Baftas 2022: seven highlights – from jokes to dresses

Dune may have taken home the most awards, but The Power of the Dog proved too strong when it came to the night’s top categories at Sunday’s Bafta Film Awards.

The Western starring Benedict Cumberbatch won Best Picture and Best Director for Jane Campion, putting it high ahead of the Oscars later this month.

Elsewhere, Rebel Wilson debuted as assured hosts while Will Smith, Troy Kotsur and Ariana DeBose cemented their status as Oscar favorites.

Here are seven highlights from this year’s ceremony, which marked the return to a full-capacity in-person event at the Royal Albert Hall.

The Baftas are a more serious and formal affair than many other award shows, and it can be quite difficult to get the audience to laugh.

As a result, a few jokes from host Rebel Wilson fell a little flat, but we thought overall the Australian comedic actress did a good job, delivering solid one-liners in her opening monologue.

“Next time, I think I’ll check the weather, and maybe wear a little less fabric?” the Best Supporting Actress winner told the press backstage after a slightly rainy red carpet.

But unknown to many, her stunning Oscar de la Renta dress actually doubled as a political statement – when paired with that of her West Side Story co-star.

“Has anyone seen what Rachel Zegler is wearing? Because we’re both on Ukraine’s side, seriously, we reflect that in color,” she said.

That wasn’t the only reference to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at the ceremony. Woody Normand, the 13-year-old C’Mon C’Mon star and Boiling Point star Stephane Graham both wore ribbons on their suits in the colors of the Ukrainian flag. Benedict Cumberbatch, meanwhile, wore a blue and yellow badge.

“It’s horrible what we see every day” he told BBC News on the red carpet. “We all need to keep putting pressure on the Putin regime, keep helping in any way we can, whether it’s through donations or hosting refugees, all of which I seek to do and have done.”

The musician’s film Summer of Soul won Best Documentary, but we were mostly impressed by the fact that he was wide awake enough for the Baftas given his grueling schedule.

Questlove moved from the DGA Awards in Los Angeles on Saturday night to the Baftas in London on Sunday afternoon. Oh, and he also has to be back in Los Angeles for his regular job on Monday night – his band The Roots are the house band of an American chat show.

“I’m going straight to the airport [after the Baftas] and tomorrow I have to be at work on the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon,” he explained, but added that there was one last place he wanted to visit before he left London.

“In fact, when she was with us, Amy Winehouse introduced me to a place called Beigel Bake, it’s a 24-hour bakery. When we started our friendship, that’s how she always ended my trips to London, so I always go there and honor her.”

If you happened to be in Brick Lane late on Sunday night, it was really Questlove you saw buying a rainbow bagel.

Find out more about the Baftas 2022:

The Coda star has become an awards season favorite and has a strong chance of winning the Best Supporting Actor Oscar after his Bafta win.

“I feel like this is a big reward for many years of an extremely difficult journey,” the deaf actor said backstage through an interpreter. “It was hellish at times, I feel like a survivor.

“Sometimes I slept in the back of my car, surfed on a couch, and on the set of A Streetcar Named Desire, I slept on the bed on set because it was so hard for me to survive. the era as a starving actor.”

Kotsur is now getting the biggest recognition of his career thanks to Coda, which was directed and adapted by Sian Heder.

“It took a long time for Hollywood to accept actors who happen to be deaf. With Coda, it was really the right team, the right director, the right script,” he said.

The After Love star nabbed Best Actress Bafta despite the film not being a major player at other awards shows this season.

Scanlan is perhaps best known for her role in the excellent television political satire The Thick Of It, so her first Bafta for a film role could mean that she is more likely to focus on film projects abroad. ‘to come up?

“Well, film and TV are changing, right? So I guess I’m going to be changing with that,” she said.

“Some of those boundaries are collapsing and the way we tell stories is changing because of the platforms we’re getting those stories on. So I’m just going to follow that flow, ride that wave.”

At the Baftas, Best Editing winners Elliot Graham and Tom Cross from No Time To Die were asked what they thought of the Academy’s decision, which has been unpopular in the film industry.

“I’m glad you asked that question. As far as I’m concerned, I’m not a fan,” Cross said. “I think that taints the whole process – that’s not what the Academy of Motion Pictures, Arts and Sciences is about.

“I feel lucky to have been in before, and I just think every Oscar statue is gold – it’s not silver, it’s not bronze. All of these nominees deserve to stand up. “

His co-winner Elliot Graham agreed: “I grew up wanting to be a member of the Academy, it’s that dream come true, and I think that’s [messed] up, they have to think about it.”

After Drive My Car was named Best Non-English Film, director Ryusuke Hamaguchi opened his acceptance speech by joking, “Well, that got rid of my jet lag, thank you!”

Explaining further during the backstage press conference, he said, “I only arrived in this country yesterday, so it’s around 5 a.m. Japan time right now.”

Following in the footsteps of recent awards greats like Roma, Parasite and Minari, Hamaguchi acknowledged how attitudes towards subtitled films have changed.

“What makes us feel that is the change and acceptance of these films in the UK and the US,” he said. “The influence of Parasite two years ago on this has been huge, and the next generation of Asian films is ready to go.”

With just two weeks to go, all eyes will now be on the Oscars on March 27, which will mark the high point of awards season.