‘The Revenant’ wins big in Britain’s BAFTA awards
Instead, The Revenant was once again the big victor of the night, earning five awards including Best Film and Best Actor for Leonardo DiCaprio.
The UK film industry showered Valentine’s Day love on “The Revenant” Sunday, awarding the endurance epic five prizes, including best picture and best actor, at the British Academy Film Awards.
Pioneering black American actor Sidney Poitier received a lifetime achievement award and Brooklyn was named best British picture.
Indo-British helmer Asif Kapadia took home the best documentary award for “Amy“, a sensitive look at singer Amy Winehouse’s life and death at the age of 27 in 2011.
Winslet won the best supporting actress award for her performance in Steve Jobs, the biopic on Apple’s co-founder.
Inside Out won the prize for best animated film.
The night’s other big winners included Brie Larson, who scooped best actress for her role in the harrowing kidnapping tale “Room“.
Steven Spielberg’s Cold War thriller “Bridge of Spies” and Todd Haynes’ lesbian romance “Carol” have nine nominations each for Sunday’s prizes.
Mad Max: Fury Road did very well in below-the-line categories, picking up four wins: best costume design, best film editing, best makeup and hairstyling and best production design.
Collecting her third Bafta, Winslet, 40, hailed director Danny Boyle as “amazing” to work with and called the film’s lead star Fassbender “an extraordinary actor”.
“Star Wars: The Force Awakens” snapped up best special visual effects for Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh and Neal Scanlan while the EE Rising Star BAFTA award, the only award voted for by the public, went to “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” and “Attack the Block” Brit star John Boyega, who remarked he wanted to “share this award with all the young dreamers”.
The ceremony, hosted by Stephen Fry, was staged at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, central London. All the acting nominees for the Oscars both this year and last have been white. “Our industry isn’t diverse enough, so the pool of people to draw award winners from isn’t diverse enough”, chief executive Amanda Berry told the Daily Telegraph newspaper.
He is the favourite for best director in this year’s Oscars and has already been the first director to win back-to-back at the Directors Guild of America awards.
He said: “It was quite possibly the most hard professional undertaking that I’ve ever had, and I think I can say the same for everyone that was involved in the movie”.
Blanchett had plenty of support on the red carpet, with many calling out “Cate, Cate” and one group of fans displayed the banner “Queen Blanchett”.