A pair of unusual films by distinctive directors were the big winners at the British Academy Film Awards – the BAFTAs – on Sunday, February 8.
Richard Linklater's 12-years-in-the-making coming-of-age drama Boyhood took home the best film and director awards, while Wes Anderson's candy-coloured comedy The Grand Budapest Hotel won the biggest haul of trophies, with five.
The Stephen Hawking biopic The Theory of Everything and the jazz-drumming drama Whiplash also won multiple awards.
Awards-season high-flyer Birdman had its wings clipped, taking only the best-cinematography prize from its 10 nominations, while wartime code-breaking drama The Imitation Game won nothing despite receiving nine nominations.
Richard Linklater, who spent 12 years making Boyhood, was named best director, and Patricia Arquette won the supporting-actress trophy for her role as a struggling mother in the film.
Arquette said Linklater had set out to show “how extraordinary an ordinary life is.”
Boyhood’s, star Ellar Coltrane, who grew from age 6 to 18 onscreen, thanked British voters for rewarding “an exercise of collaboration and vulnerability.”
The Theory of Everything was named best British film, and its writer Anthony McCarten won the best adapted-screenplay award.
Eddie Redmayne, already an awards-season favourite, won the best-actor for his performance as physicist Hawking, who worked to unlock the secrets of the cosmos while his body was wracked by motor neuron disease.
Redmayne said the evening went much better than his last BAFTA appearance, which he spent vomiting backstage with food poisoning when he was supposed to be presenting an award. “It was one of the worst nights of my life,” he said. “This is one of the best nights of my life.”
The actor also paid an emotional tribute to Hawking, his ex-wife Jane and their families “for reminding me of the great strength that comes from the will to live a full and passionate life.”
Julianne Moore was named best actress for portraying a professor with Alzheimer's in Still Alice.
Director Anderson won the original screenplay trophy for The Grand Budapest Hotel, which also took prizes for production design, costumes, hair and make-up and Alexandre Desplat's score.
Damien Chazelle's jazz-drumming teaching drama Whiplash – a taut psychological showdown that was shot in 19 days – took prizes for sound and editing. The supporting-actor trophy went to the film's J K Simmons, a stalwart character actor who is finally receiving major awards recognition.
The Lego Movie was named best animated feature, a prize the filmmakers said helped ease the pain of its Oscars snub. "You are our favourite academy by far," said co-director Phil Lord.
British actor Jack O'Connell, star of 71 and Unbroken, won the Rising Star award, the only trophy decided by a public vote. The others are chosen by several thousand members of the British Film Academy.
The Oscar-nominated Polish film Ida won the award for best film not in the English language.
The awards ceremony is British cinema’s glitziest event, and an important stop for Hollywood awards hopefuls. Steve Carell, Michael Keaton, Amy Adams and Reese Witherspoon were among the US actors who walked the red carpet before the ceremony at London’s Royal Opera House.
British stars included Kristin Scott Thomas and Rosamund Pike, former footballer David Beckham – and Hawking, who received a standing ovation when he appeared onstage to present the visual effects award to Interstellar.
British talent has been especially well represented in Hollywood this year, led by multiple awards nominations for The Theory of Everything and The Imitation Game.
BAFTA organisers said that acclaimed civil-rights drama Selma, starring British actor David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King Jr, was overlooked because it arrived in Britain too late for academy members to see it.
The film’s tally of just two Oscar nominations helped spark a debate about Hollywood’s lack of diversity.
Imitation Game star Benedict Cumberbatch said the omission of Selma was the "one bitter note" of the event.
“I wish David Oyelowo was here with us as well,” he said. “I’ll be honouring him in my head tonight.”
The British academy also snubbed Mike Leigh's artist biopic Mr. Turner in the major categories, despite critical praise and a Cannes best-actor prize for star Timothy Spall.
But Leigh was not forgotten on the night. He received a lifetime honour, the British Academy Fellowship, for career making films blending social realism and sly humour.
The awards are presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which hosts a separate awards ceremony for TV shows.
artslife@thenational.ae