BAFTA Winners: La La Land, Daniel Blake, and... Lion's Dev Patel!
Sunday, February 12, 2017 at 7:00PM
NATHANIEL R in BAFTA, Babak Anvari, Damien Chazelle, Dev Patel, Emma Stone, I Daniel Blake, London, Oscars (16), Viola Davis, precursor awards, short films

Dev Patel struggles to find "words words words" when he wins the BAFTA.

Confession: Despite The Film Experience's devout love of awards season, your host does not actually watch the BAFTAs. I gave up years ago when it was clear that they were never going to change their announce-the- winners and then tape-delay-broadcast-highlights-of-show. It's just not pure enough for my spiritual devotion to the holy act of passing out trophies. I can't stomach it.

The winners with commentary (and videos once they're available) follow...

Best film 

La La Land cannot be stopped! It won five BAFTAs. Expect more than five Oscars.

Outstanding British film

As expected Ken Loach's Palme D'or winner triumphed at the BAFTAs too. 

Director

Chazelle has got the Oscar locked up, too. Awards voters love projects with a high degree of technical difficulty for directing prizes. He'll become the youngest Best Director winner of all time. He turned 32 last month.

Leading actress 

La la liner and lavender lips on #emmastone for tonight's #BAFTA awards in London #rachelgoodwinmakeup for #NARS tap for credits

A photo posted by Rachel Goodwin (@rachel_goodwin) on

Stone still has to face the formidable Isabelle Huppert at the Oscars (Elle was ineligible at the BAFTAs) but she's expected to prevail there, too. 

Leading actor

With surging Denzel Washington unnominated here (the BAFTAs have never once nominated him) Casey Affleck had no trouble extending his winning streak. 

Supporting actress 

Even though BAFTA didn't love Fences (this was its only nomination) Viola still triumphed; she's the most ironclad of locks on Oscar night. We firmly believe that she would have won Best Actress had she campaigned that (correct) way. It's really unfortunate because that would have been so good for the Oscars to finally put that "only one black winner" problem to rest. But we'll have to wait until a powerhouse black actress campaigns in lead for that to happen. 

Supporting actor

People will say that this is because Dev is British but we're not entirely convinced that that theory lines up with BAFTA history. Could Mahershala Ali lose the Oscar? Losing both the Globe and the BAFTA probably indicates that he's not a strong frontrunner despite the brilliance of his performance. That doesn't mean he'll lose the Oscar but it does means he could. 

Original screenplay 

Will Manchester win this award which its won practically everywhere on Oscar night or will La La Land do a big sweep? We shall see. It lost roughly half of its contests at the BAFTAs despite being the big winner of the night.

Adapted screenplay

Most pundits believe that Moonlight will win this Oscar but I'm not 100%. It's a much stronger category back in America where Hacksaw Ridge and Nocturnal Animals are out and Fences and Moonlight are in. Screenplay categories sometimes hold semi-surprise winners -- think Precious and Her triumphing over more nominated competition in recent years. 

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

 

Oscar passed on this Iranian British horror movie in the Foreign Film category but it's quite good. Catch our interview with the director and watch the movie on Netflix!

Film not in the English language

Last year's Oscar winner took this year's BAFTA (different countries = different release patterns) but another reminder that Toni Erdmann is not necessarily a frontrunner. We are officially predicting The Salesman to win the Oscar, now. 

Documentary

With the TV miniseries OJ Made in America correctly not included in this movie race, we have a new winner: Ava DuVernay's 13th! 

Animated film

This is a big win for Laika's fable. It's clearly in the running for the Oscar as well though Zootopia will still probably prevail.

Original music 

TEXT

Cinematography

If you had any doubt that La La Land would win this particular Oscar, doubt no more. If Lion, the ASC winner, couldn't beat it here, it's not going to beat it at the Oscars where La La is presumably even more popular. 

Editing 

COLOR US SHOCKED. Hacksaw took this prize from La La Land despite not even having a Best Film nomination with BAFTA. 

Production design 

 

Another loss for La La Land but this one makes far more British sense. 

Costume design

This race feels tight for the Oscar doesn't it? (The category is identical across the Ocean)

Make-up and hair

Literally NONE of these films are nominated in Oscar's sister category. And as we just discussed on the podcast none of the Oscar nominees feel like they could win. Hee. (Obviously one of them will.) 

Sound

Another loss for La La Land but Arrival is more than deserving don't you think? But we still think La La Land will win this particular Oscar. Do you?

Special visual effects

Likely to repeat at the Oscar. People are very impressed with those CG animals. 

British short animation

The making of 'A Love Story' from Kal Gad on Vimeo.

 

British short film


The winning short, centering around the refugee crisis and shot in three different countries, stars Jack O'Connell and Holiday Grainger. 

EE Rising Star award (voted for by the public)

The world has always and probably will always love Spider-Man. Tom Holland is also adorable. But these five sure seem like they have bright futures. For those who haven't been paying attention Laia Costa (who has the lowest profile among these nominees) headlined that wonderful international escalating night gone wrong thriller Victoria last year -- the one that's composed of one continuous shot. She's wonderful in it. Jose interviewed her right here. 

Were you happy with the BAFTA results or do you demand a recount?

Article originally appeared on The Film Experience (http://thefilmexperience.net/).
See website for complete article licensing information.