All Quiet On The Western Front wins big at the Baftas

LONDON – In a shock to this year’s awards season, All Quiet On The Western Front, a German-language movie set in the trenches of World War I, was the big winner at the EE British Academy Film and Television Arts Awards in London on Sunday night.

The Netflix movie was named best picture at the awards, commonly known as the Baftas. The anti-war film beat four higher-profile titles, including Everything Everywhere All At Once, a sci-fi adventure starring Michelle Yeoh, and The Banshees Of Inisherin, director Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy about the ending of a friendship on a small island.

All Quiet On The Western Front also beat director Baz Luhrmann’s Elvis biopic and Tar, director Todd Field’s drama about a conductor accused of sexual harassment.

Based on German-born author Erich Maria Remarque’s 1929 novel of the same title, All Quiet On The Western Front won six other awards, including best director for Edward Berger, best adapted screenplay and best film not in the English language.

During the ceremony, Berger seemed overcome by the wins. While accepting the award for best adapted screenplay, he mentioned the movie’s anti-war message and Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

“There are no heroes in any war,” he said.

All Quiet On The Western Front was expected to do well at the awards, Britain’s equivalent of the Oscars.

When the Bafta nominations were announced in January, it secured 14 nods and tied with Taiwanese director Lee Ang’s 2000 action film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon for the highest number of nominations for a movie not in the English language.

The Baftas have long been seen as a bellwether for the Oscars, scheduled for March 12, because of an overlap between their voting bodies. All Quiet On The Western Front is nominated for nine categories at those awards, including for best film.

Steven Spielberg’s award favourite The Fabelmans was not nominated for best movie or best director at the Baftas. It received one nomination, for best original screenplay.

Before All Quiet On The Western Front swept the main prizes, this year’s Baftas, held at the Royal Festival Hall in London, had a variety of winners, with the major acting gongs being shared by three different films.

Cate Blanchett won best actress for playing a conductor in crisis in Tar. She beat nominees that included Viola Davis for her performance in The Woman King, Danielle Deadwyler for her role as slain teenager Emmett Till’s mother in Till, and Yeoh for Everything Everywhere All At Once.

Accepting the prize, a tearful Blanchett thanked her fellow nominees for “breaking the myth that women’s experience is monolithic”.

Austin Butler won the best actor award for his title role in Elvis. Butler in January took the same prize at the Golden Globes and was nominated for best actor at the Oscars.

The Banshees Of Inisherin, one of this awards season’s most highly touted movies, did not leave the Baftas empty-handed, taking four awards, including best original screenplay, best supporting actor for Barry Keoghan and best supporting actress for Kerry Condon.

The ceremony, hosted by actor Richard E. Grant, was short on drama, although Carey Mulligan, nominated for She Said, was accidentally announced as the best supporting actress instead of Condon.

The incident occurred when Troy Kotsur, the deaf star of Coda (2021), was announcing the category’s winner with an interpreter. The mistake was edited out of the show’s television broadcast in Britain. NYTIMES