2021 BAFTA Awards Night Two: ‘Nomadland’ named Best Film; Chloé Zhao, Youn Yuh-jung make history

After an exciting first night of the BAFTAs on Saturday, they returned this evening for night two, where Nomadland was named Best Film and Chloé Zhao received Best Director. Zhao is only the second woman to ever receive the award, after Kathryn Bigelow for 2009’s The Hurt Locker. Bigelow went on to become the first woman to win the Best Director Oscar. Zhao is only the third Asian director to win the directing award after Akira Kurosawa and Ang Lee, who was awarded the BAFTA fellowship this year.

Zhao’s Nomadland and Sarah Gavron’s Rocks led the nomination totals with seven apiece including Best Director nominations for each. A host of films were next with six including The Father, Mank, Minari and Promising Young Woman in perhaps the most unique year in BAFTA history. Nomadland picked up a total of four awards, adding Best Actress for Frances McDormand and Best Cinematography to its total. Rocks was a winner for its casting and for Rising Star winner Bukky Bakray, who received the most uproarious friends and family response of any of the winners of the night.

“I hope that viewers see the beauty in the mundane experience, see the beauty in life, in human beings as people,” said Bakray. “I think when you look at a ‘Rocks’ narrative, it’s not flashy, it’s not crazy, there’s no guns, there’s no stunts. Even though I love films that have that, this film is minimalist. it really focuses on life and human nature and humanity. By them seeing the beauty in ‘Rocks’ through our gaze, they can see the beauty in their own lives and know you don’t have to be on Wikipedia to be significant.”

At 73, Youn Yuh-jung (Minari) became the oldest supporting actress winner in BAFTA history as well as the first Asian woman to ever win the award. Daniel Kaluuya finished a clean sweep of the supporting actor precursors with his win today for Judas and the Black Messiah and the Best Actress race now has four different winners from the four main precursors, making for a nail-biting race come Oscar night. Anthony Hopkins (The Father) stopped Chadwick Boseman (Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom) from a clean sweep with his Best Actor win, his fourth competitive BAFTA win overall.

Other multiple winners included Soul for animated film and score (a clean sweep this season) plus Promising Young Woman for original screenplay and British Film.

Thomas Vinterberg’s Another Round was named the best film not in the English language. “I had a suspicion you Brits might like a film about drinking,” said director Vinterberg, who dedicated the film to his late daughter Ida.

The BAFTA Fellowship, the organization’s highest honor, went to Ang Lee and was presented by Hugh Grant, who co-starred in Lee’s Sense and Sensibility. The In Memoriam began with Prince Philip and Ennio Morricone (whose compositions underscored the montage) and ended with Christopher Plummer.

The BAFTA for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer went to Remi Weekes for His House. “This is for the immigrants, migrants and asylum seekers — the Black, Brown and Queer people who have nurtured me and lifted me up in my life. I look forward to doing the same in return,” said Weekes.

After backlash of a lack of diversity both with their nominations in recent years and in their membership ranks, BAFTA made swift changes in both, including bringing back chapter voting for longlists and something new, a very small jury of voters deciding on the nominations. Initially, the members of the those juries remained a secret to avoid any tampering or influence but we now the full list of jury members that voted on the directing and acting nominations. They are as follows.

Director: Pippa Harris (chair), Amma Asante, Ash Atalla, Harry Bradbeer, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Paul McGuigan, Abi Morgan, David Morrissey, Oliver Parker, Susanna White.

Leading Actor: Asif Kapadia (chair), Gemma Arterton, Barry Ackroyd, Andrea Calderwood, Jina Jay, Damian Lewis, Alison Owen, Paweł Pawlikowski, Manjinder Virk, Ashley Walters.

Leading Actress: Ade Rawcliffe (chair), Adjoa Andoh, James Bobin, Alice Eve, Aiysha Hart, Hong Khaou, Kevin Loader, Euros Lyn, Ruth Madeley, Lee Magiday, Victoria Mahoney, Cameron McCracken

Supporting Actor: Alison Thompson (Chair), Ella Balinska, Thomas Benski, Amir, El-Masry, Emilia Fox, Janine Marmot, Bennett Mcghee, Clair Mundell, Bharat Nalluri, Fiona Shaw, Jessica Swale.

Supporting Actress: David Proud (chair), J Blakeson, Priyanga Burford, John Cannon, Morven Christie, Lindsey Dryden, Lashana Lynch, Jason Maza, Joanna Scanlan, Ben Sharrock, Polly Steele, Nina Toussaint-White, Paul Viragh.

The show was hosted by British radio and television presenter Clara Amfo will interview BAFTA presenters live from the Royal Albert Hall, with Edith Bowman and Dermot O’Leary taking co-host duties the main BAFTA show, which will air on BBC One. Liam Payne is set to perform live as is Celeste, performing her Oscar-nominated song “Hear My Voice” from The Trial of the Chicago 7 as well as Corinne Bailey Rae and Leslie Odom, Jr. dueting across the pond from each other on Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come”; Odom, Jr. performed his Oscar-nominated song “Speak Now” from One Night in Miami during night one.

Yesterday, Netflix’s Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom won both of its awards at night one of the BAFTAs, Make Up & Hair and Costume Design. It has now won all major precursors in those categories going into the Oscars. Mank, also from Netflix, took home the Production Design honors while Warner Bros’ Tenet won Visual Effects and Amazon’s Sound of Metal won Sound. The awards kicked off with the British film Rocks winning Casting, beating out Promising Young Woman, Minari and Judas and the Black Messiah. The show was hosted by Amfo, who was joined by guests Rhianna Dhillon and Joanna Scanlan, from the Royal Albert Hall.

Here is the full list of nominations and winners for Night Two of the 2021 EE BAFTAs.

Best Film
The Father
The Mauritanian
Nomadland [WINNER]
Promising Young Woman
The Trial Of The Chicago 7

Director
Another Round – Thomas Vinterberg
Babyteeth – Shannon Murphy
Minari – Lee Isaac Chung
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao [WINNER]
Quo Vadis, Aida? – Jasmila Žbanić
Rocks – Sarah Gavron

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

Original Screenplay
Another Round – Tobias Lindholm, Thomas Vinterberg
Mank – Jack Fincher
Promising Young Woman – Emerald Fennell [WINNER]
Rocks – Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 – Aaron Sorkin

Adapted Screenplay
The Dig – Moira Buffini
The Father – Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller [WINNER]
The Mauritanian – Rory Haines, Sohrab Noshirvani, M.B. Traven
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
The White Tiger – Ramin Bahrani

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 Writer, Director Or Producer
His House – Remi Weekes (Writer/Director) [WINNER]
Limbo – Ben Sharrock (Writer/Director), Irune Gurtubai (Producer) [Also Produced By Angus Lamont]
Moffie – Jack Sidey (Writer/Producer) [Also Written By Oliver Hermanus And Produced By Eric Abraham]
Rocks – Theresa Ikoko, Claire Wilson (Writers)
Saint Maud – Rose Glass (Writer/Director), Oliver Kassman (Producer) [Also Produced By Andrea Cornwell]

Film Not In The English Language
Another Round [WINNER]
Dear Comrades!
Les Misérables
Minari
Quo Vadis, Aida?

Documentary
Collective
David Attenborough: A Life On Our Planet
The Dissident
My Octopus Teacher [WINNER]
The Social Dilemma

Animated Film
Onward
Soul [WINNER]
Wolfwalkers

Original Score
Mank – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Minari – Emile Mosseri
News Of The World – James Newton Howard
Promising Young Woman – Anthony Willis
Soul – Jon Batiste, Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross [WINNER]

Cinematography
Judas And The Black Messiah – Sean Bobbitt
Mank – Erik Messerschmidt
The Mauritanian – Alwin H. Küchler
News Of The World – Dariusz Wolski
Nomadland – Joshua James Richards [WINNER]

Editing
The Father – Yorgos Lamprinos
Nomadland – Chloé Zhao
Promising Young Woman – Frédéric Thoraval
Sound Of Metal – Mikkel E.G. Nielsen [WINNER]
The Trial Of The Chicago 7 – Alan Baumgarten

EE Rising Star Award
Bukky Bakray [WINNER]
Conrad Khan
Kingsley Ben-Adir
Morfydd Clark
Ṣọpẹ Dìrísù

Here are the categories, nominees and winners for Night One.

Casting
Calm With Horses – Shaheen Baig
Judas And The Black Messiah – Alexa L. Fogel
Minari – Julia Kim
Promising Young Woman – Lindsay Graham Ahanonu, Mary Vernieu
Rocks – Lucy Pardee [WINNER]

Production Design
The Dig – Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
The Father – Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone
Mank – Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale [WINNER]
News Of The World – David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan
Rebecca – Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer

Costume Design
Ammonite – Michael O’connor
The Dig – Alice Babidge
Emma. – Alexandra Byrne
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Ann Roth [WINNER]
Mank – Trish Summerville

Make Up & Hair
The Dig – Jenny Shircore
Hillbilly Elegy – Patricia Dehaney, Eryn Krueger Mekash, Matthew Mungle
Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom – Matiki Anoff, Larry M. Cherry, Sergio Lopez-Rivera, Mia Neal [WINNER]
Mank – Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams
Pinocchio – Dalia Colli, Mark Coulier, Francesco Pegoretti

Sound
Greyhound – Beau Borders, Christian P. Minkler, Michael Minkler, Warren Shaw, David Wyman
News Of The World – Michael Fentum, William Miller, Mike Prestwood Smith, John Pritchett, Oliver Tarney
Nomadland – Sergio Diaz, Zach Seivers, M. Wolf Snyder
Soul – Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker
Sound Of Metal – Jaime Baksht, Nicolas Becker, Phillip Bladh, Carlos Cortés, Michelle Couttolenc [WINNER]

Special Visual Effects
Greyhound – Pete Bebb, Nathan Mcguinness, Sebastian Von Overheidt
The Midnight Sky – Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, David Watkins
Mulan – Sean Faden, Steve Ingram, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury
The One And Only Ivan – Santiago Colomo Martinez, Nick Davis, Greg Fisher
Tenet – Scott Fisher, Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley [WINNER]

British Short Animation
The Fire Next Time – Renaldho Pelle, Yanling Wang, Kerry Jade Kolbe
The Owl And The Pussycat – Mole Hill, Laura Duncalf [WINNER]
The Song Of A Lost Boy – Daniel Quirke, Jamie Macdonald, Brid Arnstein

British Short Film
Eyelash – Jesse Lewis Reece, Ike Newman
Lizard – Akinola Davies, Rachel Dargavel, Wale Davies
Lucky Break – John Addis, Rami Sarras Pantoja
Miss Curvy – Ghada Eldemellawy
The Present – Farah Nabulsi [WINNER]

Image credit: Searchlight Pictures / A24