Signs of the time
McDonagh’s Three Billboards emerges as the big winner at this year’s BAFTAs
LONDON The ferocious female-led tragicomedy Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the big winner at the British Academy Film Awards in London, where women demanding an end to harassment, abuse and inequality dominated the ceremony.
Martin McDonagh’s film about a bereaved mother seeking justice won five trophies Sunday including best film, outstanding British film and best actress, for Frances McDormand. Producer Graham Broadbent said the movie is “the story of a woman taking on the establishment and status quo.
“It seems more timely now than we could ever have imagined,” he said.
Writer-director McDonagh said it was fitting, in the year of the #TimesUp campaign against sexual harassment, that Three Billboards is “a film about a woman who refuses to take any s--- anymore.
“Our film is a hopeful one in lots of ways, but it’s also an angry one,” McDonagh said. “As we’ve seen this year, sometimes anger is the only way to get people to listen and to change.”
McDonagh won the original screenplay prize for Three Billboards, which also netted Sam Rockwell the supporting actor trophy. Allison Janney was named best supporting actress for playing ice
skater Tonya Harding ’s domineering mother in I, Tonya.
Guillermo del Toro won the directing prize for the monster fantasy The Shape of Water, which also took trophies for music and production design. Three Canadians — Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin and Shane Vieau — shared the production design award.
Gary Oldman won the best actor prize for playing wartime British prime minister Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.
The British prizes, known as BAFTAs, are considered a key indicator of likely success at Hollywood’s Oscars in two weeks.
The film awards season has been overshadowed by allegations of sexual harassment and abuse levelled at scores of entertainment figures.
The red carpet and the auditorium at London’s Royal Albert Hall were a sea of black, as actresses eschewed colour as a statement against sexual misconduct and gender inequality. Men showed solidarity with #TimesUp lapel pins.