“Oppenheimer” won the most awards Sunday night, walking away with seven BAFTAs.
The movie, about the creation of the atomic bomb during World War II, took home prizes for best film, Christopher Nolan for best director, Cillian Murphy best leading actor, Robert Downey Jr. for best supporting actor, Ludwig Göransson for best original score, Hoyte van Hoytema for best cinematography and Jennifer Lame for best editing, according to The New York Times.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts, considered the British equivalent of the Academy Awards, were given out in London on Sunday.
Four other movies — “Poor Things”, “The Holdovers”, “Killers of the Flower Moon” and “Anatomy of a Fall” — were also up for best film.
The success of “Oppenheimer” was not a surprise.
“Most British movie critics predicted that ‘Oppenheimer’ would win big,” The Times reported. “Tom Shone, writing in The Times of London, said that Nolan’s ‘magnum opus’ was an instant classic. ‘Sometimes the front-runner is the front-runner for a reason.’”
For Nolan, who grew up in London, the win was “an incredible honor,” especially since it was held in London’s Royal Festival Hall.
As The Times reported, “He reminisced about his parents dragging him to the festival hall, a major classical music venue as a boy. In fact, he said, his younger brother, now also a TV and filmmaker, had beaten him to the hall’s stage “by about 40 years” because he once took part in a performance of “‘The Nutcracker.’”
Murphy was equally shocked by his win, as he uttered, “Holy moly!”
He paid homage to Nolan and producer Emma Thomas, Nolan’s wife, “for allowing him to play the ‘colossally, knotty, complex character’ of Oppenheimer,” The Times reported.
“Poor Things” also fared well, winning five awards.
Emma Stone won the best leading actress award.
“Accepting that prize, Stone, who is American, first thanked Neil Swain, her dialect coach, for teaching her how to speak in a British accent,” The Times reported. “‘He did not laugh at me when he taught me how to say, ‘water.’”
The film also won for make up and hair, costume, special visual effects and production design.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph won the best supporting actress award for her role in “The Holdovers.”
Two popular movies from last year, “Saltburn” and “Barbie,” walked away empty handed.
The next big awards show, the Oscars, will be held March 10.