As expected, Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, a sunny Hollywood musical, won best film at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) movie awards on Sunday night.
Equally predictably, the ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall was peppered with commentary on current politics. La La Land took the most gongs, converting five of its 11 nominations into wins. Chazelle won best director. Emma Stone, who stars opposite Ryan Gosling, won best actress.
Even before the first award had been handed out, Stephen Fry, hosting for the 12th time, got a dig in at US president Donald Trump. Welcoming Meryl Streep, he said she was "one of the greatest actresses of all-time. Only a blithering idiot would think otherwise". Mr Trump famously called Streep "overrated" after her denunciation of him at the Golden Globes.
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Struggle looms
Ken Loach, who won best British film for I, Daniel Blake, was characteristically searing about the Conservative government. "In the real world it's getting darker," he said. "And in the struggle that's coming between the rich and the powerful, the corporations and the politicians that speak for them, and the rest of us on the other side, the film-makers know which side they're on."
Surprisingly, this was the first competitive Bafta that Loach, now 80, has won.
The Irish contenders were to be disappointed. Ruth Negga, Oscar nominated for Loving, lost out in the EE Rising Star Award to incoming Spider-Man Tom Holland. Consolata Boyle, nominated for Florence Foster Jenkins, was beaten to best costume design by Madeline Fontaine for her work on Jackie. Armaghian Seamus McGarvey, up for Nocturnal Animals, saw the cinematography Bafta go to Linus Sandgren for La La Land.
Away from La La Land’s minor sweep, the gongs were spread unusually evenly this year. It was not until the 18th presentation of the night that any film took a second Bafta mask.
That award was an upset: Dev Patel beat Mahershala Ali, much fancied in Barry Jenkins's African-American drama Moonlight, to best supporting actor for the moving true story Lion.
As a Londoner, Patel did have home advantage. Ali still looks like a favourite to take the Oscar. The folk behind Moonlight, best-reviewed film of 2016, will, nonetheless, be disappointed to go home with nothing.
Skinny odds
There were no gasps of astonishment when the veteran Viola Davis – who has already won everywhere for Denzel Washington's Fences – took home the best supporting actress Bafta. Meaner bookmakers are offering odds as short as 1/33 on Ms Davis triumphing at the Academy.
It is reckoned that about 10 per cent of the Oscar electorate vote at Bafta. So the British awards are usually reasonable pointers to the gongs that really matter. Casey Affleck, who won best actor for Manchester by the Sea, will not, however, read too much into his win here. Denzel Washington, favourite for the Oscar, was inexplicably not nominated at Bafta.
We will know all when the Academy Awards are handed out on February 26th.
Winners & nominations
Best actress
Amy Adams (Arrival)
Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train)
Winner: Emma Stone (La La Land)
Meryl Streep (Florence Foster Jenkins)
Natalie Portman (Jackie)
Best actor
Andrew Garfield (Hacksaw Ridge)
Winner: Casey Affleck (Manchester by the Sea)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nocturnal Animals)
Ryan Gosling (La La Land)
Viggo Mortensen (Captain Fantastic)
Best director
Denis Villeneuve (Arrival)
Ken Loach (I, Daniel Blake)
Winner: Damien Chazelle (La La Land)
Kenneth Lonergan (Manchester By the Sea)
Tom Ford (Nocturnal Animals)
Best film
Arrival
I, Daniel Blake
Winner: La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Moonlight
Outstanding British film
American Honey
Denial
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Winner: I, Daniel Blake
Notes on Blindness
Under the Shadow
Best supporting actress
Hayley Squires (I, Daniel Blake)
Michelle Williams (Manchester by the Sea)
Naomie Harris (Moonlight)
Nicole Kidman (Lion)
Winner: Viola Davis (Fences)
Best supporting actor
Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Nocturnal Animals)
Winner: Dev Patel (Lion)
Hugh Grant (Florence Foster Jenkins)
Jeff Bridges (Hell or High Water)
Mahershala Ali (Moonlight)
Rising Star award
Anya Taylor-Joy
Laia Costa
Lucas Hedges
Ruth Negga
Winner: Tom Holland
Best make up & hair
Doctor Strange
Winner: Florence Foster Jenkins
Hacksaw Ridge
Nocturnal Animals
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Best original music
Arrival
Jackie
Winner: La La Land
Lion
Nocturnal Animals
Best costume design
Allied
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Florence Foster Jenkins
Winner: Jackie
La La Land
Best sound
Winner: Arrival
Deepwater Horizon
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Best British short animation
The Alan Dimension
Winner: A Love Story
Tough
Best British short film
Consumed
Winner: Home
Mouth of Hell
The Party
Standby
Best editing
Arrival
Winner: Hacksaw Ridge
La La Land
Manchester by the Sea
Nocturnal Animals
Best production design
Doctor Strange
Winner: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Hail, Caesar!
La La Land
Nocturnal Animals
Best documentary
Winner: 13th
The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
The Eagle Huntress
Notes on Blindness
Weiner
Best film not in the English language
Dheepan
Julieta
Mustang
Winner: Son of Saul
Toni Erdmann
Best adapted screenplay
Arrival
Hacksaw Ridge
Hidden Figures
Winner: Lion
Nocturnal Animals
Best animated film
Finding Dory
Winner: Kubo and the Two Strings
Moana
Zootropolis
Best special visual effects
Arrival
Doctor Strange
Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
Winner: The Jungle Book
Rogue One: A Star Wars Story
Best debut by a British writer, director or producer
The Girl With All the Gifts – Mike Carey (writer), Camille Gatin (producer)
The Hard Stop – George Amponsah (writer/director/producer), Dionne Walker (writer/producer)
Notes on Blindness - Peter Middleton (writer/director/producer), James Spinney (writer/director), Jo-Jo Ellison (producer)
The Pass – John Donnelly (writer), Ben A Williams (director)
Winner: Under the Shadow – Babak Anvari (writer/director), Emily Leo, Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh (producers)
Best original screenplay
Hell or High Water
I, Daniel Blake
La La Land
Winner: Manchester By the Sea
Moonlight
Best cinematography
Arrival
Hell or High Water
Winner: La La Land
Lion
Nocturnal Animals
Bafta fellowship
Mel Brooks
