Baftas 2019: The Favourite dominates UK film awards

The royal drama, starring Olivia Colman, took home seven gongs

Tragicomic royal drama The Favourite and Mexican family memoir Roma split the honours with multiple wins each at Sunday's British Academy Film Awards - victories that suggest a wind of change may be blowing through the movie industry.

The Favourite won seven trophies including best British film and best actress for OIivia Colman, who plays Britain's 18th century Queen Anne in the female-centric drama.

Scroll down for the full list of 2019 Bafta winners. 

Alfonso Cuaron's Roma, which centres on the nanny to a middle-class Mexico City family, took prizes for best picture, director, cinematography and foreign-language film.

Winners relished the symbolism of their victories.

"Thank you for celebrating our female-dominated movie about women in power," said The Favourite writer Deborah Davis, who won the original screenplay award alongside co-writer Tony McNamara.

Cuaron thanked the film's backer, Netflix, for having the courage to support "a black and white film about a domestic worker" that is not in English.

He said the extent to which the film has been embraced "in an age where fear and anger are proposed to divide us means the world to me."

Mexican director Alfonso Cuaron and his daughter Tessa pose with the awards for Best Film and Best Director for 'Roma'. EPA

Director Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite snapped up the outstanding British film and screenplay awards as well as prizes for its opulent production design, its extravagant costumes, larger-than-life hair and makeup and the performances of Colman and supporting actress Rachel Weisz.

"This is for all three of us," Colman said, speaking of Weisz and the film's other star, Emma Stone. "It's got my name on it but we can scratch on some other ones."

The best-actor trophy went to Rami Malek for his electric turn as Queen front man Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody.

Mahershala Ali was named best supporting actor as a concert pianist touring the 1960s Deep South in Green Book.

Other winners included Spike Lee's BlacKkKlansman for best adapted screenplay and the Bradley Cooper-directed A Star is Born for music.

The awards, known as Baftas, will be scoured for clues on who might triumph at Hollywood's Academy Awards on February 24. Roma and The Favourite each have 10 Oscar nominations.

The main difference with the Oscars is that at the British awards, real royalty mixes with the Hollywood variety.

Prince William, and his wife, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge — wearing a white, off-the-shoulder Alexander McQueen dress — joined Amy Adams, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, Timothee Chalamet and other film stars for the black-tie ceremony at Royal Albert Hall.

Absolutely Fabulous star Joanna Lumley was the gently risque host.

William, who is president of the British film academy, presented its top honour, a Bafta Fellowship, to film editor Thelma Schoonmaker, longtime collaborator of Martin Scorsese.

Britain's Prince William and Kate, Duchess of Cambridge with Thelma Schoonmaker, Joanna Lumley and Amanda Berry CEO of Bafta. AP

British academy voters all but ignored superhero blockbuster Black Panther, which is up for best picture at the Oscars and took top prize at the SAG awards last month. It had a single Bafta nomination, for visual effects, which it won. One of its stars, Letitia Wright, was named Rising Star, the only category decided through a public vote. The London-raised actress spoke of her own past struggles with depression and urged others not to give up.

The red carpet glamour unfolded against a backdrop of soul-searching and scandal about abuses in the entertainment industry.

Last week, the British academy suspended director Bryan Singer's nomination as part of the team behind Bohemian Rhapsody after four men accused him of sexually assaulting them when they were minors.

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A-list celebrities arrive at the Baftas Nominees' Party at Kensington Palace

Bryan Singer removed from Bafta nomination

Baftas said the alleged abuse was "completely unacceptable" and incompatible with its values. Singer, who was fired while Bohemian Rhapsody was in mid-production in 2017, denies the allegations. The film itself is still nominated.

At last year's Baftas ceremony, many women wore black as a symbol of opposition to harassment, abuse and inequality in the wake of allegations against movie mogul Harvey Weinstein.

White dresses and colourful frocks were prominent on many stars this year, along with a sense of hope that things are, finally, changing.

A British wing of the Times's Up campaign founded last year is vowing to keep the campaign going and to double the number of women in film, on and off screen.

The number of female nominees was up this year, but there was criticism of the academy's failure to nominate any female filmmakers in the best-director category. Only one woman has ever won a Bafta directing prize, Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker in 2010.

Bafta chairwoman Pippa Harris said only 10 percent of films entered for this year's awards were directed by women.

"It needs to be 50 percent," said Harris, who called the gender imbalance an industry-wide problem.

"There has been a traditional problem with getting females to be noticed in terms of their TV work and then get picked up to make feature films," she said. "Men seem to find that transition much easier."

2019 Bafta Winners 

Best Film

Winner: Roma
BlacKkKlansman
Green Book
The Favourite
A Star Is Born

Outstanding British Film  

Winner: The Favourite 
Beast 
Bohemian Rhapsody 
McQueen 
Stan & Ollie 
You Were Never Really Here 

Best Actor in a Leading Role 

Winner: Rami Malek, Bohemian Rhapsody
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born
Christian Bale, Vice
Steve Coogan, Stan and Ollie
Viggo Mortensen, Green Book

Best Actress in a Leading Role 

Winner: Olivia Colman, The Favourite
Glenn Close, The Wife
Lady Gaga, A Star Is Born
Melissa McCarthy, Can You Ever Forgive Me?
Viola Davis, Widows

Best Direction  

Winner: Alfonso Cuaron, Roma
Spike Lee, BlacKkKlansman
Pawel Pawlikowski, Cold War
Yorgos Lanthimos, The Favourite
Bradley Cooper, A Star Is Born

Best Actor in a Supporting Role 

Winner: Mahershala Ali, Green Book
Adam Driver, BlacKkKlansman
Richard E Grant, Can You Ever Forgive Me?

Sam Rockwell, Vice

Timothee Chalamet, Beautiful Boy

Best Actress in a Supporting Role 

Winner: Rachel Weisz, The Favourite
Amy Adams, Vice
Claire Foy, First Man
Emma Stone, The Favourite
Margot Robbie,  Mary, Queen of Scots

Outstanding Debut by a British Director, Writer or Producer

Winner: Beast, Michael Pearce and Lauren Dark

Apostasy, Daniel Kokotajlo A Cambodian Spring - Chris Kelly 
Pili, Leanne Welham and Sophie Harman

Ray & Liz, Richard Billingham and Jacqui Davies

Best Film Not in the English Language

Winner: Roma 
Capernaum 
Cold War 
Dogman 
Shoplifters 

Best Short Film

Winner: 73 Cows
Bachelor
The Blue Door
The Field
Wale

Best Short Animation

Winner: Roughhouse
I'm OK
Marfa

Best Animated Film

Winner: Spider-Man: Into The Spider-Verse
Incredibles 2
Isle of Dogs

Best Documentary

Winner: Free Solo
McQueen
RBG
They Shall Not Grow Old
Three Identical Strangers

Best Cinematography

Winner: Roma
Bohemian Rhapsody
Cold War
The Favourite
First Man

Best Sound

Winner: Bohemian Rhapsody
First Man
Mission: Impossible - Fallout
A Quiet Place
A Star Is Born

Best Film Music

Winner: A Star Is Born
BlackkKlansman
If Beale Street Could Talk
Isle of Dogs

Mary Poppins Returns

Best Production Design

Winner: The Favourite
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
Mary Poppins Returns
Roma

Best Costume Design

Winner: The Favourite
The Ballad of Buster Scruggs
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mary Poppins Returns
Mary Queen of Scots

Best Editing

Winner: Vice
Bohemian Rhapsody
The Favourite
First Man
Roma

Best Special Visual Effects

Winner: Black Panther
Avengers: Infinity War
Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald
First Man
Ready Player One

Best Make-up and Hair

Winner: The Favourite
Bohemian Rhapsody
Mary Queen of Scots
Stan & Ollie
Vice

Best Original Screenplay

Winner: The Favourite
Cold War
Green Book
Roma
Vice

Best Adapted Screenplay

Winner: BlacKkKlansman
Can You Ever Forgive Me?
First Man
If Beale Street Could Talk
A Star Is Born

BAFTA Rising Star Award  

Winner:  Letitia Wright

Lakeith Stanfield

Barry Keoghan

Cynthia Erivo

Jessie Buckley