Held at the Royal Festival Hall in London on Sunday night, the BAFTA Awards 2024 had some big names in attendance but failed to score on most counts. Here’s what worked and didn’t work for us.
David Tennant: hit & (mostly) miss
Doing hosting duties for this year’s awards was David Tennant who winningly turned up in a kilt to honour his Scottish roots, but wasn’t able to do much else. The Doctor Who actor kicked off things well, off the BAFTA stage, enacting his hit pandemic show Staged alongside Michael Sheen, the premise being that Sheen wanted Tennant to dog-sit his pup Bark Ruffalo on the same night as the BAFTAs. Tennant then tried to pass the dog to friends Stanley Tucci, Himesh Patel, Tom Hiddleston and Judi Dench, with no luck. As a result, Tennant turned up at the Royal Festival Hall in London with Bark Ruffalo in tow. Far less engaging was Tennant’s time on stage — including a mostly dry opening monologue — which befittingly met with reluctant cheers and claps.
‘Stark’ & sharp speeches
In contrast to Tennant’s flat hosting were some strong speeches that brought on both a chuckle and a tear. Robert Downey Jr, accepting a golden gong for his powerful turn in Oppenheimer, was an electrifying presence on stage. In true RDJ fashion, he dryly touched upon his decades-long career in a few sentences and referred to the film’s director Christopher Nolan as “that dude”. “That dude Chris Nolan suggested I attempt an understated approach as a last-ditch effort to perhaps resurrect my dwindling credibility,” said the actor, tongue firmly in cheek.
Robert Downey Jr won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, directed by "that dude" Christopher Nolan
The other fun speech of the evening belonged to Justine Triet who won the Best Screenplay award for Anatomy of a Fall, a courtroom drama in which a woman is accused of murdering her husband. On stage, Triet recounted how a woman from London told her she called her ex and “told him to watch the film to understand why she dumped him,” bringing on huge cheers from the audience.
Emma Stone, who won Best Actress for Poor Things (that snagged five wins in total), got emotional as she thanked her mother but also kept it fun, giving a shoutout to the film’s screenwriter Tony McNamara with: “Tony, thank you for the line ‘I must go punch that baby.’ It was life-changing for me!”
And the award goes to...
Some big names — Cate Blanchett to Dua Lipa, David Beckham to Hugh Grant — walked onto the stage to present awards.
Michael J. Fox, arriving in a wheelchair to present the BAFTA for Best Film to Oppenheimer (that won in seven categories, including Best Director for Nolan and Best Actor for Cillian Murphy), deservedly received a standing ovation as he spoke about the power of the movies. The actor, who is living with Parkinson’s Disease and rarely makes public appearances, described cinema as “magic which can change your life”.
Michael J. Fox received a standing ovation
Thumbs down to stage snubs
The BAFTAs rightfully met with a barrage of criticism for quickly glossing over some crucial categories and bunching them under the ‘Awards presented earlier in the evening’ category. That included major categories like Editing, Original Score, Cinematography and Film Not in the English Language. Deepika Padukone, presenting the award in the Non-English Language category looked ethereal in a custom Sabyasachi sari but had a blink-and-miss appearance. What earned the ire of many viewers was the fact that the team of The Zone of Interest, that won the award, delivered an empathetic speech on the war situation in Gaza but it was mostly edited out.
BAFTAs too British!
While the BAFTAs have always been focused on awarding British talent, the ever-growing list of categories simply dedicated to British cinema has caused it to lose focus on the rest of the awards. This year too, there was a barrage of categories — Rising Star, BAFTA Fellowship, British Short Film, British Short Animation, Best British Debut Writer and a few more. All of these were presented on stage and televised live, eating up time that should have been reserved for some other major categories.
British actress Samantha Morton with the BAFTA Fellowship award
Yay for the performances!
One of the high moments of the evening was, undoubtedly, pop star Sophie Ellis-Bextor rendering a high-energy version of her early 2000s hit Murder on the Dance Floor which has got a fresh lease of life on the music charts after featuring in the film Saltburn. And there was hardly a dry eye in the audience when Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham delivered an emotional and deeply heartfelt version of Time After Time in the ‘In Memoriam’ segment.
Stream the BAFTA Awards on Lionsgate Play