Sunday’s BAFTA awards celebrated, in true British style, the championing the underdog. Up against the blockbuster powerhouses of Lincoln, Les Miserables, and Django: Unchained, it was Ben Affleck’s Argo which undoubtedly came out on top. Argo, a historical thriller which dramatises a CIA rescue mission during the 1979 Iran hostage crisis, picked up three awards on the night including Best Film and Best Director. Affleck who directed and stars in the film dedicated his directorial success to “anyone else out there who’s trying to get their second act.”
It was also a night of second acts for Emmanuelle Riva, the 85-year-old French actress and star of Michael Haneke’s Amour. Riva was awarded Best Actress for her role as a retired piano teacher coming to terms with the struggles of dementia and physical decline. Her success comes over fifty years after she originally found fame in the 1959 film Hiroshima Mon Amour, and makes her a record-breaker as the oldest ever Bafta winner and Oscar nominee.
Perhaps rather predictably, it was the ambitious and star-studded adaptation of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables which came away with the most accolades. Anne Hathaway’s heart wrenching performance as prostitute Fantine landed her with the award for Best Supporting Actress. The musical also won awards for hair and makeup, production design and sound among a host of others. Equally predictable but no less deserved was Daniel Day-Lewis’s Best Actor achievement for the historical US biopic Lincoln which sees the method actor take on the role of the American president during the time of the Civil War.
Elsewhere Skyfall came away with Best British Film and Best Original Music in an unlikely win for a Bond film. Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina, whilst overlooked in the acting stakes was recognised for its costumes created by Jacqueline Durran and inspired by 19th-century Russia.
Although celebrating high-earning franchise films, this year’s Baftas clearly set out to put emerging talent on the radar. Host Stephen Fry’s parting speech singled out those trying to make it, encouraging them to “keep shooting Shorts!” in an ultimate rooting for the much-loved underdog.
Jessica Lane