Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao’s ‘Nomadland’ wins four Bafta awards including best picture, director
- Chloe Zhao’s American road movie wins best film, best actress, best director and cinematography prize
- ‘Nomadland’ a front runner for this month’s Oscars after coveted Golden Globe wins
Chinese filmmaker Chloe Zhao’s US recession drama Nomadland, about a community of van dwellers, was the big winner at Britain’s Bafta awards on Sunday.
Zhao became only the second woman to win the Bafta for best director, and star Frances McDormand was named best actress. Nomadland also took the cinematography prize.
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts ceremony was held virtually over two nights, with nominees joining in by video, because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, film stars Hugh Grant and Priyanka Chopra Jonas appeared in person at London’s Royal Albert Hall while Renée 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 ageing 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.”
Outstanding British film 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 Bafta’s 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.
Zhao was also one of four female filmmakers to be nominated for best director this year, marking the most ever in a single year. Last year, not a single woman was nominated in the category.
Zhao welcomed stronger representation for women filmmakers in comments to journalists afterwards, saying: “It’s about time, it’s great.”
“I love doing what I do and if this means more people like me get to live their dreams, I’m very grateful”.
Nomadland is one of the front runners for this month’s Oscar awards, with six nominations including for best picture, best director and best actress.
Last month it won coveted Golden Globe awards for best drama film and best director.
At the Baftas, 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”.
South Korean actress 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.
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Chloé Zhao makes history as first Asian woman to win best director at Golden Globes
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.
Brokeback Mountain and Life of Pi director Ang Lee received the Bafta Fellowship, the academy’s top honour, for his contribution to film.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse
