The Most Important Things You Missed From The BAFTA Awards

When Graham Norton took to the stage at Royal Albert Hall to introduce the 73rd British Academy Film Awards, there was a cute video montage reviewing the year in film. We saw shots from some of our favourites; Hustlers, Queen & Slim, Harriet, and Waves, to name but a few. What a pity none of those films were actually nominated.

It’s no secret that there was an air of resentment towards the BAFTAs this year. Once again, #BAFTAsSoWhite was trending on Twitter when the 2020 nominations dropped as critics and film fans alike complained about the Academy’s lack of diversity. Joker (a film that's no stranger to controversy itself) received 11 nominations and, when picking up the award for Best Actor, Joaquin Phoenix used his 90 seconds of stage time to acknowledge “systemic racism” in Hollywood before calling on people who have benefitted from a "system of oppression" and stating that "[we] are the ones who have to dismantle it – that’s on us.”

Though we might have expected more to be made of BAFTA’s lack of diversity in the evening's speeches, the next most poignant addressing of the issue came from Rebel Wilson, who presented the award for Best Director. She joked about putting her red and black gown together from two dresses she already had in her wardrobe (a nod to BAFTA's sustainability plea for stars to wear something they already owned).

“The black is from the funeral I went to for the film Cats,” she said, earning the first sincere laugh from the audience all evening. And fair play to her; Wilson went on to mock her own film before using it to point out the “lack of felines” nominated in the directing category — the most notable female omissions being Greta Gerwig for Little Women, Melina Matsoukas for Queen & Slim, and Olivia Wilde for Booksmart. “Looking at this category — Sam Mendes, Martin Scorsese, Todd Phillips, Quentin Tarantino, Bong Joon-ho, I don’t think I could do what they do,” Wilson said, before adding, “I just don’t have the balls.”

The two highest accolades for women went to Renee Zellweger and Laura Dern, who took home the awards for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. Accepting the award for her scene-stealing performance in Marriage Story, Laura paid tribute to her mom, Diane Ladd, who won the same award when Laura was six years old for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. When asked backstage about her Dernaissance, she said, “Roles are changing because culture is changing. People say, ‘Wow, you’ve played a couple of powerful women this year.’ Well, because there are a couple of powerful women to play. Women are CEOs, heads of finance, and divorce lawyers. And they weren’t 15 years ago.”  

Other highlights of the evening included Brad Pitt’s acceptance speech for Best Supporting Actor. He was unable to attend the ceremony due to family commitments, but asked co-star Margot Robbie, who was nominated twice in the Best Supporting Actress category (for Once Upon A Time In... Hollywood and Bombshell), to accept on his behalf. “Hey, Britain. Heard you just became single. Welcome to the club!” she read in a quick, welcomed jab at Brexit, before telling the audience that Brad indented to call the award "Harry" because he’s “looking forward to taking it back to America.”

Other pleasant moments included seeing Sex Education’s Asa Butterfield and Gillian Anderson reunited to announce the winner of Outstanding Debut (Bait) and Unbothered favourites Jodie Turner-Smith and Naomi Ackie share the stage to co-present the award for Best Documentary to the urgent, harrowing and brilliant For Sama. Following in the footsteps of Letitia Wright, Danial Kaluuya, and John Boyega, Top Boy, and Blue Story breakout star Micheal Ward won the BAFTA Rising Star Award, (much to his mom's delight).

See the full list of winners below:

WINNER: Renée Zellweger – Judy
Jessie Buckley – Wild Rose
Scarlett Johansson – Marriage Story
Saoirse Ronan – Little Women
Charlize Theron – Bombshell

WINNER: Joaquin Phoenix, Joker
Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Adam Driver, Marriage Story
Taron Egerton, Rocketman
Jonathan Pryce, The Two Popes

WINNER: 1917 – Sam Mendes
The Irishman – Martin Scorsese
Joker - Todd Phillips
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino
Parasite – Bong Joon-ho

WINNER: Micheal Ward
Awkwafina
Jack Lowden
Kaitlyn Dever
Kelvin Harrison Jr

WINNER: Brad Pitt, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood
Tom Hanks, A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood
Anthony Hopkins, The Two Popes
Al Pacino, The Irishman
Joe Pesci, The Irishman

WINNER: Parasite – Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho
Booksmart - Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
Knives Out – Rian Johnson
Marriage Story – Noah Baumbach
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood – Quentin Tarantino

WINNER: Bait – Mark Jenkin (writer/director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (producers)
For Sama – Waad Al-Kateab (director/producer), Edward Watts (director)
Maiden – Alex Holmes (director)
Only You – Harry Wootliff (writer/director)
Retablo – Álvaro Delgado Aparicio (writer/director)

WINNER: Jojo Rabbit – Taika Waititi
The Irishman – Steven Zaillian
Joker – Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
Little Women – Greta Gerwig
The Two Popes – Anthony McCarten

WINNER: Laura Dern, Marriage Story
Scarlett Johansson, Jojo Rabbit
Florence Pugh, Little Women
Margot Robbie, Bombshell
Margot Robbie, Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

WINNER: 1917
The Irishman
Joker
Le Mans ’66
The Lighthouse

WINNER: Le Mans ’66
The Irishman
Jojo Rabbit
Joker
Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood

Andy Serkis

Kathleen Kennedy