Robert Downey Jr and Da’Vine Joy Randolph received some of the first gongs of the night at the BAFTA Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.
The actor, 58, received a BAFTA for his role as Lewis Strauss in the Hollywood hit Oppenheimer, which swept awards season.
Robert admitted he owes the award to the film’s director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and star Cillian Murphy, as well as the “British influence.”
Gesturing to Nolan, he said, “That guy recently suggested I try a low-key approach as a last-ditch effort to resurrect my waning credibility.”
Meanwhile, Da’Vine was crowned victorious in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in The Holdovers.
Robert Downey Jr and Da’Vine Joy Randolph received some of the first gongs of the night at the BAFTA Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.
He went on stage and told the presenter “you are so handsome”, causing laughter from the audience.
“Thank you for trusting me with this beautiful character,” he says.
Becoming emotional, she says that being able to “wear this beautiful dress, standing on stage in London, is not a responsibility I take lightly.”
Randolph plays Mary, the school cook, in the film set at a boarding school in the early 1970s.
The night began with French legal drama Anatomy of a Fall winning the original screenplay award after its premiere at Cannes in May.
Accepting the award, co-writer and director Justine Triet said: “The last time I was in London, a woman said to me: ‘After I saw your film, I called my ex and told him to watch it to understand why I left her.’ “. him.’
‘Someone else said ‘Did you put a microphone in my kitchen?’
Gesturing to his co-writer and partner Arthur Harari, Triet said: “I’d like to make a statement tonight: It’s fiction and we’re doing reasonably well.”
Harari referred to the plot of the courtroom drama when he joked that he had recently found himself near an attic window.
He added: “I want this room to be my witness, if something happens to me, I loved insulating that attic and I am very happy tonight.”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph was crowned victorious in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in The Holdovers.
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari accept the award for original screenplay for Anatomy of a Fall
Next, the dark comedy Poor Things won the BAFTA for special visual effects.
Visual effects supervisor Simon Hughes said receiving the special visual effects Bafta for the surreal black comedy Poor Things was a career highlight.
“It’s the pinnacle of my career, absolutely for me,” he said.
“And for this to happen in a film as unique as this is a real revelation, it has been such a surreal and rewarding experience.”
Next, the drama film Earth Mama was honored with the BAFTA Award for Best Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer.
Director Savanah Leaf was sobbing as she took the stage to accept the award for her story about a pregnant single mother.
Leaf said, “This is crazy,” adding, “Our leading lady had never acted before and she put her heart into this and was very brave.”
The director received the award along with Irish producers Shirley O’Connor and Medb Riordan.
The Zone of Interest won the BAFTA for a film not in the English language.
Director Jonathan Glazer said winning the award was “an out-of-body experience” and paid tribute to his collaborators.
Producer James Wilson thanked Glazer for his “virtuosity and his friendship.”
He continued: “Walls are not something new before or after the Holocaust and it seems clear at this point that we should be concerned about the deaths of innocent people in Gaza, Yemen, Mariupol or Israel.”
And he added: “Thank you for recognizing a film that asks us to think about those spaces.”
The Bafta casting award went to Susan Shopmaker for The Holdovers, set in a private school, while the editing award went to Jennifer Lame for the Second World War biopic Oppenheimer.
The comedy-drama American Fiction won best adapted screenplay at the Bafta film awards ceremony.
American writer and former Gawker journalist Cord Jefferson said winning a Bafta was “surreal” and the speech was written for him because he didn’t think he would need it.
Jefferson said that in a “risk-averse industry,” he’s grateful his film, about a novelist who parodies the “noir” genre of books, was made, which becomes a gimmick he has to maintain.
The Boy And The Heron has won the Bafta for best animated film.
Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is not at the ceremony so the award was collected by presenters Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.
