Oppenheimer’s Cillian Murphy and Robert Downey Jr Win Bafta Film Awards

Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr and director Christopher Nolan were honored for their work on Oppenheimer as the film dominated the Baftas.

Murphy was named best actor for playing J. Robert Oppenheimer, known as the father of the atomic bomb, while Downey Jr won best supporting actor.

The drama won seven Bafta awards, including best film. Poor Things took home five awards, including best actress for Emma Stone.

Best Supporting Actress went to Da’Vine Joy Randolph for The Holdovers.

Oppenheimer and the winning actors could repeat their Oscar successes in three weeks, although Oscar and Bafta voters are rarely in complete agreement.

In a surprise appearance, Michael J. Fox announced Oppenheimer as the winner of best picture, the top prize, at Sunday’s ceremony. The 62-year-old, who has suffered from Parkinson’s disease for more than 30 years, received a standing ovation from the audience.

Murphy said at the ceremony after winning the first Bafta of his career: “Oh my God. Thank you very, very much Bafta.”

The Irish actor paid tribute to his “Oppenhomies” and praised Nolan, adding: “Thank you for always pushing me and demanding excellence because that’s what you deliver time and time again.”

It was also the British director’s first Bafta win, after a career that also spanned Dunkirk, Inception and The Dark Knight.

Nolan thanked the cast led by the “incomparable and fearless Cillian Murphy” and also credited the film’s backers “for tackling something dark.”

Downey Jr’s win came 31 years after his previous Bafta win, for the 1993 film Chaplin, a new record for the longest gap between wins by any artist.

The actor played Oppenheimer’s adversary, Lewis Strauss, following his stint as Tony Stark/Iron Man in a series of Marvel films.

He thanked Nolan and told the audience: “That guy recently suggested I try a low-key approach as a last-ditch effort to resurrect my waning credibility.”

Stone earned the second Bafta of her career, recognized for playing a British woman who is reanimated after being given a baby’s brain in the steampunk fantasy Poor Things.

Meanwhile, Randolph was rewarded for playing Mary, a school head chef and grieving mother in The Holdovers, about the staff and students staying at an American boarding school during the 1970 Christmas holidays.

In her acceptance speech, she was emotional as she paid tribute to “countless Marys throughout history, who never had the opportunity to wear a beautiful dress and stand on this stage in London.”

The American actress added: “Telling her story is a responsibility that I do not take lightly.” The Holdovers also won best ensemble.

This was the second year in a row that no Briton won any of the four acting awards at the most prestigious night in the British film calendar.

The award for best British film went to The Zone of Interest, about the concentration camp commandant and his family who lived next to Auschwitz during World War II.

The drama, made by British director Jonathan Glazer, filmed in Poland and performed primarily in German, also won best foreign language film and best sound.

Meanwhile, The Boy and the Heron, made by legendary animator Hayao Miyazaki, became the first Japanese production to win the award for best animated film.

The two best screenplay awards went to the French courtroom thriller Anatomy of a Fall and American Fiction, a satire about an American novelist who is dismayed when his parody of the “noir” books becomes a huge hit.

Samantha Morton received the Bafta scholarship, the organisation’s highest honour, and paid tribute to children in care in her acceptance speech: “I dedicate this award to every child in care, or every child who has been in care and who did not survive. “

Morton herself grew up in the Nottingham care system.

Former Doctor Who star David Tennant hosted the ceremony in a kilt, referring to the blockbuster Barbie in his opening monologue, joking that the ceremony was “going to be softer than Ken’s chest”.

However, it did not go as planned for Barbie, which did not take home any awards despite being the most successful film at the box office of last year and having five Bafta nominations.

Other films that had multiple nominations but lost the night were Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, All of Us Strangers and Saltburn.

Sophie Ellis-Bextor was among the performers, continuing the remarkable revival of her 2001 hit Murder on the Dancefloor after it was used as the soundtrack to a scene in Saltburn in which Barry Keoghan dances naked around a stately home.

In a nod to the film, the dancers were supposed to look like high-class partygoers, but they were all fully clothed.

The Prince of Wales, president of the Baftas, took his place in the audience among Hollywood superstars in his first high-profile royal engagement since his wife Kate’s recent operation.

Read more about this year’s Bafta winners: