LONDON: Recession drama Nomadland, about a community of van dwellers, was the big winner at Britain’s Bafta awards on Sunday, scooping best film and prizes for its Chinese-born director Chloe Zhao and leading actress Frances McDormand.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts ceremony was held virtually over two nights, with nominees joining in by video, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

However film stars Hugh Grant and Priyanka Chopra Jonas appeared in person at London’s Royal Albert Hall while Renee Zellweger and Anna Kendrick joined from a Los Angeles studio to present the awards.

Nomadland, which has already picked up prizes this awards season, stars 63-year-old McDormand as a widow, who in the wake of the US economic recession, turns her van into a mobile home and sets out on the road, taking on seasonal jobs along the way.

“We would like to dedicate this award to the nomadic community who so generously welcomed us into their lives,” Zhao, who won the director category, said in her acceptance speech.

“Thank you for showing us that aging is a beautiful part of life, a journey that we should all cherish and celebrate. How we treat our elders says a lot of about who we are as a society and we need to do better.”

The film also won for cinematography.

Outstanding British film award went to #MeToo revenge movie Promising Young Woman, which also won original screenplay.

The academy also paid tribute to Prince Philip, Queen Elizabeth’s husband, who died on Friday, aged 99. Philip was named Bafta’s first president in 1959. His grandson Prince William is the current president.

Following an outcry last year when Bafta presented an all-white acting contenders list, more than half of this year’s 24 nominees were actors of colour.

Film veteran Anthony Hopkins won the leading actor category for portraying a man with dementia in The Father.

“I’m at a time in my life where I never expected to get this,” the 83-year-old told reporters of the award, adding his age had made making the movie easy.

Youn Yuh-jung won supporting actress for Minari, in which she plays a grandmother who travels from South Korea to the United States to look after her grandchildren.

The 73-year-old, who has won a Screen Actors Guild award and has been nominated for an Oscar for her performance, drew laughs in her acceptance speech when she jokingly said it was particularly meaningful to be recognised by “British people, known as very snobbish people”.

Daniel Kaluuya, who has swept this awards season for his portrayal of late Black Panther activist Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah, won supporting actor.

Ang Lee, the Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi director, received the Bafta Fellowship, the academy’s top honour, for his contribution to film.

The biggest nominee to miss out was director Sarah Gavron’s “Rocks”. With a total of seven nominations including best director, best cast and best original screenplay, the movie was billed as a homegrown sensation at the awards.

The coming-of-age drama, which shows the struggles of a British-Nigerian schoolgirl who is abandoned by her mother, has been praised by critics for its depiction of life in the British capital.

On Saturday, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”, a film about a blues musician in 1920s Chicago, took home two technical Baftas for costume design and make-up and hair.

“Rocks” and “Mank”, a depiction of a debauched real-life screenwriter set during Hollywood’s golden age, also bagged a prize each for casting and production design respectively as the awards were split over two nights for the first time.

Other winners in the technical awards included Christopher Nolan’s science fiction action-thriller “Tenet” for special visual effects and “Sound of Metal,” starring British actor Riz Ahmed, for sound.

Published in Dawn, April 12th, 2021