Baftas 2024 - as it happened: Oppenheimer wins big at star-studded movie awards ceremony
Host David Tennant led the high-profile event honouring the best films, actors and directors of the past year
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The Baftas 2024 have taken place, with the biggest film stars in the world in attendance at a ceremony that honoured the best movies and actors of the last year.
Hollywood actors, including Emma Stone, Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, were present at the ceremony, which took place at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday (18 February).
The winners were named exactly one month after the nominated films, actors, directors and writers were revealed by former EE Rising Star nominees Naomi Ackie and Kingsley Ben-Adir during a live press conference.
This year’s Baftas, which aired on BBC One, were presented by actor David Tennant. This marked the Scottish actor’s first TV appearance since returning for a series of Doctor Who specials in 2023.
Films in contention at this year’s ceremony included Oppenheimer, which swept the board at both the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards earlier this month, as well as its rival blockbuster Barbie, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon and Poor Things, starring Stone.
Find all of the Bafta 2024 updates – as they happened – below
Carey Mulligan or Emma Stone could join a special club
Both Mulligan and Stone could join an exclusive club of only 15 other female actors who’ve won Best Actress in a Leading Role two times or more, should one of them win the category.
Mulligan, who has been nominated for Maestro, won the honour back in 2009 for An Education, while Stone, who received the new nod for Poor Things, took the category in 2016 for La La Land.
Emma Stone could break records
The Poor Things star could also become the first person ever to win Best Actress in a Leading Role as well as Outstanding British Film in one night should she take both categories.
Stone is credited as a producer on the Yorgos Lanthimos drama, which would mean she too would earn the win for Outstanding British Film.
The only other person to earn a similar victory is Nomadland’s star and producer Frances McDormand, who won Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Film at the 2021 ceremony.
A night of big possibility for Irish actors
Should the Dublin-born Keoghan or the Cork-born Murphy triumph in the Best Actor in a Leading Role category, they would become the first Irish-born actor to take home the trophy.
Keoghan is nominated for his performance in Saltburn, and Murphy landed a nod for his role in Oppenheimer.
Let’s hear it for the Aussies
Australian natives Jacob Elordi (Saltburn) and Sophie Wilde (Talk to Me) are competing against each other for the Bafta Rising Star category, alongside The Bear breakout Ayo Edebiri, How to Have Sex’s Mia Mckenna-Bruce and Bridgerton’s Phoebe Dynevor.
Should either Elordi or Wilde win, they would become the first Australian actor to earn the award.
Now back to our regularly scheduled programming
Message from Bafta host David Tennant
David Tennant on the Bafta hosting lesson he learnt from Jo Koy’s Golden Globes disaster
The Doctor Who star, 52, has revealed one of the biggest hosting no-nos he gleaned from Jo Koy’s Golden Globes presenting disaster.
When asked if he had any nerves about the forthcoming gig – especially given Koy’s poorly received performance at the January Golden Globes – Tennant explained to Variety that “not being a comic I feel gives me a slight cover”.
“I’m not really expected to be good at any of that stuff. I’m just there to hold it all together,” the Scottish actor said ahead of the ceremony.
“And don’t diss Tay Tay, I think is the lesson to be learned. I live in a house of Taylor Swift fans, so I know better,” he added, referring to Koy’s failed joke about pop singer Swift.
Read more:
‘Doctor Who’ star will host the 77th annual British Academy Film Awards on Sunday (18 February)
Quick glimpse at Baftas front-row seating arrangement
I spy a stacked room, including a healthy mix of stars on the rise – Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) – sprinkled in between Hollywood royalty, including Cate Blanchett, Cillian Murphy, Emma Stone and Margot Robbie.
Who votes for the Baftas Rising Star category?
Unlike the rest of Bafta’s film, producing and acting categories, which are voted on by a special jury of experts in the craft, the EE Rising Star Award is determined by the public.
While a jury still selects the nominees in the category, the final winner is selected entirely by public votes via text, internet or phone.
Last year saw Sex Education’s Emma Mackey win the honour. This year, Jacob Elordi (Euphoria and Priscilla), Ayo Edebiri (The Bear), Sophie Wilde (Talk to Me), Phoebe Dynevor (Bridgerton) and Mia McKenna-Bruce (How to Have Sex) have all been nominated.
Mia McKenna-Bruce on her breakout role in How to Have Sex: ‘I was six months pregnant at Cannes – it was pretty mental’
Read Ellie Harrison’s interview with 26-year-old Bafta Rising Star nominee McKenna-Bruce on her breakout role in How to Have Sex.
The 26-year-old rising star plays a teenage girl growing up too fast in the Malia-set party film. She tells Ellie Harrison about filming the Cannes sensation and what it’s like to have the biggest moments in her life and career collide
WATCH: Cillian Murphy says ‘yes’ to 28 Years Later
The Independent’s own Jacob Stolworthy had a chance to sit down with Oppenheimer star Cillian Murphy. And, of course, he couldn’t help but ask a burning question about the potential of a 28 Years Later sequel.
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