Leveling the playing field
Road movie ‘ Nomadland’ sweeps Baftas as women filmmakers triumph
US road movie Nomadland triumphed at the Bafta film awards on Sunday, with Chinese director Chloe Zhao’s intimate portrayal of marginalized Americans winning in four categories including best film, best actress and best director.
The socially distanced and largely remote awards ceremony in London saw a strong showing by women directors in the run- up to the Oscars.
The British academy has sought to improve diversity and Zhao was one of four women nominated for “best director.”
“We brought in changes to the awards to level the playing field,” said Krishnendu Majumdar, chair of the academy, following criticism over 2020’ s awards ceremony which had no women directors and an all- white shortlist.
Zhao welcomed stronger representation for women filmmakers in comments to journalists afterwards, saying: “It’s about time, it’s great.”
“I love doing what I do and if this means more people like me get to live their dreams, I’m very grateful.”
British director Emerald Fennell also carried off two awards for her debut feature, Promising Young Woman
Carey Mulligan.
The Oscar- tipped thriller is about a woman who avenges a friend’s rape by pretending to be drunk in bars and then turning the tables on men who prey on her.
The film, which has elements of comedy and horror, won for outstanding British film and original screenplay.
Sitting in front of a grand piano in a gauzy white dress, Fennell described the film as a “labor of love.”
“It was the greatest thing in my life making this film,” she said.
The film is nominated for Oscars for best director and best original screenplay, while Mulligan is nominated for best actress.
Zhao accepted Nomadland’s awards dressed in a plaid shirt from Los Angeles, saying that she planned to start the day with celebrations. “Tomorrow morning, I will be very hung over,” she said.
The film’s star Frances McDormand won for best leading actress and sent a written message saying: “Thank you, dear British people.”
Nomadland is one of the frontrunners for the Oscar awards, with six nominations including for best picture, best director and best actress.
In March it won the coveted Golden Globe awards for best drama film and best director.
Welsh actor Sir Anthony Hopkins won the best actor Bafta for The Father, a film about a man suffering from dementia directed by France’s Florian Zeller.
The 83- year- old didn’t appear during the ceremony but spoke to journalists afterwards, explaining that he had not expected to win and had been holidaying in Wales and painting in his hotel room.
“This is wonderful, I mean, this is the first time in my life when I never expected to get this,” he said, calling his fourth Bafta a “fun bonus.”
An emerging star, 19- yearold Bukky Bakray, won the EE Rising Star award, chosen by public vote, for Rocks, a coming- of- age drama set in London.
She made her debut after being discovered through open auditions.
Dressed in a pink satin gown, she made her acceptance speech to screams of joy from her family and a hug from her mother.
‘ Diet Bafta’
The socially distanced ceremony was held at London’s Royal Albert Hall with awards presented on stage to an empty auditorium.
The winning actors and film- makers mostly decked out in dinner jackets and evening dresses accepted awards on video calls from their living rooms and hotels, some with family members reacting emotionally in the background.
One of the award presenters, comedian Youssef Kerkour described the stripped- back ceremony as “diet Bafta.”
Prince William had been due to participate in the ceremony, but he pulled out following the death of his grandfather Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II.
The star power came from the actors who presented awards on stage including Hugh Grant, Richard E. Grant, Tom Hiddleston and Bridgerton star Phoebe Dynevor. Hollywood star Renee Zellweger made a virtual appearance from Los Angeles in a dramatic silver gown to present the leading actor award.
Grant awarded the prestigious Bafta Academy Fellowship to double Oscar- winning director Ang Lee, perhaps best known for Brokeback Mountain and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, describing his film career as “almost preposterously successful.”
“I’m humbled to be counted among such brilliant filmmakers,” said the film director.
The ceremony was held over two days for the first time, with technical awards on Saturday.
On Saturday, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, a film about a blues musician in 1920s Chicago, took home two technical Baftas for costume design and make- up and hair. Rocks and Mank, a depiction of a debauched screenwriter during Hollywood’s golden age, also bagged a prize each for casting and production design respectively.
Other winners in the technical awards included Christopher Nolan’s Tenet for special visual effects and Sound of Metal, starring Riz
Ahmed, for sound.
“It’s great to be able to see people’s faces – you don’t see them smile underneath their masks,” said Tom Williams, who on a recent trip to Texas was discovering the big state’s decidedly casual approach to COVID- 19.
Sitting in a Houston bar, he was struck by the contrast between the laid- back attitude of clients there and the far more cautious approach prevailing in his small hometown of Steilacoom, near Seattle, in faraway Washington state.
To suddenly set foot in the “post- pandemic world,” without mask or physical barriers, left the 50- year- old physician – in Texas with his daughter for a volleyball tournament – feeling elated.
A month ago, Texas, the second most populous US state, cited increasing vaccinations as it dropped a requirement to wear masks in public places and ended all virus- related curbs in private establishments, which are now free to set their own restrictions, if any.
In a courtyard where tables sit among wheelless vintage pickups, the Truck Yard welcomes clients to partake in its margaritas, as well as spring crawfish, tacos, pizzas or burgers from a rotating cast of food trucks.
Guests are free to wear a mask or not. Roughly half of them don’t bother.
On this weekend evening, the sprawling establishment – known for its 80- year- old Ferris wheel – is buzzing, full of fans of Houston’s professional baseball team the Astros, who play in a nearby stadium limited to 50 percent capacity.
One fan, 22- year- old Chris Chambers, admitted to not being “very careful” about the coronavirus in recent months.
“I got married, I got engaged, I’ve been to two weddings. I’ve been in bars like this and haven’t gotten it so… I don’t know,” he said.
In Houston, new cases are down sharply since the start of 2021, but health officials say the virus remains concerning.
Much will depend, they say, on how quickly the city’s “super- spreading” college students get vaccinated.
One- third of Texans have already received at least one dose of the vaccine, which has been available to all adults since March 29.
But Chambers hasn’t yet bothered.
“My mom got her shots, so I don’t feel worried about that,” he said.
As a young man in good health, he said, he expects that if he does fall ill with the virus, “I think I’d recover within a week and everything will be fine.”
Another client, Matthew Diaz, who takes remote classes in finance from a New York school, said that “since last May, we haven’t given any care at all about COVID[- 19].”
For him, the easing of restrictions has changed little.
“The only thing that has been changed is the law,” he said, but “in Texas, that’s secondary. In Texas, it’s always been what we believe, first, and second, what the government wants us to believe.”
Truck Yard’s soft- spoken manager David Foreman said he hasn’t noticed any particular drop in business in recent months. COVID- 19 or not, he said, what matters is the weather.
Some businesses received threats on social media when they decided, as the law allows, to no longer require customers to wear masks.
But Foreman said restaurants, with a somewhat older clientele, were more affected than his bar, which caters to a young crowd.
In a trailer turned into a stage, Morgan McKay opened her guitar case, on which are printed the words: “Don’t mess with Texas Music!”
She was to perform later, standing between large, spraypainted portraits of Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, who in the 1960s helped found the Outlaw country music movement in Texas.
“I feel so great to be out of the house and back to feeling normal again,” said McKay.
Since the state dropped its virus restrictions, she has had more work than she can handle.
“I feel very blessed,” she said. “March was crazy. April is going to be crazy.”