, Mr Pitt! A great acceptance speech I think!
Bafta Rising Star: Micheal Ward
The young actor has taken the prize ahead of Awkwafina, Jack Lowden, Kaitlyn Dever and Kelvin Harrison Jr.
Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema: Andy Serkis.
And who can complain about this? From his behind the scenes work and motion capture performances that have gone (wrongly) un-nominated and unrewarded to his acting and directorial abilities, Andy Serkis is more than deserving of this honour.
Best Casting (New award for 2020) – Joker
The inaugural award goes to the DC drama ahead of Marriage Story, Once Upon A Time In Hollywood, The Personal History Of David Copperfield and The Two Popes.
Best Director: Sam Mendes (1917)
Ok, we can see which way the night is going now. That makes six awards 1917 has walked away with as newly knighted SIR Sam Mendes takes the award ahead of Martin Scorsese, Todd Phillips, Quentin Tarantino and Bong Joon-Ho. We can’t say it isn’t deserved though. And best film is yet to come!
Best Actor: Joaquin Phoenix
Again, now I’m punching the air in delight. This was one of the most deserved awards of them all and should be the starter before next weekends Oscars where he has to walk away with the award again. This is one of the easiest awards to pick for a certain win next week. Phoenix was and is in a completely different class in the film as I’ve stated many times before. Any other year, any one of the other actors nominated in this category could easily have walked away with the award. But there isn’t a performance that can top Phoenix’s from last year. It really a case of truly bad luck for Leonardo Dicaprio, Adam Driver, Taron Egerton and Jonathan Pryce to be nominated against Phoenix.
Best Actress: Renee Zellweger
Again, there was no doubt she would walk away with the award. Again, the other nominees, Scarlett Johansson, Saoirse Ronan, Jesse Buckley and Charlize Theron could all have easily taken the award home if it wasn’t for a powerhouse performance by Ms Zellweger in the film, ‘Judy‘. Both best actor and actresses winners this year are the easiest to predict, in fact, I believe I predicted that Renee Zellweger would walk away from the awards season with armfuls of best actress gongs and I have been proven to be right.
Best Film: 1917
And that makes seven awards in total for the outstanding Sam Mendes directed film. You really can’t say that the film isn’t worthy of the awards and success it has been gathering over the past few months. It really is terrific and is really downbeat and sad at times and is exactly what the Academy and other film awards are looking for.
Prince William, in his capacity as Bafta President, has taken the opportunity to criticize the lack of diversity shown in film awards in general. His speech has once again dragged up the lack of BAME actors, directors and actresses, the lack of female directors and so forth. He has publically said in his speech that the lack of diversity ‘Can’t be right in this age’ and has also said BAFTA are taking the matter seriously and are in the process of carrying out a comprehensive review regarding these matters.
Finally, we come to the BAFTA Fellowship. This year, the Fellowship was given to the legendary Producer and the head of Lucasfilm, Kathleen Kennedy. It was here that Daisy Ridley and John Boyega introduced a look back at Ms Kennedy’s achievements over the past 40 years. Director Steven Spielberg, himself a recipient of the Fellowship sent a video message to Kathleen Kennedy for this special occasion. The director was pranked though as he doesn’t drink. When he raised a glass of what was assumed to be Champagne but what Spielberg thought was ginger ale, it was revealed that it was indeed Champagne in his glass, causing Spielberg to almost choke as he swallowed. Kathleen Kennedy took to the stage to a standing ovation and thanked Bafta, Steven Spielberg, Her husband Frank Marshall and the British cast and crew that she has worked with over the years. In an emotion-filled speech, MS Kennedy also spoke of diversity in movies and how she was determined to change it. This comes on the back of a statement she made before the event where she revealed that the next Star Wars film will have a female director. A welcome surprise and one that hopefully starts to address the imbalance in Hollywood.
We at The Future Of The Force send our congratulations to all the winners and our commiserations to all of the runner-up’s in all the categories this year. The last year was a bumper year for top-quality entertainment and performances as this year’s crop of nominees has revealed. As we close the curtain on the BAFTA’S for another year and now turn our attention towards next weekends Academy Awards, we can rest assured that 2019 was only the start of what surely has to be a renewal of the best quality entertainment that the world’s filmmakers can offer us.
The Future of the Force. The future of pop culture writing.
Carl Roberts is a Senior Staff Writer and Books and Literature Correspondent for Future of the Force. Aside from being our horror genre aficionado, he is also passionate about Star Wars, Marvel, DC, and the Indiana Jones movies. Follow him on Twitter @CarlRoberts2 where he uses the force frequently!