Australia’s Oscar hopes were dealt a blow at the BAFTA Awards on Sunday (UK time) as Poor Things scribe Tony McNamara and Barbie star and producer Margot Robbie lost out.
In what was a tough night for the Aussies, How To Have Sex star Mia McKenna-Bruce also took out this year’s BAFTA Rising Star Award ahead of Saltburn‘s Jacob Elordi and Talk To Me‘s Sophie Wilde.
Elordi was also up for Best Supporting Actor but was denied by Oppenheimer‘s Robert Downey Jr.
It was one of seven awards for Christopher Nolan’s portrait of the theoretical physicist behind the atomic bomb, alongside Best Film, Best Director for Nolan, Leading Actor for Cillian Murphy, Cinematography for Hoyte van Hoytema, Editing for Jennifer Lame, and Original Score for Ludwig Göransson.
Next best was Yorgos Lanthimos’ Poor Things with five wins, including Best Actress for Emma Stone, who triumphed over Robbie, who was nominated for Barbie.
As with her Golden Globes speech, Stone used her time on stage to make a special mention of McNamara, who lost the adapted screenplay award to American Fiction writer Cord Jefferson.
“Tony, thank you for the line, ‘I must go punch that baby’ – it was life-changing for me,” she said.
Meanwhile, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie was unable to convert any of its five nominations, also losing the production design and costume design gongs to Poor Things, while Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach were beaten in the original screenplay category by Anatomy of a Fall writing duo Justine Triet and Arthur Harari.
This year’s ceremony took place February 18 (UK time) at London’s Royal Festival Hall, with David Tennant hosting. Find the full list of winners here.