Kiwis in spotlight on Baftas’ big night
It may have been the biggest night of the year in British film, but a couple of Kiwis shared the spotlight at the Baftas yesterday.
Kiwi John Gilbert won the British Academy Film Award for Best Editing for his work on Mel Gibson’s World War II film Hacksaw Ridge. He wasn’t in London to accept the award but said he was excited about the win.
It’s not the first time the Wellington editor has been noticed by the international awards community either — in 2002 he was nominated for a Bafta and an Oscar for his work on the first Lord of the Rings film The Fellowship of the Ring.
Wellington’s Weta Digital was also honoured with a Bafta, for Best Special Visual Effects for its work on the Disney film The Jungle Book.
As expected, frothy musical La La Land took five prizes, including best picture, at the event. But major awards also went to tough welfare-state drama I, Daniel Blake and fractured-family stories Lion and Manchester by the Sea.
The UK awards are often seen as an indicator of who will win at Hollywood’s Academy Awards, held two weeks later.
La La Land had 11 nominations for the British awards and won prizes for actress Emma Stone, director Damien Chazelle, music and cinematography as well.
But voters also rewarded less escapist fare.
Stone’s co-star, Ryan Gosling, lost out on the best-actor prize to Casey Affleck, who played a grieving handyman in Manchester by the Sea.
Affleck, who is also Oscarnominated for the role, thanked writer-director Ken- neth Lonergan for creating a film that “dignifies everyday lives and their struggles with great compassion”.
British actor Dev Patel pulled off an upset, beating favorite Mahershala Ali, from Moonlight, to the best supporting actor trophy for Lion, about a young man who goes search- ing for the Indian family from which he was separated as a child.
Lion also took the Bafta for best adapted screenplay.
Ken Loach’s I, Daniel Blake was named best British film. The 80-year-old director used his acceptance speech to lambast the country’s Conservative government.
Loach said his docudrama about a carpenter trying to get welfare after a heart attack shows that “the most vulnerable and the poorest people are treated by this government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful”.
Loach apologised for making a political speech, but told reporters backstage that “you can’t do a film like this and then talk showbiz”.
Loach was cheered by an audience at London’s Royal Albert Hall that included Prince William, his wife, Kate, and nominees including Meryl Streep, Affleck, Stone and Nicole Kidman.
Both William and Kate wore black and white — he a tuxedo, she an off-the-shoulder Alexander McQueen gown.
Viola Davis won the supporting actress Bafta for Fences, Denzel Washington’s adaptation of August Wilson’s stage drama about an AfricanAmerican family.
A visibly moved Davis praised Wilson’s play for showing “that our lives mattered as African Americans”.