Sam Mendes – Director - 1917 BAFTA73rd British Academy Film Awards, Ceremony, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK - 02 Feb 2020
0 6 mins 5 yrs

Sam Mendes scooped seven BAFTA trophies at the annual BAFTA ceremony held at the Royal Albert Hall for his latest film 1917 compared to three for Joker and two for Parasite. Of the other major frontrunners, Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood won just one award from 10 nominations for Brad Pitt as best supporting actor, while Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman came away empty-handed, also from 10 nods.

Robert De Niro Event: EE British Academy Film Awards 2020Date: Sunday 2 February 2020Venue: Royal Albert Hall, Kensington Gore, South Kensington, London Host: Graham Norton-Area: Red Carpet
Robert De Niro Photo courtesy of BAFTA

The Irishman was one of the biggest losers on the night and follows the Golden Globes in being another complete shut-out for the mob drama.

Overall it was a bad night for Netflix, which went into the evening with 23 nominations and came out with just two wins: Laura Dern for Marriage Story (also a winner at the Globes) and a somewhat surprising win for Klaus in the wide-open animation category.

At last night’s EE British Academy Film Awards, 1917 won for Best Film, Outstanding British Film, with Sam Mendes receiving the BAFTA for Director and Roger Deakins taking Cinematography. 1917 also won for Production Design, Sound and Special Visual Effects.

Joaquin Phoenix – Leading Actor - Joker. Photo courtesy of BAFTA 73rd British Academy Film Awards, Ceremony, Royal Albert Hall, London, UK - 02 Feb 2020
Joaquin Phoenix – Leading Actor – Joker. Photo courtesy of BAFTA

Joker won three awards: Joaquin Phoenix won Leading Actor, Shayna Markowitz won the inaugural Casting award, and Hildur Guðnadóttir won Original Score.

Parasite won two awards: Original Screenplay for Bong Joon Ho and Han Jin Won and Film Not in the English Language.

BAFTA Renee Zellweger Ð Leading Actress - Judy
Renee Zellweger Leading Actress – Judy. Photo courtesy of BAFTA

Leading Actress was won by Renée Zellweger for Judy.

Supporting Actor went to Brad Pitt for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood.

Laura Dern won Supporting Actress for Marriage Story.

For Sama, the epic and intimate journey filmed through five years of uprising in Aleppo, Syria, won Documentary.

Jojo Rabbit won Adapted Screenplay and Le Mans ‘66 took the BAFTA for Editing. Klaus took the award for Animated Film.

Bombshell received the BAFTA for Make Up & Hair, and Little Women won for Costume Design.

Writer/director Mark Jenkin and producers Kate Byers and Linn Waite received the award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for Bait.

Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You’re a Girl) won the British Short Film award, while the BAFTA for British Short Animation was won by Grandad Was a Romantic.

The Special Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema was presented to Andy Serkis. Through his pioneering work in the evolving art of performance capture he has widened the parameters of what it means to be an actor in the 21st century.

The Fellowship, the highest honour the Academy can bestow, was presented to producer Kathleen Kennedy by HRH The Duke of Cambridge, President of BAFTA, and Daisy Ridley and John Boyega.

The EE Rising Star Award, voted for by the public, went to Micheal Ward.

The ceremony, hosted by Graham Norton, was held at London’s Royal Albert Hall and featured performances by Cirque du Soleil and Jessie Buckley.

The full list of BAFTA 2020 winners

  • Seven BAFTAs for 1917: Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Director,
  • Cinematography, Production Design, Sound and Special Visual Effects
  • Three BAFTAs for Joker: Leading Actor, Casting and Original Score
  • Two BAFTAs for Parasite: Film Not in the English Language and Original Screenplay
  • Renée Zellweger wins Leading Actress for Judy
  • Brad Pitt wins Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood
  • Laura Dern wins Supporting Actress for Marriage Story
  • Micheal Ward wins the EE Rising Star Award

Despite the glitz and glamour, the UK TV ratings for the ceremony dropped to a 12-year low, despite the presence of new host Graham Norton. It had an average audience of three million, peaking at 3.5 million – 500,000 below last year’s event. It was the lowest audience since 2008, with the ceremony’s opening hour soundly beaten by ITV’s Vera. It did get the most viewers after 22.00 however.

The trend might have something to do with the BAFTAs getting ever more political. The year 2018 was marked by Time’s Up media stunt for example, while this year, Joaquin Phoenix took to stage to lecture BAFTA for being ‘too white’.

“I think that we send a very clear message to people of colour that you’re not welcome here,” he said. Seemingly, not giving a thought to the fact that all full-members of BAFTA (in the region of seven thousand) couldn’t have become racists in one year. As our reader will remember, last year, the nominations and the list of winners were ‘more diverse’ as some might put it. The judges were, however, the same.

Editor in Chief | Website |  + posts

Editor in Chief of Ikon London Magazine, journalist, film producer and founder of The DAFTA Film Awards (The DAFTAs).