Butler nabs surprise win at BAFTAs
“All Quiet on the Western Front” won seven prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, building the drama’s momentum as awards season rolls toward the Oscars on March 12. Irish tragicomedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” and rock biopic “Elvis” took home four prizes each.
“All Quiet,” an antiwar German movie based on Erich Maria Remarque’s classic novel, won Edward Berger the best director award. Its other trophies were adapted screenplay, cinematography, best score, best sound and best film not in English.
Austin Butler was a surprise best actor winner for “Elvis.” Baz Lurhmann’s musical also won for casting, costume design, and hair and makeup. Martin McDonagh’s “Banshees,” the bleakly comic story of a friendship gone sour, was named best British film. It also won for McDonagh’s original screenplay, and awards for Kerry Condon as best supporting actress and Barry Keoghan for best supporting actor.
Cate Blanchett won the best actress prize for the orchestral drama “Tar.”
The prizes — officially the EE BAFTA Film Awards — are Britain’s equivalent of Hollywood’s Academy Awards.
Prince William, who is president of Britain’s film and television academy, was in the audience alongside his wife, Kate.
Now over to DGA’s awards:
The Directors Guild of America handed its top prize for feature filmmaking to Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” The 75th annual DGA Awards, held Saturday, denied Steven Spielberg a record-extending
four wins for the guild’s top honor.
Spielberg had once been expected to cruise through awards season with his autobiographical “The Fabelmans,” but the strong affection for “Everything Everywhere All at Once” has come to dominate Hollywood’s Oscar run-up.
Ant-Man opens big at box office:
“Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” opened with $104 million in domestic ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday, easily surpassing the box-office debuts of the previous two Ant-Man films. The Walt Disney Co.’s “Quantumania” added $121.3 million overseas to give the pintsized hero a $225 million global launch. It’s easily the largest opening of the year so far. The first “Ant-Man” launched with $57.2 million domestically in 2015, and its sequel, “Ant-Man and the Wasp,” debuted three years later with $75.8 million.
Anime creator Matsumoto dies:
Leiji Matsumoto, the anime creator known for “Space Battleship Yamato” and other classics using a fantastical style and antiwar themes, has died at age 85. Matsumoto died of acute heart failure Feb. 13 in a Tokyo hospital, his office, Studio Leijisha, said Monday.
Matsumoto’s manga works “Galaxy Express 999” and “Space Pirate Captain Herlock” were adapted into television anime series in the 1970s and became huge hits in and outside Japan.
Actor Gary Lockwood is 86. Actor Anthony Daniels is 77. Actor Kelsey Grammer is 68. Singer Mary Chapin Carpenter is 65. Actor William Baldwin is 60. Actor Aunjanue Ellis is 54. Actor Tituss Burgess is 44. Actor Jennifer Love Hewitt is 44. Actor Jordan Peele is 44. Actor Elliot Page is 36. Actor Sophie Turner is 27.