Oppenheimer, the film by Anglo-American director Christopher Nolan about the tormented father of the atomic bomb, dominates the Bafta evening with seven statuettes, while Greta Gerwig's Barbie, despite five nominations including that for Margot Robbie as best actress, remains empty-handed.
The outcome of the Anglo-Saxon film awards is generally an excellent indicator of how the Oscars will go, the ceremony of which is only three weeks away. Although the awards, awarded yesterday at the Royal Festival Hall, are usually more Eurocentric: last year Nothing New on the Western Front by German director Edward Berger emerged triumphant, which then had to give way in Los Angeles to Everything Everywhere All at Ounces.
Oppenheimer, who was playing at home in London, had arrived at the Bafta with 13 nominations, equal to those collected for the Oscars: he won seven awards including two for Nolan for best film and, for the first time, best director, plus cinematography editing and original soundtrack. Cillian Murphy in the role of the scientist triumphed as best actor while Robert Downey Jr. was recognized as best supporting role: both verdicts to be confirmed next Saturday in Hollywood on the night of the Sag Awards.
The actors' union awards will also have to cement Emma Stone's pole positions for Poor Creatures! and Da'Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers. Yorgos Lanthimos' sci-fi fantasy won a total of five trophies, while Jonathan Glazer's The Zone of Interest, which Great Britain nominated for best foreign film in the five Oscars which also includes Matteo Garrone, brought house three : both for the best English and non-English film (first time), plus Johnnie Burn's sound which recreates the invisible atrocities of the Auschwitz extermination camp: a chilling co-protagonist for which Burn is also nominated for the Oscar. 20 Days in Mariupol was elected best documentary while The Boy and the Heron by Hayao Miyazaki won for animation and Anatomy of a Fall for best original screenplay.
Among the notable absentees, Robert de Niro and Martin Scorsese from Killer of the Flower Moon, one of the films snubbed by the Bafta jurors despite nine nominations on par with Master by (and with) Bradley Cooper which had collected seven.
