‘Oppenheimer’ wins seven Bafta awards
LONDON: Christopher Nolan’s epic movie Oppenheimer about the creation of the atomic bomb, swept the board at Sunday’s British Academy of Film and Television Awards (Bafta) here, delivering a serious statement ahead of next month’s Oscars.
The movie earned seven awards, including best film, best director for Nolan, best actor for Cillian Murphy and best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.
In the film, Murphy plays J. Robert Oppenheimer, the United States theoretical physicist often called the “father of the atomic bomb” who was haunted by the consequences of his creation.
The film has grossed more than US$1 billion, already won big at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards and is the clear frontrunner for Oscars glory.
It was Murphy’s first Bafta, and he thanked Nolan for “seeing something in me I probably didn’t see myself” when collecting the award at the ceremony in Royal Festival Hall here.
Despite boasting numerous commercial successes such as Inception and The Dark Knight, Nolan had never won the best director Bafta before.
It was Downey Jr’s second Bafta, having won the best actor gong 31 years ago for playing Charlie Chaplin.
It was also a good night for surreal dark comedy Poor Things, which won five awards including best actress for Emma Stone, who also won the gong in 2017 for La La Land.
In the film, Stone plays a Victorian reanimated corpse brought back to life with the spirit of a child by a mad scientist in a female Frankenstein story.
The US actress has scooped Golden Globe and Critics Choice best actress awards for her noholds-barred performance.
She beat competition from Barbie star Margot Robbie, with both earlier hitting the red carpet along with fellow Hollywood heavyweights Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper.