It seemed fairly obvious that Oppenheimer and Poor Things were going to win lots and lots but… this much? Seven for the former and five for the latter?
One suspects it is a source of some embarrassment to BAFTA that Christopher Nolan, despite eight previous nominations, has never taken home a statue. His films have invented a new genre – the intelligent-verging-on-incomprehensible blockbuster – and he has done more for British cinema than most.
Remember back when were in the throes of the pandemic and the Bond people and everyone else kept last-second postponing their releases? Nolan was the only big gamer who, with Tenet, did not, and you sensed that this was out of pure love for cinema and wanting to ensure cinemas survived.
Oppenheimer is a very very good film – a lot better than Tenet – and the film, director and lead actor awards you can understand. But… best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr? Maybe they were just worried about stirring up controversy by giving Ryan Gosling an award for Ken while Barbie won nothing – though at least Margot Robbie got a best actress nod – but it still should have been Ryan Gosling for Ken. And best original score? This was an incredibly strong shortlist on which Oppenheimer was probably the least memorable.
A little confusing, meanwhile, was the fact that The Zone Of Interest won both outstanding British film and best film in a foreign language. Yes, Jonathan Glazer is British (so is Nolan, who was not nominated in that category) but the cast is German and it was shot in Poland.
It would have been more fitting had All Of Us Strangers or How To Have Sex won the former – it’s always nice to see an up and comer triumph here – or Anatomy Of A Fall, even though lots of it is in English(!), winning the latter.
Poor Things’ awards – costume, make up and hair, production design, visual effects – were all richly deserved, and one suspects we might see a repeat of the Emma Stone and The Holdovers’ Da’Vine Joy Randolph combo at the Oscars in the best actress and best supporting actress categories.
No alarms and no surprises at all, basically. Perhaps they should have given one of Oppenheimer’s awards to Poor Things so at least we could have had a tense six-all stalemate.
