On February 16, local time, the 78th British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) was held at the Royal Festival Hall on the south bank of the Thames. The Conclave, directed by Edward Berg, which received the most nominations, 12 awards, won the most important Best Picture Award. In addition, it also won the Best British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing, making it the biggest winner of this year.
"British origin" beats "Oscar nomination"
The British Academy Film Awards, known as the "British Oscars", is also a bellwether for the Oscars, but its sample nature has been confusing in recent years. Two years ago, the results of almost all major awards at the British Academy Film Awards were very different from those of the Oscars. Edward Berg's "All Quiet on the Western Front" won the grand prize, while the final winner of the Oscar, "The Blink of an Eye", returned home empty-handed. But last year's situation was reversed again. Except for the best visual effects, the two were almost completely overlapped, and Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" also won big in the UK and the United States. In other words, the judges and appreciation tastes of the two are actually very different.
Stills from "Secret Meeting"
Director Edward Berg's name is on the two nomination lists this year. His film "The Conclave" is the only British film among the ten Oscar candidates, or more strictly speaking, it is a British-American co-production. The director himself is of German-Swiss-Austrian descent. However, since the lead actor Ralph Fiennes and the producer Tessa Ross are both British, it can be said to be the candidate with the highest British content this year. As a result, British filmmakers really played the "patriotic card" as they did two years ago.
Another film that won the award for its patriotic appeal was Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Penguins, which won both the Best Animated Feature Film and the Best Children's & Family Film. It defeated three Oscar candidates, Life of Cats, Inside Out 2, and Wild Robots. In addition, in the Best Documentary Feature category, the British-American co-production Christopher Reeve's Story also defeated two Oscar candidates, Black Box and The Only Home.
Putting aside the "patriotism card", many of the awards at this year's British Academy of Film Awards are still worth pondering. For example, "Brutalist" received nine nominations and finally won four awards, including the expected Best Actor Award for Adrien Brody and the unexpected Best Director, Best Cinematography, and Best Original Score for Brady Corbett.
Stills from Anora
The biggest upset at this year's BAFTA Awards was in the Best Actress category - Mickey Maddison, the star of "Anora", took advantage of the recent good luck of the crew and defeated strong opponents such as Demi Moore ("Something Substantial"). Maddison, who thought she had no chance at all, did not even prepare an acceptance speech and looked very helpless when she went on stage.
As for "Emilia Perez", which received 11 nominations, its bad luck continued due to the social media storm of its lead actress Carla Sofia Gascón, and it only won the Best Non-English Film and Best Supporting Actress awards. However, director Jacques Audiard and actress Zoe Saldana expressed their gratitude to Gascón during their speeches.
BBC removes David Tennant's joke, sparking controversy
In addition to the award winners, this awards ceremony also sparked unexpected controversy. One of them was the speech of actor David Tennant, who served as the host. In his opening monologue, he mentioned: "Brutalism is an incredible architectural film with the most daring buildings of all the films this year, second only to the hairstyle of Donald Trump played by Sebastian Stan in The Apprentice." Then, he teased: "But Donald Trump said he has not seen The Apprentice because the film is rated under 15 in the UK and has not been broadcast on Nickelodeon children's channel." At this point, the host said in a serious manner that he had said Trump's name three times in just one minute. "I'm a little worried. It's like the movie "The Greatest Showman". I'm afraid I'm going to summon him!"
The problem is that when the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) broadcast the awards ceremony on the evening of February 16, local time, with a two-hour delay, it deleted a large number of David Tennant's jokes, including his later use of the word "villain" to describe the US president. In other words, if it weren't for the on-site media reporters reporting on this, the only people who knew about this would be the audience sitting in the Royal Festival Hall in London that night. At that time, after hearing the host's sarcastic remarks, the audience responded with warm applause. The BBC's move also attracted the attention of many media. In response, the BBC later issued a public relations statement stating that it was purely because "there were restrictions on the length of the program, so it had to be edited and broadcast."
Stills from Prison Theater
Another big controversy at this year's awards ceremony was that Clarence MacLean, who was nominated for Best Supporting Actor for "Sing Sing," and John Devine G. Whitfield, who was also nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film, were both rejected after applying for a UK visa and ultimately failed to attend the awards ceremony. It is reported that after their visas were rejected, the two appealed to the UK Home Office several times, but all failed. The reason for the visa rejection was their long criminal record in the United States. The relevant British rules stipulate: "If a person is convicted of a criminal offense in the UK or overseas and is sentenced to 12 months or more in prison, his or her application for a visit must be rejected."
Clarence McLean plays himself in the film. He was once sentenced to 17 years in a prison called "Sing Sing" for robbery and was released in 2012. Whitfield, who participated in the scriptwriting, is the prototype of the protagonist, played by Colman Domingo, but he also played a small role in the film. He was imprisoned in this prison for nearly 25 years and was released in 2012. Regarding his past sentence, Whitfield insisted that he was wronged. The film records how they find the purpose of life by participating in theater performances with other inmates.
[78th British Academy Film Awards Nominations]
Best Film: "Conclave"
Best Director: Brady Corbett, "Brutalist"
Best Actress: Mickey Madison, Anora
Best Actor: Adrien Brody, "Brutalist"
Best Supporting Actress: Zoe Saldana, Emilia Perez
Best Supporting Actor: Kieran Culkin, "True Misery"
Best Original Screenplay: "True Pain"
Best Adapted Screenplay: "The Conclave"
Best Documentary Feature: "Superman: The Christopher Reeve Story"
Best Film Not in the English Language: Emilia Perez
Best Animated Feature Film: Wallace and Gromit: Revenge of the Penguins
Best Children's & Family Movie: Wallace & Gromit: Revenge of the Penguins
Best Cinematography: Brutalism
Best Visual Effects: Dune 2
Best Audio: Dune 2
Best Art Direction: Wicked
Best Original Score: "Brutalist"
Best Editing: "The Conclave"
Best Costume Design: Wicked
Best Makeup and Hair Design: Some Kind of Material
Best Casting: Anora
Best British Film: The Conclave
Best British Short Film: Rock, Paper, Scissors
Best British Animated Short: A Walk Into Wonderland
Best British debut: The Kneecaps, Richie Peppiatt
Rising Star Award: David Ronsong, "Alien: Revenge"
