[imagesource: Netflix]
The 76th BAFTAs (British Academy Film Awards) kicked off last night.
The ceremony honours and celebrates all the most poignant films, best actors, and ground-breaking filmmakers of the past year, and for 2023, the German anti-war film All Quiet On The Western Front stole the show.
The Netflix flick broke records with seven wins, including Best Director, Best Film, and Best Film Not in the English Language.
Then, the best actor winner turned out to be a slight surprise with Elvis‘s Austin Butler taking the gong rather than the expected winner, The Banshees Of Inisherin‘s Colin Farrell.
You can check out the full list of winners over at Variety.
Besides the movies, actors and filmmakers that were nominated and awarded, there were a few other big talking points from the BAFTA Film Awards.
Richard E Grant brought all the silliness for the evening, jumping into a Batmobile and zooming through the streets of London before hosting the event, making a gag about last year’s Oscars/Will Smith fiasco – telling the audience: “Nobody on my watch gets slapped tonight,” before slapping himself, twice – and wearing two watches as a nod to the event’s complicated scheduling.
Last year’s best-supporting actor winner, Troy Kotsur, also brought some fun by waving to the best supporting actress nominee Jamie Lee Curtis onto the stage in the style of Everything, Everywhere All At Once, AKA with sausage fingers:
Troy Kotsur presents the Supporting Actress Award during the 2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards at the Royal Festival Hall in London, England.
More 📸 #EEBAFTAs 👉 https://t.co/DgaYjci6SH pic.twitter.com/XaQ4fcbMM0
— Getty Images Entertainment (@GettyVIP) February 19, 2023
The Princess of Wales also made people giggle by appearing to smack Prince William’s bum as they arrived for the evening:
View this post on Instagram
Kate and William are notoriously low-key on the PDA front, so I guess the cheeky tap had to make headlines. However, it is my opinion that Brendan Fraser and red carpet host Ali Plumb’s little gift exchange session is far sweeter:
Brendan Fraser loves a bumper sticker! #EEBAFTAs pic.twitter.com/WqkRkcUACD
— BAFTA (@BAFTA) February 19, 2023
Fraser was nominated for Best Actor for his performance in The Whale, with his co-star Hong Chau nominated for Best Supporting Actress. The actual film was also up for Best Adapted Screenplay.
The evening also included a slight hiccup – which is always fun. Sky News reports:
As Oscar-winner Kotsur announced the second prize of the night – best supporting actress – via sign language, a miscommunication on the part of the translator resulted in Carrey Mulligan’s name wrongly being called for her performance in She Said.
The announcer quickly corrected the call and announced The Banshees Of Inisherin star Kerry Condon as the winner, who went on to accept her award. It was explained to the press at the event, that while Kotsur and the British Sign Language (BSL) translator had got it right, the American Sign Language (ASL) translator had made the slip up.
I am sure Carrey Mulligan was terribly anxious to get back to her seat.
Shame, but it was not as bad as that Oscar mix-up once when La La Land was wrongly announced as best picture winner instead of Moonlight.
And that’s a wrap – you can check out more highlights from the 2023 BAFTAs over at BBC.
