BAFTAs 2022: Highlights from the red carpet, ceremony and winners’ press conference

Yesterday was the long-awaited night of the 75^th BAFTAs at the Royal Albert Hall. It’s the first time in two years that it’s been possible for the ceremony to take place in person and at full capacity, and the atmosphere reflected that. The stars didn’t hold back in their red carpet looks and there was electricity in the air. 85-year-old Shirley Bassey kicked things off with a rather old-school Diamonds Are Forever in honour of the Bond franchise’s 60^th anniversary. Rebel Wilson’s comedy hosting perhaps didn’t land like it did back in 2016 and 2020, with a few off-key jokes taking aim at everyone from JK Rowling to Prince Andrew missing the mark. But proceedings otherwise went off without a hitch.

In terms of the big winners, The Power of the Dog was the standout, receiving both Best Film and Best Director, making Jane Campion only the third woman to take the latter prize – Chloe Zhao being the second when she won for Nomadland. Benedict Cumberbatch was there to take the trophy on her behalf and charmed the audience by pretending to read the speech he had drafted for the Best Actor prize he lost to Will Smith for King Richard.

It was an utter delight to see Coda celebrated, with Troy Kotsur making history as the first deaf actor to win Best Supporting Actor for his role, and writer and director Siân Heder scooping Best Adapted Screenplay. The film’s other star, Emilia Jones, also wowed the crowd by performing Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now accompanied by sign language interpreters.

The Upcoming had the pleasure of hearing from some of the winners backstage after they received their awards.

Sadly, Jane Campion couldn’t be there in person to receive both Best Director and Best Film awards for her fresh take on a Western The Power of the Dog but did dial in via FaceTime to say she was “overwhelmed”.

Joanna Scanlan, who won Best Lead Actress for her role in After Love, spoke humbly of how she never thought she would receive such an honour. Her motivation for taking on the role, she said, was how unique the script was: “It’s a story I’ve never heard told.”

Ariana DeBose shared how delighted she was, first and foremost to be cast against the odds in Steven Spielberg’s remake of West Side Story, but then also to win Best Supporting Actress for her part: “It’s been the ride of my life. And it’s getting wilder every day.”

Troy Kotsur, who won Best Supporting Actor for Coda, shared how he hopes their film will help change perspectives on the deaf community: “Deafness isn’t really a difference. Only the language is.”

Lashana Lynch was the much-deserved recipient of the EE Rising Star Award. She spoke about her role in Daniel Craig’s last Bond movie, No Time to Die, and how those with negative comments about her taking on the 007 moniker in the film actually spurred her on.

Ryusuke Hamaguchi clinched the award for Best Foreign Language Film for Drive My Car. He reflected on how the next generation of filmmakers is ready and waiting to step through the door opened by the Academy Award-winning Parasite.

Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, David Dinerstein, Robert Fyvolent and Joseph Patel joined us to reflect on their Best Documentary win for Summer of Soul. 

Jared Bush, Byron Howard, Yvett Merino and Clark Spencer celebrated with us, winning Best Animated Film for Encanto.

For Best Editing, it was Tom Cross and Elliot Graham, who worked on No Time to Die. They gave an insight into how emotional it was for Daniel Craig to work on his last Bond movie and how he was there every step of the way for the making of it: “He was in tears…it was 15 years of his life.”

Justin Raleigh received the award Make Up and Hair as part of the team working on The Eyes of Tammy Faye with Jessica Chastain.

The award for Best Adapted Screenplay went to Siân Heder for Coda. She spoke beautifully of how wonderful it was to see Troy Kotsur become the movie star she always knew he was.

Vladimir Krasilnikov, Jordi Morera and Antonin Niclass won Best Short Animation for Do Not Feed the Pigeons.

Best Casting went to Cindy Tolan for West Side Story. She told us how she believes casting is an art form and should be recognised as such.

Ron Bartlett, Theo Green, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini and Mac Ruth picked up Best Sound for Dune, and reflected on how Denis Villeneuve wanted the sounds design to be “seamless” as well as the challenges they faced when it came to the sandworm.

Patrice Vermette and Zsuzsanna Sipos shared their reactions to winning Best Production Design for their work on Dune. They also offered their views on the category being axed from the live show of the Oscars.

Catch a glimpse of the stars arriving on the red carpet and greeting fans below:

And chats with the attendees on the red carpet here:

Some of the best looks from the night here:

Plus action from the BAFTAs party here:

Sarah Bradbury
Photo: BAFTA/Scott Garfitt

Watch more of the action from the red carpet and the ceremony on our YouTube channel here.

The 2022 EE British Academy Film Awards took place at the Royal Albert Hall on 13^th March 2022. For full details of the winners, visit their website here.