Here are the four acting winners from last night’s BAFTAs: Cate Blanchett won Best Actress for Tar, Austin Butler won Best Actor for Elvis, Kerry Condon won Supporting Actress for Banshees of Inisherin, and Barry Keoghan won Supporting Actor for Banshees as well. My immediate reaction was: wow, Cate is more of a sure thing than I originally believed. Everyone thought that Best Actress was more of a dogfight between Blanchett and Michelle Yeoh, but Cate is sweeping the big awards.
After that, of course we have to acknowledge that all of the winners are white. A white German man – Edward Berger, who directed All’s Quiet on the Western Front – won Best Director too, and that film picked up Best Picture. It’s a bad look. While I also want Cate to win everything for Tar, and I’m totally fine with Barry Keoghan in general, I really hope Condon and Butler don’t win Oscars. Butler especially – Elvis (the film) was a cracked-out mess and Butler has no business winning.
Fashion notes: Cate re-wore a Maison Margiela gown which she originally wore to the 2015 Oscars. Kerry wore Armani. Barry wore a spectacular Gucci suit in red. Also, there was a kerfuffle when Supporting Actress was announced – Carey Mulligan was wrongly announced as the winner, then finally Condon was called up.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
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- Cate Blanchett attending the EE BAFTA Awards 2023 at the Royal Festival Hall in Waterloo, London, United Kingdom.,Image: 757146252, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: To licence this image, email info@sidetrack.london for more information., Model Release: no, Credit line: Cat Morley / Avalon
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- Barry Keoghan photographed at The 2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards Arrivals at the Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on 19 February 2023.,Image: 757152791, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Best Supporting Actress Kerry Condon photographed at The 2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards Winners press room at the Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on 19 February 2023.,Image: 757176185, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Best Supporting Actor Barry Keoghan photographed at The 2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards Winners press room at the Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on 19 February 2023.,Image: 757176196, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Best Leading Actress Cate Blanchett photographed at The 2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards Winners press room at the Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on 19 February 2023.,Image: 757176345, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Best Leading Actor Austin Butler photographed at The 2023 EE BAFTA Film Awards Winners press room at the Royal Festival Hall in London, UK on 19 February 2023.,Image: 757176424, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Julie Edwards / Avalon
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- Cate Blanchett attends the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2023 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre in London, England. Sunday 19th February 2023. -,Image: 757184907, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: EE BAFTA Film Awards 2023, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
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- Kerry Condon attends the EE BAFTA Film Awards 2023 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre in London, England. Sunday 19th February 2023. -,Image: 757187584, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: NORESTRICTIONS, Model Release: no, Pictured: EE BAFTA Film Awards 2023, Credit line: James Warren / Bang Showbiz / Avalon
BAFTAs are so racist, even more than the Oscars
Last night the main conversation was BAFTAs so white. Nothing has and will ever change in the British Film industry especially with people like Idris Elba wanting to exist in a colourblind world.
Yes, please call out “people like Idris Elba”—because there are absolutely no generations of White British people wishing to exist in a colorblind world…
I saw the winners and thought it all looked so boring, so staid, and yes, so white. Much like the Grammies, the glaring inequities are making them irrelevant. You can make a godawful film but as long as you put some prestige white actors in it, you’ll still get more attention from these award shows than fantastic films like The Woman King or Athena.
Kerry Condon is the Irish version of Kelly MacDonald – watchable, reliable in her very small niche, inoffensive. I like them both, they’re fine but they’re not enough to make me watch something with either one in it. I liked Banshees of Inisherin but it’s nowhere near the achievement of Everything Everywhere All At Once.
The less said about Butler the better. I really hope he has his 15 minutes of fame and then tanks like the other Miles Tellers of the world.
If Michelle Yeoh doesn’t win Best Actress for EEAAO I’m gonna riot!
I don’t know K C but I know Kelly McDonald very well and she’s exactly as you described : reliable, but unremarkable. A good solid actress but that’s it. So given that, KC was an interesting choice for winner.
The only other thing I’ve seen Condon in was Breaking Bad/Better Call Saul, for which she gave…pretty much the exact same performance as in the Banshees of Inisherin. So, yay, I guess that she’s getting notice at long last? yawn
I really have not understood the hype around Banshees of Inisherin at all. I mean, it was fine, but better than EEAAO or Tár? No way.
If Michelle doesn’t win the SAG, she’s not winning the Oscar. SAG is a huge, diverse body and the most progressive of the precursors, so she actually has a shot there. She never had a chance at the BAFTAS.
Yep in a structurally racist industry like the British movie one – it’s the Black man that will prevent it from ever changing
I actually really loved butler as Elvis 🤷♀️
Don’t forget Chadwick won almost everything and the Anthony Hopkins won the Oscar. Still pulling for Michelle.
And I just think Angela Bassett May edge everyone out.
Anthony Hopkins won the BAFTA, so he had one precursor win.
I said upthread that I think Michelle is out if she loses the SAG, but I’m kind of re-thinking that given how different the nominees are in SAG vs Oscar.
I still think Ke Huy Quan and Angela Bassett are locks for Oscars.
The supporting actor awards have been almost consistently going to Angela Bassett and Ke Huy Quan so for the BAFTAs to just go with the white actors on this looks very bad.
Austen Butler is doing a longer Elvis impersonation in the movie and he’s not at the same level as Brendan Fraser or Colin Farrell or Paul Mescal.
The BAFTAs really need to look at this but considering who their president is nothing will change.
Cate B. I’m getting very tired of her.
Austin Butler won? I’m surprised by that. I figured Colin F. was a sure bet.
I didn’t expect Austin Butler to win.
I think the Best Actor votes might have been split between Farrell and Bill Nighy, and Butler eked out the difference. Bill Nighy hasn’t been winning much, but I imagine the BAFTA voting base are his people.
I agree with this.
I loved Banshees, and I thought Kerry Condon was great in it. The quietly pained parts are often the hardest to play. And I’m going to root for Barry Keoghan forever, because he’s as far from a nepo baby as a person could possibly be (13 foster homes!) and he’s become such a good actor.
EEAAO was such a stunning achievement as a film, and Michelle Yeoh was amazing in it, so I’m hoping she wins the Oscar. For some reason — and I know she’s a great actress — Cate B leaves me cold.
I thought Austin Butler was a revelation as Elvis. So did my 78-year old mom who revered Elvis and saw him in concert countless times.
@JustChelle — I came to say the same thing about Austen! I agree with Kaiser that the film is a little cracked out w/Baz and his dizzy style (which is why he isn’t nominated as best director), but Austen as Elvis is magnificent. As a standalone performance, I was wowed — he danced, he sang, he was believable— as Elvis Presley. That’s pretty amazing and I think he will edge out Colin and Brendan.