“Oppenheimer,” Christopher Nolan’s epic drama about the building of the atomic bomb, swept the board at Sunday’s BAFTA film awards in London, sending a strong message ahead of the Oscars next month.
The film won seven prizes in all, including best film, best director for Nolan, best actor for Cillian Murphy, and best supporting actor for Robert Downey, Jr.
Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, a US theoretical physicist known as the “father of the atomic bomb” who was plagued by the repercussions of his invention.
The picture has grossed more than $1 billion, won multiple Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards, and is now the clear leader for Oscar glory.
Murphy’s first BAFTA, he thanked Nolan for “seeing something in me I probably didn’t see in myself” as he accepted the trophy at the presentation in London’s Royal Festival Hall.
He later told reporters that the success was “mind-blowing,” and that he was “thrilled and a little surprised.”
Despite his multiple commercial hits, including “Inception” and “The Dark Knight,” Nolan had never won the best director BAFTA.
It was Downey Jr.’s second BAFTA, having won the best actor award 31 years ago for his role as Charlie Chaplin.
When winning the award, the US star quipped that Nolan instructed him to play Lewis Strauss, a member of the US Atomic Energy Commission, in a low-key manner to restore “my dwindling credibility”.
‘Poor things’ wins five
It was also a wonderful night for the bizarre dark comedy “Poor Things,” which received five Oscars, including best actress for Emma Stone, who previously won the honor 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” tale.
The American actress has already won Golden Globe and Critics Choice Best Actress prizes for her unrestrained performance.
She beat over “Barbie” star Margot Robbie, who had previously been on the red carpet alongside fellow Hollywood heavyweights Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper.
Prince William, the president of BAFTA, represented the British royal family at the ceremony, which was hosted by Scottish actor David Tennant.
It was his most important engagement since returning to duty after his wife Catherine’s abdominal surgery and learning of his father King Charles III’s cancer diagnosis.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph of the United States won best supporting actress for her portrayal in the 1970s-set prep school comedy “The Holdovers” at William.
Randolph laughed as she turned to UK actor Chiwetel Ejiofor, who handed her the prize, and said, “You are very handsome. I hoped you’d be here, and wow. “Worth it.”
‘Barbenheimer’
In the best film category, “Oppenheimer” beat off French courtroom drama “Anatomy of a Fall”, “The Holdovers”, and Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon”.
Scorsese and his historical epic’s lead actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, did not receive individual BAFTA awards, but the picture received nine nominations in total, including best film.
Cooper’s biopic about US conductor Leonard Bernstein received nominations for best actor and original screenplay (co-written with Josh Singer).
However, the star of “The Hangover” departed the ceremony empty-handed.
The BAFTA shortlist was another letdown for “Barbie,” the other half of last summer’s “Barbenheimer” box office sensation, which received only five nominations.
Greta Gerwig’s film, which converted nostalgia for the popular doll into a scathing satire about misogyny and female strength, has yet to win the amount of major honors expected of it this season.
Jonathan Glazer’s devastating film “The Zone of Interest,” about a Nazi concentration camp commander and his family living near to Auschwitz, won three awards: best British film, best film not in English, and best sound.
Hayao Miyazaki, the famed Japanese animator, won the award for best animated picture with “The Boy and the Heron”.