Presented live from London’s Royal Albert Hall 11 April, the 74th British Academy Film Awards honoured cinematic excellence after a year of unprecedented challenges facing the industry. And the evening’s winners, selected from perhaps BAFTA’s most diverse ever slate of contenders following an overhaul in the organisation’s nomination process, proved the international filmmaking community is as creative and resilient as ever.
Nomadland, from writer-director-editor-producer Chloé Zhao and Searchlight Pictures, emerged as the night’s biggest victor, winning BAFTA statuettes for Frances McDormand’s leading performance, Joshua James Richards’s cinematography, Zhao’s directing, and best film. On the heels of a historic Directors Guild of America Award win, as well as accolades at the Venice and Toronto International Film Festivals, Golden Globes, and Producers Guild Awards, Zhao is well positioned at the upcoming 93rd Academy Awards, where Nomadland is nominated in six top categories.
McDormand’s win signals an unusually unpredictable leading actress Oscar race, with four of the five nominees each earning one major precursor prize, including Andra Day of The United States vs. Billie Holiday with a Golden Globe, Carey Mulligan of Promising Young Woman with a Critics’ Choice Award, and Viola Davis of Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom with a Screen Actors Guild Award.
Winning for outstanding British film was Promising, Emerald Fennell’s feature directorial debut distributed by Focus Features. Her script earned the original screenplay prize, while the adapted screenplay honour went to Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller for Sony Pictures Classics’ The Father, also a winner in the leading actor category for Sir Anthony Hopkins, marking his third competitive BAFTA win.
Echoing recent wins at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, Daniel Kaluuya of Warner Bros.’ Judas and the Black Messiah and Youn Yuh-Jung of A24’s Minari took the supporting actor trophies. The EE Rising Star BAFTA went to Bukky Bakray of Rocks, a British film from director Sarah Gavron that fared well on this year’s nominations list and also earned the award for Lucy Pardee’s casting.
Daniel Kaluuya on How Being ‘a Geek’ About Acting Strengthens His Performances Denmark’s Another Round earned the BAFTA for film not in the English language, while Disney’s Soul and Netflix’s My Octopus Teacher won the animated and documentary feature honours, respectively. All are in contention at the upcoming Oscars in their respective categories. While many of last year’s winners went on to claim Academy Awards, the BAFTA-dominating 1917 did not ultimately translate into Oscar success. Amid perhaps the strangest film awards season in history, who will emerge victorious stateside come 25 April?
For a full list of 2021 BAFTA film winners, visit the official site. To read more about the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, plus how you can get involved, click here!
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