LONDON • Nomadland, director Chloe Zhao's film about a woman forced to join the rising numbers of Americans living out of vans as they search for work, was the big winner at the EE British Academy Film Awards in London on Sunday.
It was named best film at Britain's equivalent of the Oscars - better known as the Baftas - beating director Aaron Sorkin's The Trial Of The Chicago 7 and the much-hyped Promising Young Woman, starring Carey Mulligan.
Zhao, 39, was also named best director - only the second woman to get the accolade, after Kathryn Bigelow won in 2010 for The Hurt Locker - while Frances McDormand, star of Nomadland, won best actress.
The film also won this year's top Hollywood directing award last Saturday, as Zhao became the second woman in history to win the top Directors Guild of America prize after Bigelow.
This year's Baftas were handed out at the Royal Albert Hall, though without the usual glamorous audience. Instead, nominees attended via video link, some sitting in their living rooms.
This year's nominees were notable for their diversity, in stark contrast to last year's awards, where the main acting categories were dominated by white nominees, and no women were nominated for best director, prompting a social media outcry.
In response, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, which organises the Baftas, made a host of rule changes, such as requiring its members to undergo unconscious bias training before voting and involving juries in several categories.
But the diverse nominations did not always translate to wins for actors of colour.
Anthony Hopkins won best actor for The Father, in which he plays a man struggling with dementia, beating Riz Ahmed for his portrayal of a musician losing his hearing in Sound Of Metal, and the late Chadwick Boseman for his starring role in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.
But Daniel Kaluuya was named best supporting actor for his role as Fred Hampton, chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party, in Judas And The Black Messiah, repeating his success at the Golden Globes.
Youn Yuh-jung, the veteran South Korean actress, won best supporting actress for her role in Minari. British people "are known as very snobbish", she said in her acceptance speech, saying the award meant more because of that.
The success of Nomadland is likely to increase hype around the film before this year's Oscars, scheduled for April 25, where it is nominated for six awards.
The Baftas is normally seen as a bellwether for the Academy Awards because there is some overlap between the British academy's 7,000-strong membership and the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
Brokeback Mountain (2005) and Life Of Pi (2012) director Lee Ang received the Bafta Fellowship, the academy's top honour, for his contribution to film.
NYTIMES, AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE, REUTERS
