2020 BAFTA Awards: ‘1917’ is the big winner; Joaquin Phoenix gives impassioned speech on lack of diversity

Sam Mendes’ WWI epic 1917 was the big winner at the 2020 BAFTAs, winning seven of its nine nominations in a near sweep including Best Film and Best Director. It only missed Original Score and Makeup and Hair.

In announcing Best Director, presenter Rebel Wilson dug into the all-male nominees saying, “A look at the exceptional, daring talent nominated in this category. I don’t think I could do what they do. Honestly. I just don’t have the balls.”

In his speech for Best Director, Mendes said, “In the midst of all this hoopla and stuff, it’s sometimes easy to forget the experience of shooting a movie. I had a kind of director’s paradise in shooting this film.” He continued, thanking his producers and the “classiest bunch of day players” (referring to Andrew Scott, Benedict Cumberbatch and Colin Firth) and finished with “It’s a war movie that we made, but it’s also about home and family. It’s so moving to get this award in my hometown for the first time.”

Todd Phillips’ Joker had the field with 11 BAFTA nominations Best Film, Best Director for Todd Phillips and Best Leading Actor for Joaquin Phoenix. It won Leading Actor for Phoenix, Score and Casting. In his speech, Phoenix went pleaded for diversity in his industry saying he felt “very honored and privileged to be here because BAFTA has always been very supportive of my career.” He added, “I also feel conflicted because so many of my fellow actors that are deserving don’t have that same privilege. I think we send a very clear message to people of color that you’re not welcome here.” He went on to say, “I don’t think anybody wants a handout or preferential treatment, people just want to be acknowledged, appreciated and respected for their work. This is not a self-righteous condemnation. I’m part of the problem.” Finishing his speech he said, “We have to do the hard work to truly understand systemic racism. I think it is the obligation of the people that have created and perpetuate and benefit from a system of oppression to be the ones that dismantle it. That’s on us.”

Jojo Rabbit and Parasite won the screenplay awards and Parasite also picked up the Film Not in the English Language award.

A big shock of the evening came with Klaus upsetting in Animated Film. Director Sergio Pablos said “My knees are shaking. This goes to the most incredible crew I ever worked with, and the most diverse crew I’ve ever worked with. 22 countries, 15 languages, almost gender parity.”

Brad Pitt won Supporting Actor for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood but was not present. Co-star Margot Robbie “Hey Britain, heard you just became single, welcome to the club.” He continued, saying, he’s “going to name the award Harry, because he’s really excited to bring it back to the States with him.”

The brand new to this year category of Casting went to Shayna Markowitz for Joker. Markowitz is not in town after just giving birth to a little girl so Zazie Beetz accepts on her behalf and thanks BAFTA for “recognizing the contribution of casting directors.”

Mega-producer Kathleen Kennedy (Star Wars, E.T.) will receive the BAFTA Fellowship. Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, who spoke before the presentation of the fellowship, said “We find ourselves talking again about the need to do more to address diversity in the sector. That cannot be right in this day and age. I know Pippa and Amanda share that frustration. BAFTA take this issue seriously, and following this year’s nominations have launched a full review to ensure the opportunities are available to everyone.”

Andy Serkis was given the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema by BAFTA winner Sir Ian McKellen ,who said “This award is for an actor who is also a director who is also an innovator who is also a writer who is also a screen icon.” On working with him on The Lord Of The Rings, he remarked that Serkis was “not affronted by Weta Workshop’s technology,” that he was “a party to inventing the new technology of motion capture. He gave his precious Gollum not just an unforgettable voice but a character and the inspiration for that emaciated reptilian creature of fairy stories and nightmares. Andy Serkis’ Gollum is a screen classic.” In his speech, Serkis quipped “I was asked to keep this speech to 90 seconds, but how do you thank a billion people you worked with over decades?”

Here is the full list of nominations with winners in bold.

BEST FILM
WINNER – 1917 – Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Sam Mendes, Jayne-Ann Tenggren
THE IRISHMAN – Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, Martin Scorsese, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
JOKER – Bradley Cooper, Todd Phillips, Emma Tillinger Koskoff
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – David Heyman, Shannon McIntosh, Quentin Tarantino
PARASITE – Bong Joon-ho, Kwak Sin-ae

DIRECTOR
WINNER – 1917 – Sam Mendes
THE IRISHMAN – Martin Scorsese
JOKER – Todd Phillips
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Quentin Tarantino
PARASITE – Bong Joon-ho

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
WINNER – 1917 – Sam Mendes, Pippa Harris, Callum McDougall, Jayne-Ann Tenggren, Krysty Wilson-Cairns
BAIT – Mark Jenkin, Kate Byers, Linn Waite
FOR SAMA – Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
ROCKETMAN – Dexter Fletcher, Adam Bohling, David Furnish, David Reid, Matthew Vaughn, Lee Hall
SORRY WE MISSED YOU – Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty
THE TWO POPES – Fernando Meirelles, Jonathan Eirich, Dan Lin, Tracey Seaward, Anthony McCarten

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
WINNER – BAIT – Mark Jenkin (Writer/Director), Kate Byers, Linn Waite (Producers)
FOR SAMA – Waad al-Kateab (Director/Producer), Edward Watts (Director)
MAIDEN – Alex Holmes (Director)
ONLY YOU – Harry Wootliff (Writer/Director)
RETABLO – Álvaro Delgado-Aparicio (Writer/Director)

LEADING ACTRESS
JESSIE BUCKLEY – Wild Rose
SCARLETT JOHANSSON – Marriage Story
SAOIRSE RONAN – Little Women
CHARLIZE THERON – Bombshell
WINNER – RENÉE ZELLWEGER – Judy

LEADING ACTOR
LEONARDO DICAPRIO – Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood
ADAM DRIVER – Marriage Story
TARON EGERTON – Rocketman
WINNER – JOAQUIN PHOENIX – Joker
JONATHAN PRYCE – The Two Popes

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
WINNER – LAURA DERN – Marriage Story
SCARLETT JOHANSSON – Jojo Rabbit
FLORENCE PUGH – Little Women
MARGOT ROBBIE – Bombshell
MARGOT ROBBIE – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

SUPPORTING ACTOR
TOM HANKS – A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
ANTHONY HOPKINS – The Two Popes
AL PACINO – The Irishman
JOE PESCI – The Irishman
WINNER – BRAD PITT – Once Upon a Time… in Hollywood

CASTING
WINNER – JOKER – Shayna Markowitz
MARRIAGE STORY – Douglas Aibel, Francine Maisler
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Victoria Thomas
THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF DAVID COPPERFIELD – Sarah Crowe
THE TWO POPES – Nina Gold

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE IRISHMAN – Steven Zaillian
WINNER – JOJO RABBIT – Taika Waititi
JOKER – Todd Phillips, Scott Silver
LITTLE WOMEN – Greta Gerwig
THE TWO POPES – Anthony McCarten

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BOOKSMART – Susanna Fogel, Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Katie Silberman
KNIVES OUT – Rian Johnson
MARRIAGE STORY – Noah Baumbach
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Quentin Tarantino
WINNER – PARASITE – Han Jin Won, Bong Joon-ho,

ORIGINAL SCORE
1917 – Thomas Newman
JOJO RABBIT – Michael Giacchino
WINNER – JOKER – Hildur Guđnadóttir
LITTLE WOMEN – Alexandre Desplat
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER – John Williams

CINEMATOGRAPHY
WINNER – 1917 – Roger Deakins
THE IRISHMAN – Rodrigo Prieto
JOKER – Lawrence Sher
LE MANS ’66 – Phedon Papamichael
THE LIGHTHOUSE – Jarin Blaschke

EDITING
THE IRISHMAN – Thelma Schoonmaker
JOJO RABBIT – Tom Eagles
JOKER – Jeff Groth
WINNER – LE MANS ’66 – Andrew Buckland, Michael McCusker
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Fred Raskin

PRODUCTION DESIGN
WINNER – 1917 – Dennis Gassner, Lee Sandales
THE IRISHMAN – Bob Shaw, Regina Graves
JOJO RABBIT – Ra Vincent, Nora Sopková
JOKER – Mark Friedberg, Kris Moran
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Barbara Ling, Nancy Haigh

COSTUME DESIGN
THE IRISHMAN – Christopher Peterson, Sandy Powell
JOJO RABBIT – Mayes C. Rubeo
JUDY – Jany Temime
WINNER – LITTLE WOMEN – Jacqueline Durran
ONCE UPON A TIME… IN HOLLYWOOD – Arianne Phillips

MAKEUP & HAIR
1917 – Naomi Donne
WINNER – BOMBSHELL – Vivian Baker, Kazu Hiro, Anne Morgan
JOKER – Kay Georgiou, Nicki Ledermann
JUDY – Jeremy Woodhead
ROCKETMAN – Lizzie Yianni Georgiou

SOUND
WINNER – 1917 – Scott Millan, Oliver Tarney, Rachael Tate, Mark Taylor, Stuart Wilson
JOKER – Tod Maitland, Alan Robert Murray, Tom Ozanich, Dean Zupancic
LE MANS ’66 – David Giammarco, Paul Massey, Steven A. Morrow, Donald Sylvester
ROCKETMAN – Matthew Collinge, John Hayes, Mike Prestwood Smith, Danny Sheehan
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER – David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Stuart Wilson, Matthew Wood

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
WINNER – 1917 – Greg Butler, Guillaume Rocheron, Dominic Tuohy
AVENGERS: ENDGAME – Dan Deleeuw, Dan Sudick
THE IRISHMAN – Leandro Estebecorena, Stephane Grabli, Pablo Helman
THE LION KING – Andrew R. Jones, Robert Legato, Elliot Newman, Adam Valdez
STAR WARS: THE RISE OF SKYWALKER – Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan, Dominic Tuohy

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE FAREWELL – Lulu Wang, Daniele Melia
FOR SAMA – Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
PAIN AND GLORY – Pedro Almodóvar, Agustín Almodóvar
WINNER – PARASITE – Bong Joon-ho
PORTRAIT OF A LADY ON FIRE – Céline Sciamma, Bénédicte Couvreur

ANIMATED FILM
FROZEN 2 – Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee, Peter Del Vecho
WINNER – KLAUS – Sergio Pablos, Jinko Gotoh
A SHAUN THE SHEEP MOVIE: FARMAGEDDON – Will Becher, Richard Phelan, Paul Kewley
TOY STORY 4 – Josh Cooley, Mark Nielsen

DOCUMENTARY
AMERICAN FACTORY – Steven Bognar, Julia Reichert
APOLLO 11 – Todd Douglas Miller
DIEGO MARADONA – Asif Kapadia
WINNER – FOR SAMA – Waad al-Kateab, Edward Watts
THE GREAT HACK – Karim Amer, Jehane Noujaim

BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
WINNER – GRANDAD WAS A ROMANTIC. – Maryam Mohajer
IN HER BOOTS – Kathrin Steinbacher
THE MAGIC BOAT – Naaman Azhari, Lilia Laurel

BRITISH SHORT FILM
AZAAR – Myriam Raja, Nathanael Baring
GOLDFISH – Hector Dockrill, Harri Kamalanathan, Benedict Turnbull, Laura Dockrill
KAMALI – Sasha Rainbow, Rosalind Croad
WINNER – LEARNING TO SKATEBOARD IN A WARZONE (IF YOU’RE A GIRL) – Carol Dysinger, Elena Andreicheva
THE TRAP – Lena Headey, Anthony Fitzgerald

EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
AWKWAFINA
JACK LOWDEN
KAITLYN DEVER
KELVIN HARRISON JR.
WINNER – MICHEAL WARD