BAFTA ceremony: ‘One Battle After Another’ wins six awards; racial slur incident prompts apologies

The British Academy Film Awards, the British answer to the Oscars, were handed out on Sunday with “One Battle After Another” dominating once again, taking home six bronze masks.

The Leonardo DiCaprio film won best picture, director, adapted screenplay, cinematography, editing and best supporting performance for Sean Penn, The Associated Press reported.

Vampire story “Sinners” and gothic horror “Frankenstein” won three while “Hamnet” received two awards.

The awards ceremony was hosted by Scottish actor Alan Cumming and was attended by Prince William and Catherine, Princess of Wales, the AP reported.

Typically, the BAFTAs can be an indicator for who will win the Oscars, which will be handed out on March 15. “Sinners” has a record 16 nominations, with “One Battle After Another” coming in second with 13.

At one point, while “Sinners” stars Michael B. Jordan and Delroy Lindo were presenting an award for best visual effects, an audience member, identified as John Davidson by the BBC, shouted a racial slur. Cumming apologized for the “strong and offensive language,” but explained that it came from a member of the audience who has Tourette’s syndrome, the AP reported.

“Tourette syndrome is a disability and the tics you have heard tonight are involuntary, which means the person who has Tourette syndrome has no control over their language,” Cumming said. “We apologize if you were offended.”

The apology was not enough for some actors.

Wendell Pierce, who starred with Jordan in “The Wire,” wrote on social media, “It’s infuriating that the first reaction wasn’t complete and full throated apologies to Delroy Lindo and Michael B Jordan.

“The insult to them takes priority. It doesn’t matter the reasoning for the racist slur.”

The BBC later released a statement,

“Some viewers may have heard strong and offensive language during the BAFTA Film Awards. This arose from involuntary verbal tics associated with Tourette syndrome, and as explained during the ceremony it was not intentional.

“We apologize that this was not edited out prior to broadcast and it will now be removed from the version on BBC iPlayer.”

The movie “I Swear,” which won two BAFTAs, including for actor Robert Aramayo, who plays John Davidson, the real-life Scottish campaigner for people with Tourette’s, the AP reported.

Tourette’s Action says between 10% and 30% of people with the condition have tics that surface as saying socially inappropriate words, such as swearing, according to the BBC.

Davidson left the ceremony early on his own, the BBC said.

Tourettes Action vice chairman Ed Palmer said the BBC should have bleeped out the slur, the AP reported.

“This is really one of the most acute examples of where something that is a disability can cause quite understandably huge amounts of offense to someone,” he said. “So, if it’s being prerecorded now, then bleeping it out, for example, might be a reasonable compromise.”

Here is the list of winners:

• Film — “One Battle After Another”
• British Film — “Hamnet”
• Director — Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”
• Actor — Robert Aramayo, “I Swear”
• Actress — Jessie Buckley, “Hamnet”
• Supporting Actor — Sean Penn, “One Battle After Another”
• Supporting Actress — Wunmi Mosaku, “Sinners”
• Rising Star (voted for by the public) — Robert Aramayo
• Outstanding British Debut — Akinola Davies Jr. and Wale Davies for writing and directing “My Father’s Shadow”
• Original Screenplay — Ryan Coogler, “Sinners”
• Adapted Screenplay — Paul Thomas Anderson, “One Battle After Another”
• Film Not in the English Language — “Sentimental Value”
• Musical Score — “Sinners”
• Cinematography — Michael Bauman, “One Battle After Another”
• Editing — Andy Jurgensen, “One Battle After Another”
• Production Design — “Frankenstein”
• Costume Design — Kate Hawley, “Frankenstein”
• Sound — “F1”
• Casting — Lauren Evans, “I Swear”
• Visual Effects — “Avatar: Fire and Ash”
• Makeup and Hair — “Frankenstein”
• Animated Film — “Zootropolis 2” (released in the U.S. as “Zootopia 2”)
• British Short Film — “This is Endometriosis”

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