Entertainment

Mixed night for Britain at Baftas with few high-profile wins

Jenny Beavan collected her fourth Bafta for best costume design.
Jenny Beavan collected her fourth Bafta for best costume design. Jenny Beavan collected her fourth Bafta for best costume design.

Britain came away from the 2022 Bafta film awards with one of its lowest number of wins in recent years, picking up only one of the main acting honours but doing better in some of the technical categories.

Joanna Scanlan was the only British win in the “big four” acting awards, taking the prize for best actress for her performance in the drama After Love.

The other three acting gongs went to Americans: Will Smith (best actor for King Richard), Troy Kotsur (best supporting actor for Coda) and Ariana DeBose (best supporting actress for West Side Story).

Bafta graphic
Bafta graphic (PA Graphics)

There was more solid success for Britain in the technical categories.

Paul Lambert and Tristan Myles were part of the team to collect the award for best visual effects, for the film Dune. The win comes four years after Lambert scooped the same award for his joint work on another sci-fi epic, Blade Runner 2049.

The composer and music producer Theo Green was among the winners for best sound, also for the film Dune.

Jenny Beavan picked up the Bafta for best costume design, for the film Cruella – the fourth time she has won this award in her career.

The first time was 35 years ago in 1987, for her work with John Bright on the film A Room With A View. She won again in 2002 for Gosford Park and 2016 for Mad Max: Fury Road.

In the four British-only categories, Belfast won best British film, The Black Cop took the prize for best British short film, Do Not Feed The Pigeons was named best British short animation, and Jeymes Samuel picked up the award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.

Lashana Lynch, best known for playing the MI6 agent Nomi in the James Bond film No Time To Die, took home the rising star award, which was voted for by the public.

Britain was also one of the countries that funded The Power Of The Dog, which was named best film.

Overall there were British wins in 10 Bafta categories, down on the total in recent years, which has been either 13 (in 2019) or 14 (2018, 2020 and 2021), but not as low as the nine wins in 2017.

The most British wins so far this century was 15 in 2009, when Slumdog Millionaire picked up six separate awards.