“Three Billboards” big winner of the Bafta Awards

The film “Three Billboards: the panels of revenge” triumphed Sunday evening in London at the Bafta ceremony, the awards for British cinema, winning five awards, including best film, best screenplay, and best actress. .

While the cinema industry has been shaken by several sexual abuse scandals in recent months, the mobilization movements were widely welcomed during the evening.

As a symbol, it is the American actress Frances McDormand, who plays a mother who fights for justice in “Three Billboards, the panels of revenge” who was crowned best actress.

“As Martin (McDonagh, the British director, editor’s note) said, I have a little trouble with deference,” she said after receiving her award. “I stand in solidarity with my sisters in struggle,” she added, referring to the #MeToo and “Time’s Up” campaigns.

“This film is both full of hope and anger,” said Martin McDonagh. “As we have seen in recent times, anger is sometimes the only way to be heard and to achieve change”.

The fantastic film “The Shape of Water”, nominated twelve times, left with three distinctions, including that of best director for the Mexican Guillermo del Toro.

He paid tribute to “English culture”, a “source of inspiration”, and in particular to Charlie Chaplin and Stan Laurel, “who could do so much with so little”, as well as to the author Mary Shelley, mentioning his novel “Frankenstein or the modern Prometheus”.

Already awarded at the Golden Globes of the foreign press in Hollywood, Gary Oldman received for the first time in his career the Bafta for best actor, for his epic incarnation of Winston Chruchill in “The Dark Hours”. He hailed the British statesman in his acceptance speech. “In 1940, he was able to maintain the values ​​of honor, integrity and freedom for this nation and the world,” he said.

The film also won the prize for best make-up, a tribute to the physical transformation performed on Gary Oldman, which required no less than four hours of daily work.

British director Ridley Scott received the highest distinction from the British Academy of Cinema, rewarding his entire career.

– “A difficult year” –

The issue of sexual harassment, which has shaken the film industry in recent months with the revelation of several abusive people, was addressed from the first minutes of the evening.

“Our industry has had a difficult year. Courageous revelations of sexual harassment and abuse have come and gone,” acknowledged Jane Lush, the Academy’s director, in her opening address. She hoped that the current mobilization, and the recent publication of a charter, would be a “catalyst for lasting change”.

The emcee, actress Joanna Lumley, made the connection between the fight led by the Suffragettes a century ago to obtain the right to vote, and the “Time’s Up” campaign, seeing in it the same “determination for eradicate the abuses of which women are victims”.

Many stars, including Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek or Margot Robbie, appeared dressed in black, responding to the call launched as part of the Time’s Up campaign against sexual violence.

During the day, nearly 200 women, including Keira Knightley, Naomie Harris or Jodie Whittaker had published a forum and launched a fund aimed at financing information campaigns and supporting legal action against harassing behavior.

“In the recent past, we lived in a world where sexual harassment was … an unavoidable and distressing aspect of a woman’s life,” they write. “We couldn’t talk about it. But in 2018, we are waking up to a world ready for change.”

American producer Harvey Weinstein, director Woody Allen and comedian Kevin Spacey have been the subject of numerous accusations of sexual abuse in recent months.