The film ‘One battle after another’, by American director Paul Thomas Anderson, became on Sunday the big winner of the BAFTA awards, the most important British film awards, after winning a total of six golden masks at a ceremony in which the Spanish film ‘Sirat’ left empty-handed.
This action thriller, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro, based on the radical movements of the 1960s in the United States, won in the categories of best film, directing, adapted screenplay, supporting actor for Sean Penn, as well as cinematography and editing.
One Battle After Another’ lived up to the expectations with which it started as a favorite, winning six of the fourteen golden masks for which it was eligible at these BAFTAs, considered the prelude to the Oscars, which could tip the scales in favor of Paul Thomas Anderson’s film in its race for the golden statuette.
It also defeated its main rival, ‘Sinners’, which only won three awards (best original screenplay, best soundtrack and best supporting actress for British-Nigerian Wunmi Mosaku), the same number as Guillermo del Toro’s ‘Frankenstein’, which won in the technical sections of costume design, production design and hair and makeup.
Joshua Safdie’s ‘Marty supreme’ was the big loser of the night, as it did not win any award despite having eleven nominations.
Bitter night at the BAFTAs for Ibero-American nominees
He also failed to win the BAFTA for best supporting actor was Puerto Rican Benicio del Toro, which went to his partner in ‘One Battle After Another’ and robbed him of the chance to add a second golden mask to his trophy cabinet twenty-five years after winning it with ‘Traffic’ (2001).
It was also a bitter night for most of the Ibero-American nominees, led by Spain’s ‘Sirat’, by Óliver Laxe’ and Brazil’s ‘O agente secreto’, which left the gala empty-handed after Norway’s ‘Valor Sentimental’ won in the Best Foreign Language Film category.
Laxe’s film, which gained international recognition after winning the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, faced a major test at these BAFTAs to prove its robustness in this awards season and on its way to the Oscars, where it is up for two awards.
Brazilian Kleber Mendonça Filho’s ‘O agente secreto’ also halted its upward awards trajectory today as it failed to win either of the two masks it was up for, despite having recently won two Golden Globes, both for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Male Performance for Wagner Moura.
The Brazilian documentary ‘Apocalipse nos Tropicos’, about the influence of the evangelist movement in the electoral victory of Jair Bolsonaro, also had no luck against the documentary ‘Mr. Nobody against Putin’.
On the other hand, the BAFTAs consecrated this Sunday as one of the great promises of current cinema the British actor of Basque descent Robert Aramayo, who surprised by winning two awards individually: the best newcomer and best actor, where Timothée Chalamet was initially the favorite, thanks to his role in ‘I Sware’, where he plays a young man with Tourette’s syndrome.
Other award winners at the gala included Chloé Zhao’s Shakespearean drama ‘Hamnet’, which won two BAFTA awards, reported Agencia EFE, for Best British Film and Best Actress, which went to Ireland’s Jessie Buckley for her heartbreaking performance as Agnes Shakespeare, the unknown wife of the Bard of Avon.
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