"Oppenheimer", Christopher Nolan's epic movie about the creation of the atomic bomb, swept the board at Sunday's BAFTA film awards in London, delivering a serious statement ahead of next month's Oscars. The movie earned seven awards in total, including est Film, Best Director for Nolan, Best Actor for Cillian Murphy and Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr.
The film has grossed more than $1 billion, already won big at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards and is now 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 London's Royal Festival Hall.
He later told reporters the success was "mind-blowing", adding he was "thrilled and a little shocked".
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.
On accepting the award, the US star joked that Nolan advised he attempt an understated approach to the role of Lewis Strauss, a member of the US Atomic Energy Commission, in order to restore "my dwindling credibility".
- 'Poor things' wins five -
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 already scooped Golden Globe and Critics Choice Best Actress awards for her no-holds-barred performance. She beat off competition from "Barbie" star Margot Robbie, with both earlier hitting the red carpet along with fellow Hollywood heavyweights Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper.
- 'Barbenheimer' -
In the best film category, "Oppenheimer" won out ahead of French courtroom drama "Anatomy of a Fall", "The Holdovers" and Martin Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon".
Both Scorsese and his historical epic's leading man Leonardo DiCaprio missed out on individual BAFTA nods but the movie amassed nine nominations in total, including for Best Film.
Cooper's bio-pic about US conductor Leonard Bernstein was also nominated for Original Screenplay (shared with screenwriter Josh Singer) and Best Actor. However, "The Hangover" star left the ceremony empty-handed.
The BAFTA shortlist was another disappointment for "Barbie" -- the other half of last summer's "Barbenheimer" box office phenomenon -- which only managed five nominations. Greta Gerwig's film, which turned nostalgia for the beloved doll into a sharp satire about misogyny and female empowerment, has so far failed to capture the number of top prizes expected this awards season.
See the full winner's list:
BEST FILM
Oppenheimer; Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas
LEADING ACTRESS
Emma Stone; Poor Things
LEADING ACTOR
Cillian Murphy; Oppenheimer
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Da'Vine Joy Randolph; The Holdovers
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Downey Jr.; Oppenheimer
EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Mia McKenna-Bruce
DIRECTOR
Christopher Nolan; Oppenheimer
MAKE UP & HAIR
Poor Things; Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier, Josh Weston
COSTUME DESIGN
Poor Things; Holly Waddington
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
The Zone of Interest; Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
Crab Day; Ross Stringer, Bartosz Stanislawek, Aleksandra Sykulak
BRITISH SHORT FILM
Jellyfish and Lobster; Yasmin Afifi, Elizabeth Rufai
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Poor Things; Shona Heath, James Price, Zsuzsa Mihalek
SOUND
The Zone of Interest; Johnnie Burn, Tarn Willers
ORIGINAL SCORE
Oppenheimer, Ludwig Goransson
DOCUMENTARY
20 Days in Mariupol; Mstyslav Chernov, Raney Aronson Rath, Michelle Mizner
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
American Fiction; Cord Jefferson
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Oppenheimer; Hoyte van Hoytema
EDITING
Oppenheimer; Jennifer Lame
CASTING
The Holdovers; Susan Shopmaker
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The Zone of Interest; Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Earth Mama; Savanah Leaf (Writer, Director, Producer), Shirley O'Connor (Producer), Medb Riordan (Producer)
ANIMATED FILM
The Boy and the Heron; Hayao Miyazaki, Toshio Suzuki
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Poor Things; Simon Hughes
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Anatomy of a Fall; Justine Triet, Arthur Harari.
