BAFTA Awards 2018: Three Billboards dominates as Time's Up campaign shares stage
London: Crime drama 'Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri' captured five British Bafta film awards on Sunday, including best film, topping an emotionally charged ceremony that featured fashion and rhetoric in support of the fight against sexual harassment sweeping Hollywood.
The movie, chronicling a grieving mother's campaign for justice, won for original screenplay and outstanding British film, while Frances McDormand bagged best actress and Sam Rockwell best supporting actor prizes.
'The Shape of Water', the most heavily nominated film of the night with 12 nods, came away with only three awards, including best director for Guillermo Del Toro, while 'Darkest Hour' claimed two prizes, including for Gary Oldman as best actor.
With Hollywood still reeling from the fallout of the Harvey Weinstein scandal, the resulting anti-sexual harassment campaigns were reflected in the mood of the evening.
Also read: 2018 Golden Globes red carpet turns black as stars support #TimesUp
"Our film is a hopeful one in lots of ways but its also an angry one," Martin McDonagh, writer and director of 'Three Billboards', said in his acceptance speech.
"And as we've seen this year, sometimes anger is the only way to get people to listen and to change, so were thrilled that Bafta has recognised this."
Stars arrived at London's Royal Albert Hall predominantly dressed in black in solidarity with the #MeToo and 'Time's Up' campaigns, mirroring other recent American red carpets including last month's Golden Globes.
Angelina Jolie, Jennifer Lawrence and Kristin Scott Thomas were among the stars who wore black.
British royals avoid making overtly political statements or gestures, so there was little surprise when the Duchess of Cambridge chose to wear a dark green dress, by British designer Jenny Packham, as she accompanied husband Prince William, president of Bafta, to the ceremony.
Also read: BAFTAs 2017: Emma Stone, Casey Affleck bag Best Leading Actors!
Jane Lush, chair of Bafta, opened the evening soberly telling the star-studded audience it was important to acknowledge a "difficult" past year, and noted efforts to tackle gender inequality.
"Brave revelations have followed brave revelations of bullying and sexual harassment, and which to all our shame has been hidden in plain sight for decades," she said.
"This is a moment in history, it should be a watershed, a catalyst for lasting change."
Host Joanna Lumley, a British film and TV star, also praised the gender equality movement as a continuation of the work of the Suffragettes a century ago.
She hailed the "determination to eradicate the abuse of women the world over" as she took to the stage.
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Meanwhile, in an open letter published before the awards, almost 200 British and Irish stars backed a new fund to help women facing sexual harassment and abuse at work.
It echoes a similar initiative launched in Hollywood last month, and was kick-started with a USD 1.4 million donation from actress and activist Emma Watson.
Choices at the Baftas, which fall between the Globes and the Oscars, often mirror those of the American heavyweights.
'The Shape of Water', a story of love between a mute cleaning woman and a mystery merman-like creature, led the pack just as it has across the Atlantic, where it has topped the list of Oscar nominations with 13 nods, including for best picture.
As well as director del Toro's award for direction, composer Alexandre Desplat collected the original music award, his third BAFTA win, and the film also won best production design.
Allison Janney won best supporting actress for her role as the mother of controversial figure skater Tonya Harding in biopic 'I, Tonya.'
"I loved doing this crazy part and finding her humanity, that's what I try and do in all roles," she said backstage.
Gary Oldman's turn as Churchill in 'Darkest Hour' has so far won him a Golden Globe, a Bafta and the chance of an Oscar on March 4.
He paid tribute to the wartime British leader, saying: "In those dark, uncertain days in 1940, he held the line for honour, for integrity and freedom for his nation and the world, so I thank you, Sir Winston."
Accepting her best actress accolade, McDormand, who chose not to wear black, quoted her on-screen character who has "a little trouble with compliance".
"But I want you to know I stand in full solidarity with my sisters tonight in black," she added.
Here's the complete list of winners:
Outstanding British film
Darkest Hour
The Death of Stalin
God’s Own Country
Lady Macbeth
Paddington 2
Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
EE Rising Star award (voted for by the public)
Winner: Daniel Kaluuya
Florence Pugh
Josh O’Connor
Tessa Thompson
Timothée Chalamet
Best original music
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Phantom Thread
Winner: The Shape of Water
Best make up & hair
Blade Runner 2049
Winner: Darkest Hour
I, Tonya
Victoria & Abdul
Wonder
Best costume design
Beauty and the Beast
Darkest Hour
I, Tonya
Winner: Phantom Thread
The Shape of Water
Best animated film
Winner: Coco
Loving Vincent
My Life as a Courgette
Best editing
Winner: Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best documentary
City of Ghosts
Winner: I Am Not Your Negro
Icarus
An Inconvenient Sequel
Jane
Outstanding British contribution to cinema
National Film and Television School
Best British short animation
Have Heart
Mamoon
Winner: Poles Apart
Best British short film
Aamir
Winner: Cowboy Dave
A Drowning Man
Work
Wren Boys
Best film not in the English language
Elle
First They Killed My Father
Winner: The Handmaiden
Loveless
The Salesman
Best adapted screenplay
Winner: Call Me by Your Name
The Death of Stalin
Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Molly’s Game
Paddington 2
Best supporting actor
Christopher Plummer, All the Money in the World
Hugh Grant, Paddington 2
Winner: Sam Rockwell, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Willem Dafoe, The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best production design
Beauty and the Beast
Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
Winner: The Shape of Water
Best special visual effects
Winner: Blade Runner 2049
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes
Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer
The Ghoul – Gareth Tunley (writer/director/producer), Jack Healy Guttman & Tom Meeten (producers)
Winner: I Am Not a Witch – Rungano Nyoni (writer/director), Emily Morgan (producer)
Jawbone – Johnny Harris (writer/producer), Thomas Napper (director)
Kingdom of Us – Lucy Cohen (director)
Lady Macbeth – Alice Birch (writer), William Oldroyd (director), Fodhla Cronin O’Reilly (producer)
Best supporting actress
Winner: Allison Janney, I, Tonya
Kristin Scott Thomas, Darkest Hour
Laurie Metcalf, Lady Bird
Lesley Manville, Phantom Thread
Octavia Spencer, The Shape of Water
Best sound
Baby Driver
Blade Runner 2049
Winner: Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Best original screenplay
Get Out
I, Tonya
Lady Bird
The Shape of Water
Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best cinematography
Winner: Blade Runner 2049
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best actor
Daniel Day-Lewis, Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya, Get Out
Winner: Gary Oldman, Darkest Hour
Jamie Bell, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Timothée Chalamet, Call Me by Your Name
Best actress
Annette Bening, Film Stars Don’t Die in Liverpool
Winner: Frances McDormand, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie, I, Tonya
Sally Hawkins, The Shape of Water
Saoirse Ronan, Lady Bird
Best director
Denis Villeneuve, Blade Runner 2049
Luca Guadagnino, Call Me by Your Name
Christopher Nolan, Dunkirk
Winner: Guillermo Del Toro, The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Best film
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
Winner: Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Bafta fellowship
Ridley Scott
