\n<\/p>\n
\u201cOppenheimer<\/a>,\u201d Christopher Nolan\u2019s blockbuster movie about the development of the atomic bomb, swept the board at the EE British Academy Film Awards in London on Sunday.<\/p>\n The movie won seven awards at Britain\u2019s equivalent of the Oscars, including best film, best director for Nolan and best leading actor for Cillian Murphy for his portrayal of the physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer.<\/p>\n It beat four other nominees to the best film prize, including \u201cPoor Things<\/a>,\u201d Yorgos Lanthimos\u2019s take on a Frankenstein story and \u201cThe Holdovers<\/a>,\u201d Alexander Payne\u2019s comedy about a boarding school teacher stuck looking after a student over the holidays. It also beat \u201cKillers of the Flower Moon,<\/a>\u201d Martin Scorsese\u2019s three-and-a-half hour epic about the Osage murders of the 1920s, and \u201cAnatomy of a Fall<\/a>,\u201d Justine Triet\u2019s multilingual courtroom drama about a woman accused of murdering her husband.<\/p>\n In the days leading up to the awards, commonly known as the BAFTAs, most British movie critics predicted that \u201cOppenheimer\u201d would win big. Tom Shone, writing in The Times of London<\/a>, said that Nolan\u2019s \u201cmagnum opus\u201d was an instant classic. \u201cSometimes the front-runner is the front-runner for a reason,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Still, the prizes were Nolan\u2019s first director wins at the BAFTAs, despite several previous nominations for his movies \u201cInception\u201d and \u201cDunkirk.\u201d<\/p>\n At the ceremony at London\u2019s Royal Festival Hall, Nolan, who grew up in London, seemed a little overwhelmed by all the accolades. Accepting the best director prize, he called the award \u201can incredible honor\u201d then reminisced about his parents dragging him to the festival hall, a major classical music venue as a boy. In fact, he said, his younger brother, now also a TV and filmmaker, had beaten him to the hall\u2019s stage \u201cby about 40 years\u201d because he once took part in a performance of \u201cThe Nutcracker.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Accepting the best actor prize, Murphy also seemed shocked. \u201cHoly moly!,\u201d he said, before thanking Nolan, and the producer Emma Thomas, Nolan\u2019s wife, for allowing him to play the \u201ccolossally, knotty, complex character\u201d of Oppenheimer. Nolan and Thomas saw \u201csomething in me that I probably didn\u2019t see in myself,\u201d Murphy added.<\/p>\n Among the other awards for \u201cOppenheimer\u201d were best supporting actor for Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss<\/a>, the Oppenheimer\u2019s nemesis<\/a> who insisted he would only lead the Atomic Energy Commission if Oppenheimer were removed from his consulting role; best original score; best editing; and best cinematography.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Those wins come just weeks after the movie captured five of the main awards at this year\u2019s Golden Globes<\/a>, and will be seen by many as further boosting its chances for next month\u2019s Oscars, especially because the BAFTA and Oscar voting bodies overlap.<\/p>\n Even with \u201cOppenheimer\u201d dominating the event, several other movies did well. \u201cPoor Things<\/a>\u201d took five prizes including the best leading actress award for Emma Stone. Accepting that prize, Stone, who is American, first thanked Neil Swain, her dialect coach, for teaching her how to speak in a British accent. \u201cHe did not laugh at me when he taught me how to say, \u2018water,\u2019\u201d she said, to laughs from the audience. Its other awards were for make up and hair, costume, special visual effects and production design.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Zone of Interest<\/a>,\u201d Jonathan Glazer\u2019s art house movie about a German family\u2019s day-to-day life near the Auschwitz concentration camp during the Holocaust, also did well, winning three awards, including best film not in the English language \u2014 a highly contested category in which it surpassed both \u201cAnatomy of a Fall\u201d and \u201cPast Lives,\u201d Celine Song\u2019s romantic movie about two childhood friends who keep reuniting in later life.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Among the other notable winners was Da\u2019Vine Joy Randolph<\/a>, who took the best supporting actress award for her performance as a school cook mourning the death of her son in \u201cThe Holdovers.\u201d<\/p>\n Randolph is also nominated in the best supporting actress category at this year\u2019s Oscars, scheduled for March 10.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n