Bafta glory at last for Nolan as Oppenheimer dominates

Christopher Nolan, one of the most celebrated and successful British filmmakers of the century, has finally won his first Bafta, as his biopic of the man behind the atomic bomb took best picture and best director.

- Catherine Shoard

Nolan had previously been nominated for eight Baftas but – bar an honorary award in 2010 – was yet to win. Last night Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy as the nuclear physicist J Robert Oppenheimer, dominated the British film industry’s most prestigious awards ceremony, taking seven Baftas, including leading actor for Cillian Murphy and supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr.

Nolan said he felt his film – which concludes with Oppenheimer voicing his fear that the atomic bomb has hastened the end of the world, rather than helped save it – ends with “a dramatically necessary note of despair”. But, he added, many people had helped further nuclear disarmament, with a 90% reduction since 1967. That, said Nolan, had now “gone the wrong way. But it’s important to acknowledge their work, which shows the necessary and potential of efforts for peace.”

The victories further cement Oppenheimer’s position as the frontrunner at next month’s Oscars, where it is also in the running for 13 awards. However, the evening’s awards were shared more widely than many expected. Poor Things, Yorgos Lanthimos ’s steampunk fantasy starring Emma Stone as a woman with the brain of a child, took five awards, including leading actress.

Concluding her speech, Stone thanked her mother, “because she’s the best person in the world”.