‘Nomadland’ Wins 4 Awards Including Best Picture, Director
T washe second and final night of the 2021 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) Awards dominated by Chloe Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’.
The Frances McDormand-led road movie picked up four prizes, including the one for best film.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, the Searchlight-produced movie also won for lead actress, cinematography and director, putting it well ahead of all other films.
Accepting the Best Director award, Zhao commented the honour would “make my teacher at Brighton College very proud.”
The 2021 event also marked a historic turning point for the BAFTAs. They were the first edition to take place since the organisation’s ground-breaking diversity review, which was carried out following last year’s #BAFTAsSoWhite scandal.
A brief tribute was paid to the Late Prince Philip, BAFTA’s first president, before delving straight into the prizes. The second night of the ceremony, which was longer of the two, had several musical performances and also saw Ang Lee presented with the BAFTA Fellowship award, the British Academy’s highest honour.
The leading actor award was given to Anthony Hopkins for his performance in Florian Zeller’s ‘The Father’, which also landed the statuette for best-adapted screenplay.
Emerald Fennell’s ‘Promising Young Woman’ claimed outstanding British film and original screenplay, and Pixar’s ‘Soul’ won for animation and original score.
Daniel Kaluuya won best supporting actor for ‘Judas and the Black Messiah’, in other performance categories, while Yuh-Jung Youn won best-supporting actress for ‘Minari’.
In possibly the night’s most comical moment, Youn joked that the award was especially meaningful to her as Brits were “snobbish”.
‘Nomadland’ and ‘Rocks’ were tied, having claimed seven nominations each, with ‘The Father’, ‘Mank’, ‘Minari’ and ‘Promising Young Woman’ just behind