Proliferation of prizes

‘Oppenheimer’ dominates BAFTAs in major Oscars boost

Atomic bomb epic takes home 7 awards including best film, best director for Christopher Nolan , best actor for Cillian Murphy and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.

Cillian Murphy, winner of the leading actor award for 'Oppenheimer,' poses for photographers at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)
Cillian Murphy, winner of the leading actor award for 'Oppenheimer,' poses for photographers at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA's, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

“Oppenheimer”, Christopher Nolan’s epic movie about the creation of the atomic bomb, swept the board at Sunday’s BAFTA film awards in London, delivering a serious statement ahead of next month’s Oscars.

The movie earned seven awards in total, including best film, best director for Nolan, best actor for Cillian Murphy and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.

In the film, Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the US theoretical physicist often called the “father of the atomic bomb” who was haunted by the consequences of his creation.

The film has grossed more than $1 billion, already won big at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards and is now the clear frontrunner for Oscars glory.

It was Murphy’s first BAFTA, and he thanked Nolan for “seeing something in me I probably didn’t see myself” when collecting the award at the ceremony in London’s Royal Festival Hall.

He later told reporters the success was “mind-blowing”, adding he was “thrilled and a little shocked.”

Irish actor Cillian Murphy poses on the red carpet upon arrival at the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, in London, on February 18, 2024. (Adrian DENNIS / AFP)

Murphy said he was grateful to play such a “colossally knotty, complex character.”

Nolan noted that nuclear weapons are “a nihilistic subject and the film inevitably reflects that,” telling the movie’s backers: “Thank you for taking on something dark.”

Despite boasting numerous commercial successes such as “Inception” and “The Dark Knight,” Nolan had never won the best director BAFTA before.

It was Downey Jr’s second BAFTA, having won the best actor title 31 years ago for playing Charlie Chaplin.

“Oppenheimer” faced stiff competition in what’s widely considered a vintage year for cinema and an awards season energized by the end of actors’ and writers’ strikes that shut down Hollywood for months.

Susan Downey, left, and Robert Downey Jr. pose for photographers upon arrival at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA’s, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

“The Zone of Interest,” a British-produced film shot in Poland with a largely German cast, was named both best British film and best film not in English — a first — and also took the prize for its sound, which has been described as the real star of the film.

Jonathan Glazer’s unsettling drama takes place in a family home just outside the walls of the Auschwitz death camp, whose horrors are heard and hinted at, rather than seen.

“Walls aren’t new from before or since the Holocaust, and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen or Mariupol or Israel,” producer James Wilson said. “Thank you for recognizing a film that asks us to think in those spaces.”

Ukraine war documentary “20 Days in Mariupol,” produced by The Associated Press and PBS “Frontline,” won the prize for best documentary.

“This is not about us,” said filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, who captured the harrowing reality of life in the besieged city with an AP team. “This is about Ukraine, about the people of Mariupol.”

‘Poor things’ wins five

Sunday night’s BAFTAs was also a good night for surreal dark comedy “Poor Things,” which won five awards including best actress for Emma Stone, who also won the gong in 2017 for “La La Land”.

In the film, Stone plays a Victorian reanimated corpse brought back to life with the spirit of a child by a mad scientist in a female “Frankenstein” story.

The US actress has already scooped Golden Globe and Critics Choice best actress awards for her no-holds-barred performance.

She beat off competition from “Barbie” star Margot Robbie, with both earlier hitting the red carpet along with fellow Hollywood heavyweights Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper.

Britain’s royal family was represented at the ceremony, hosted by Scottish actor David Tennant, by Prince William in his capacity as BAFTA president.

Britain’s Prince William, president of BAFTA, arrives for the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Jordan Pettitt/Pool via AP)

It was his most important engagement since returning to duties following his wife Catherine’s abdominal operation, and news of his father King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis.

William saw US actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph pick up the best supporting actress award for her role in 1970s-set prep school comedy “The Holdovers.”

Randolph raised a laugh when she turned to UK actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who gave her the award, and told him: “You are so handsome. I was hoping you were going to be here and woah. Worth it.”

“The Boy and the Heron” by celebrated Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki won best animated film.

‘Barbenheimer’

In the best film category, “Oppenheimer” won out ahead of French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall,” “The Holdovers” and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon.”

Both Scorsese and his historical epic’s leading man Leonardo DiCaprio missed out on individual BAFTA nods but the movie amassed nine nominations in total, including for best film.

Cooper’s biopic about US conductor Leonard Bernstein was also nominated for original screenplay (shared with screenwriter Josh Singer) and best actor.

However, “The Hangover” star left the ceremony empty-handed.

Bradley Cooper, left, and Carey Mulligan pose for photographers upon arrival at the 77th British Academy Film Awards, BAFTA’s, in London, Sunday, Feb. 18, 2024. (Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP)

The BAFTA shortlist was another disappointment for “Barbie” — the other half of last summer’s “Barbenheimer” box office phenomenon — which only managed five nominations.

Greta Gerwig’s film, which turned nostalgia for the beloved doll into a sharp satire about misogyny and female empowerment, has so far failed to capture the number of top prizes expected of it this awards season.

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