Migration saga 'Nomadland' among favourites at diverse Bafta awards

Migration saga Nomadland, and British film Rocks were among the favourites at Sunday's Bafta film awards — billed as the academy's most diverse year ever — following criticism over all-white 2020 shortlists. Four women were nominated for Best Director at this year's awards where last year none made the cut, while films with actors from diverse communities around the world featured prominently in the coveted Best Film category.

The first night of the awards, broadcast without an audience because of coronavirus restrictions, began with tributes to Prince Philip, the husband of Queen Elizabeth II, who died on Friday. "It was Prince Philip and Her majesty the Queen's support throughout these years that in many ways allowed Bafta, a leading charity in the arts, to continue in difficult times," presenter Clara Amfo said. Prince William, Philip's grandson and second in line to the British throne, did not participate in the extravaganza as previously planned.

On Saturday, Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, a film about a blues musician in 1920s Chicago, took home two technical Baftas for costume design and makeup and hair. Rocks and Mank, a depiction of a debauched real-life screenwriter set during Hollywood's golden age, also bagged a prize each for casting and production design respectively as the awards were split over two nights for the first time.Other winners in the technical awards included Christopher Nolan's science fiction action-thriller Tenet for special visual effects and Sound of Metal, starring British actor Riz Ahmed, for sound.

The main awards ceremony on Sunday, also without an audience, was broadcast from London's Royal Albert Hall.

Director Chloé Zhao's poignant film Nomadland about modern-day migrants travelling across the United States was nominated in the Best Film and Best Director categories. Two-time Oscar winner Frances McDormand, who stars in a lead role in the film, took home the award for Best Actor (Female).

Nomadland won Best Film, following rife competition from The Father, a film about an elderly man contending with dementia, and The Mauritanian, a legal thriller about a Guantanamo Bay prisoner. Promising Young Woman, a feminist dark comedy, and Aaron Sorkin's courtroom drama The Trial of the Chicago 7 were also nominated in the category.

With a total of seven nominations including Best Director, Best Cast and Best Original Screenplay, director Sarah Gavron's Rocks was deemed a homegrown sensation at the awards. The coming-of-age drama, which shows the struggles of a British-Nigerian schoolgirl who is abandoned by her mother, has been praised by critics for its depiction of life in the British capital.

Teenaged actor Bukky Bakray, 19, who garnered a Best Actress nomination for her role as the film's eponymous heroine, told AFP that audiences had connected with her performance and the film because of their authenticity. "It captures what most people have always felt but never truly seen on screen. I'm really proud and honoured to have captured truth and honesty," she said.

Mank and Minari, the portrayal of a South Korean family trying to make a life in rural America, also received six nominations each, along with The Father and Promising Young Woman.

After the awards were criticised for not including any non-white actors in the four major categories for the first time, the British academy introduced an extra round of voting in all categories to strive for greater diversity. In the Best Actor category, French-Algerian actor Tahar Rahim, Indian actor Adarsh Gourav, black American actor Chadwick Boseman, who died last year, and British actor Riz Ahmed, also the first Muslim to be nominated for an Oscar, were shortlisted.

Director Ang Lee, best known for the films Sense and Sensibility, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and The Life of Pi received the prestigious Bafta Academy Fellowship on Sunday evening.