Atom bomb epic Oppenheimer won seven awards, including Best Picture, Director and Actor, at the 77th British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, cementing its front-runner status for the Oscars next month.
Gothic fantasy Poor Things took five awards and Holocaust drama The Zone of Interest won three.
Christopher Nolan won his first Best Director Bafta for Oppenheimer and Cillian Murphy won the Best Actor category for playing physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atom bomb.
Murphy said he was grateful to play such a “colossally knotty, complex character”.
Emma Stone was named Best Actress for her wild and spirited Bella Baxter in Poor Things, a steampunk-style visual extravaganza that won prizes for visual effects, production design, costume design, and make-up and hair.
Oppenheimer had a field-leading 13 nominations but missed out on the record of nine trophies, set in 1971 by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.
It won the Best Film race against Poor Things, Killers of the Flower Moon, Anatomy of a Fall and The Holdovers.
Oppenheimer also won trophies for editing, cinematography and musical score, as well as the Best Supporting Actor prize for Robert Downey Jr.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph was named best supporting actress for playing a boarding school cook in The Holdovers and said she felt a “responsibility I don’t take lightly” to tell the stories of underrepresented people, such as her character Mary.
Oppenheimer faced stiff competition in what was widely considered to be a vintage year for cinema and an awards season energised by the end of actors’ and writers’ strikes that shut down Hollywood for months.
The Zone of Interest – a British-produced film shot in Poland with a largely German cast – was named best British Film and Best Film Not in English.
It also took the award for its sound, which has been described as the real star of the film.
Jonathan Glazer's unsettling drama takes place in a family home just outside the walls of the Auschwitz death camp, the horrors of which are heard and hinted at, rather than seen.
“Walls aren’t new from before or since the Holocaust, and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen or Mariupol or Israel,” producer James Wilson said.
“Thank you for recognising a film that asks us to think in those spaces.”
Ukraine war documentary 20 Days in Mariupol won the award for Best Documentary.
“This is not about us,” said filmmaker Mstyslav Chernov, who captured the harrowing reality of life in the besieged city. “This is about Ukraine, about the people of Mariupol.”
Chernov said the story of the city and its fall into Russian occupation “is a symbol of struggle and a symbol of faith. Thank you for empowering our voice and let’s just keep fighting”.
The awards ceremony, hosted by Doctor Who star David Tennant – who entered wearing a kilt and sequinned top while carrying a dog named Bark Ruffalo – was a glitzy, British-accented appetiser for Hollywood’s Academy Awards on March 10.
The prize for Best Original Screenplay, went to French courtroom drama Anatomy of a Fall.
The film about a woman on trial over the death of her husband was written by director Justine Triet and her partner, Egyptian-French filmmaker Arthur Harari.
“It’s a fiction and we are reasonably fine,” Triet joked.
Cord Jefferson won Best Adapted Screenplay for the satirical American Fiction, about the struggles of an African-American novelist
Jefferson said he hoped the success of the movie “maybe changes the minds of the people who are in charge of green-lighting films and TV shows, allows them to be less risk-averse”.
Northern Ireland actor James Martin, from the Oscar-winning film An Irish Goodbye, presented the British Short Film Bafta to American-Egyptian director Yasmin Afifi and Elizabeth Rufai for Jellyfish and Lobster, a tale about care home residents.
Accepting the prize, Afifi said the film was about elderly people who find the “magic in their final days”, before wiping tears away from her face.
Egyptian actor Sayed Badreya, who appears in the film, got down on his knees and prayed on stage.
Historical epic Killers of the Flower Moon had nine nominations for the awards but did not win in any category.
There also was disappointment for the Leonard Bernstein biopic Maestro, which had seven nominations but won no awards.
Neither did grief-flecked love story All of Us Strangers with six nominations, and barbed class-war dramedy Saltburn, with five.
Barbie, one half of 2023’s “Barbenheimer” box office juggernaut and the year’s top-grossing film, also missed out on awards from five nominations.
Barbie director Greta Gerwig failed to get a directing nomination for the Baftas or the Oscars, in what was seen by many as a major snub.
Britain’s film academy introduced changes to increase the awards’ diversity in 2020, when no women were nominated as best director for the seventh year running and all 20 nominees in the lead and supporting performer categories were white.
But Triet was the only woman among this year's six best-director nominees.
Before the ceremony, nominees, including Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Rosamund Pike, Ryan Gosling and Ayo Edebiri, walked the red carpet at London’s Royal Festival Hall, along with presenters Andrew Scott, Cate Blanchett, Idris Elba and David Beckham.
Guest of honour was Prince William, in his role as president of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
He arrived without his wife, Kate, who is recovering from abdominal surgery last month.
The ceremony included musical performances by Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham, singing Time after Time, and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, singing her 2001 hit Murder on the Dancefloor, which shot back up the charts after featuring in Saltburn.
Film curator June Givanni, founder of the June Givanni Pan-African Cinema Archive, was honoured for outstanding British contribution to cinema, while actress Samantha Morton received the academy’s highest honour, the Bafta Fellowship.
Morton, who grew up in foster care and children’s homes, said that “representation matters”.
“The stories we tell, they have the power to change people’s lives,” she said. “Film changed my life, it transformed me, and it led me here today.
“I dedicate this award to every child in care, or who has been in care and who didn’t survive.”
What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
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Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Dust and sand storms compared
Sand storm
- Particle size: Larger, heavier sand grains
- Visibility: Often dramatic with thick "walls" of sand
- Duration: Short-lived, typically localised
- Travel distance: Limited
- Source: Open desert areas with strong winds
Dust storm
- Particle size: Much finer, lightweight particles
- Visibility: Hazy skies but less intense
- Duration: Can linger for days
- Travel distance: Long-range, up to thousands of kilometres
- Source: Can be carried from distant regions
Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Keep it fun and engaging
Stuart Ritchie, director of wealth advice at AES International, says children cannot learn something overnight, so it helps to have a fun routine that keeps them engaged and interested.
“I explain to my daughter that the money I draw from an ATM or the money on my bank card doesn’t just magically appear – it’s money I have earned from my job. I show her how this works by giving her little chores around the house so she can earn pocket money,” says Mr Ritchie.
His daughter is allowed to spend half of her pocket money, while the other half goes into a bank account. When this money hits a certain milestone, Mr Ritchie rewards his daughter with a small lump sum.
He also recommends books that teach the importance of money management for children, such as The Squirrel Manifesto by Ric Edelman and Jean Edelman.
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Price: Dh4,699 for 128GB, Dh5,099 for 256GB, Dh5,499 for 512GB; 1TB unavailable in the UAE
What is an FTO Designation?
FTO designations impose immigration restrictions on members of the organisation simply by virtue of their membership and triggers a criminal prohibition on knowingly providing material support or resources to the designated organisation as well as asset freezes.
It is a crime for a person in the United States or subject to the jurisdiction of the United States to knowingly provide “material support or resources” to or receive military-type training from or on behalf of a designated FTO.
Representatives and members of a designated FTO, if they are aliens, are inadmissible to and, in certain circumstances removable from, the United States.
Except as authorised by the Secretary of the Treasury, any US financial institution that becomes aware that it has possession of or control over funds in which an FTO or its agent has an interest must retain possession of or control over the funds and report the funds to the Treasury Department.
Source: US Department of State
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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Company name: Letstango.com
Started: June 2013
Founder: Alex Tchablakian
Based: Dubai
Industry: e-commerce
Initial investment: Dh10 million
Investors: Self-funded
Total customers: 300,000 unique customers every month
Tips to stay safe during hot weather
- Stay hydrated: Drink plenty of fluids, especially water. Avoid alcohol and caffeine, which can increase dehydration.
- Seek cool environments: Use air conditioning, fans, or visit community spaces with climate control.
- Limit outdoor activities: Avoid strenuous activity during peak heat. If outside, seek shade and wear a wide-brimmed hat.
- Dress appropriately: Wear lightweight, loose and light-coloured clothing to facilitate heat loss.
- Check on vulnerable people: Regularly check in on elderly neighbours, young children and those with health conditions.
- Home adaptations: Use blinds or curtains to block sunlight, avoid using ovens or stoves, and ventilate living spaces during cooler hours.
- Recognise heat illness: Learn the signs of heat exhaustion and heat stroke (dizziness, confusion, rapid pulse, nausea), and seek medical attention if symptoms occur.
