Indian-origin actor Dev Patel and the United States’ Emma Stone were among the winners at the 2017 British Academy Film Awards on Sunday. Hollywood musical La La Land, which was nominated in 11 categories, won five awards, including Best Film, actress (Stone) and director (Damien Chazelle).
While Casey Affleck won the Best Actor award for Manchester by the Sea, Viola Davis won Best Supporting Actress for Fences. Davis, who paid tribute to her father while accepting the award, said films such as Fences and the play that it was adapted from told the stories of “the people who grew up under the heavy boot of Jim Crow, the people who did not make it into history books”.
Patel, who won best supporting actor for Lion, called his win “overwhelming”. “It’s an out-of-body experience,” Patel said, adding that he would share the award with Sunny Pawar, the boy who portrayed Patel’s character in the film as a child. The award for best British film went to I, Daniel Blake, whose director Ken Loach condemned the United Kingdom’s government during his acceptance speech.
“The most vulnerable and poorest are treated by the government with a callous brutality that is disgraceful, a brutality that extends to keeping out refugee children we promised to help,” he said. British actor Tom Holland won the night’s “Rising Star” award, voted for by the public.
Other winners included Arrival [best sound], Fantastic Beasts and Where To Find Them [production design], Jackie [costume design] and The Jungle Book [special visual effects]. The awards marks another milestone for La La Land, which won a record seven awards at the Golden Globes. The film has been nominated in 14 categories for the February 26 Academy Awards.
See a full list of this year’s winners here.
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