“Nomadland” has been named the best film of 2020 at the EE British Academy Film Awards, which were handed out on Sunday by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). Director Chloé Zhao’s haunting road film also won awards for best director, best leading actress (Frances McDormand) and best cinematography, making it the ceremony’s dominant film and giving it yet another prize in a year in which it has already come out on top at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice Awards, Producers Guild Awards and Directors Guild Awards.
Coming one day after the film’s DGA victory on Saturday, the BAFTA win gave “Nomadland” a very good weekend leading into the Wednesday start of Oscar voting.
McDormand’s win in the leading actress category was expected, particularly since her fellow Oscar nominees Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom“), Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman“) and Andra Day (“The United States vs. Billie Holiday“) were not nominated by BAFTA. But in the lead actor category, “The Father” star Anthony Hopkins won in a shocking upset over the late Chadwick Boseman, who had racked up a string of wins for his performance in “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom.”
British actor Hopkins, though, had something of a home-court advantage at BAFTA, which also gave “The Father” the award for adapted screenplay.
Zhao’s best director win came in a category whose six nominees included four women. She was only the second woman to ever win the award, after Kathryn Bigelow did it in 2010 for “The Hurt Locker.” In the previous 73 years, BAFTA had only nominated women in the category seven times, with Bigelow landing two of those nominations.
Daniel Kaluuya won the supporting-actor award for “Judas and the Black Messiah,” giving him a near unbroken string of victories through awards season.
Yuh-Jung Youn won the supporting-actress award for “Minari,” her second major prize after her recent SAG Awards win. Of the six nominees in the category, Youn and Maria Bakalova from “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm” were the only ones to also be nominated at the Oscars.
Florian Zeller and Christopher Hampton won in the adapted screenplay category for “The Father,” while Emerald Fennell won the original screenplay award for “Promising Young Woman.” Fennell’s film was also named the year’s best British film, in a category whose 10 nominees also included “The Father,” “Rocks” and “The Mauritanian.”
Thomas Vinterberg’s “Another Round” won the award for the best film not in the English language, triumphing in a category that also included “Minari” and “Quo Vadis, Aida?” “My Octopus Teacher” won the award for documentary, while Pixar’s “Soul” was named the year’s best animated film and was also honored for its score from Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross.
“His House” writer/director Remi Weeks won in the Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer category. Bukky Bakray, the young star of “Rocks,” won the Rising Star Award, which is voted on by the public.
Joshua James Richards won the cinematography award for “Nomadland,” while “Sound of Metal” won the award for film editing, its second BAFTA award; at a Saturday ceremony devoted to below-the-line and short-film categories, it won for sound.
Also at the Saturday ceremony, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” won two awards, one for costume and one for makeup and hair. Other awards went to “Mank” (production design), “Sound of Metal” (sound), “Tenet” (visual effects) and “Rocks” (casting).
BAFTA’s awards have long been considered a strong predictor of the Oscars because of the large number of British members in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Over the last five years, the 18 categories shared by the two shows have seen at least nine and as many as 14 BAFTA winners repeat at the Oscars.
The BAFTA Best Film category, though, has not gone to the eventual Oscar winner since “12 Years a Slave” won both awards in 2014. The six BAFTA winners since then – “Boyhood,” “The Revenant,” “La La Land,” “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,” “Roma” and “1917” – have all fallen short at the Oscars.
This year’s BAFTA nominations, which took place after an overhaul of nomination procedures designed to produce a more diverse slate of contenders, differ far more dramatically than usual from the Oscar nominations. The differences are particularly notable in the categories in which nominees are chosen by juries, including director and all four acting categories.
Also at the show, director Ang Lee was presented with the BAFTA Fellowship, the organization’s highest award.
Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary hosted the show from the Royal Albert Hall in London, with all the nominees and winners participating via video links.
Here is the list of BAFTA nominees. Winners are indicated by *WINNER.
BEST FILM
“The Father”
“The Mauritanian”
“Nomadland” *WINNER
“Promising Young Woman”
“The Trial of the Chicago 7”
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
“Calm With Horses”
“The Dig”
“The Father”
“His House”
“Limbo”
“The Mauritanian”
“Mogul Mowgli”
“Promising Young Woman” *WINNER
“Rocks”
“Saint Maud”
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH ACTOR, DIRECTOR OR WRITER
“His House,” Remi Weekes (writer/director) *WINNER
“Limbo,” Ben Sharrock (writer/director) and Irune Gurtabi (producer)
“Moffie,” Jack Sidey (writer/producer)
“Rocks,” Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (writers)
“Saint Maud,” Rose Glass (writer/director), Oliver Kassman (producer)
DIRECTOR
Thomas Vinterberg, “Another Round”
Shannon Murphy, “Babyteeth”
Lee Isaac Chung, “Minari”
Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland” *WINNER
Jasmila Zbanic, “Quo Vadis, Aida?”
Sarah Gavron, “Rocks”
LEADING ACTRESS
Bukky Bakray, “Rocks”
Radha Blank, “The Forty-Year-Old Version”
Vanessa Kirby, “Pieces of a Woman”
Frances McDormand, “Nomadland” *WINNER
Wunmi Mosaku, “His House”
Alfre Woodard, “Clemency”
LEADING ACTOR
Riz Ahmed, “Sound of Metal”
Chadwick Boseman, “Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”
Adarsh Gourav, “The White Tiger”
Anthony Hopkins, “The Father” *WINNER
Mads Mikkelsen, “Another Round”
Tahar Rahim, “The Mauritanian”
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Niamh Algar, “Calm With Horses”
Kosar Ali, “Rocks”
Maria Bakalova, “Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”
Dominique Fishback, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Ashley Madekwe, “County Lines”
Yuh-Jung Youn, “Minari” *WINNER
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Daniel Kaluuya, “Judas and the Black Messiah” * WINNER
Barry Keoghan, “Calm With Horses”
Alan Kim, “Minari”
Leslie Odom Jr., “One Night In Miami…”
Clarke Peters, “Da 5 Bloods”
Paul Raci, “Sound of Metal”
FILM NOT IN ENGLISH LANGUAGE
“Another Round” *WINNER
“Dear Comrades!”
“Les Misérables”
“The Life Ahead”
“Minari”
“Quo Vadis, Aida?”
DOCUMENTARY
“Collective”
“David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet”
“Dick Johnson is Dead”
“The Dissident”
“My Octopus Teacher” *WINNER
“The Social Dilemma”
ANIMATED FILM
“Onward”
“Soul” *WINNER
“Wolfwalkers”
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg, “Another Round”
Jack Fincher, “Mank”
Emerald Fennell, “Promising Young Woman” *WINNER
Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson, “Rocks”
Aaron Sorkin, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Moira Buffini, “The Dig”
Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller, “The Father” *WINNER
Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven, “The Mauritanian”
Chloé Zhao, “Nomadland”
Ramin Bahrani, “The White Tiger”
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Bobbitt, “Judas and the Black Messiah”
Erik Messerschmidt, “Mank”
Alwin H. Kuchler, “The Mauritanian”
Dariusz Wolski, “News of the World”
Joshua James Richards, “Nomadland” *WINNER
EDITING
Yorgos Lamprinos, “The Father”
Chloe Zhao, “Nomadland”
Frederic Thoraval, “Promising Young Woman”
Mikkel E.G. Nielsen, “Sound of Metal” *WINNER
Alan Baumgarten, “The Trial of the Chicago 7”
ORIGINAL SCORE
Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, “Mank”
Emile Mosseri, “Minari”
James Newton Howard, “News of the World”
Anthony Willis, “Promising Young Woman”
Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, “Soul” *WINNER
EE RISING STAR AWARD
Bukky Bakray *WINNER
Conrad Khan
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Morfydd Clark
Sope Dirisu
BAFTA Fellowship
Ang Lee
BAFTA Opening Night 2021 categories, presented on Saturday:
CASTING
“Calm With Horses”
“Judas and the Black Messiah”
“Minari”
“Promising Young Woman”
“Rocks” *WINNER
COSTUME DESIGN
“Ammonite”
“The Dig”
“Emma.”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” *WINNER
“Mank”
MAKE UP & HAIR
“The Dig”
“Hillbilly Elegy”
“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom” *WINNER
“Mank”
“Pinocchio”
PRODUCTION DESIGN
“The Dig”
“The Father”
“Mank” *WINNER
“News of the World”
“Rebecca”
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
“Greyhound”
“The Midnight Sky”
“Mulan”
“The One and Only Ivan”
“Tenet” *WINNER
SOUND
“Greyhound”
“News of the World”
“Nomadland”
“Soul”
“Sound of Metal” *WINNER
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
“The Fire Next Time”
“The Owl and the Pussycat” *WINNER
“The Song of A Lost Boy”
BRITISH SHORT FILM
“Eyelash”
“Lizard”
“Lucky Break”
“Miss Curvy”
“The Present” *WINNER
OUTSTANDING BRITISH CONTRIBUTION TO CINEMA
Noel Clarke