Robert Downey Jr and Da’Vine Joy Randolph received some of the first gongs of the night at BAFTA Film Awards at The Royal Festival Hall on Sunday.
The actor, 58, collected a BAFTA for his role as Lewis Strauss in Hollywood blockbuster Oppenheimer, which has swept the board during awards season.
Robert admitted he owes award to the film’s director Christopher Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and leading man Cillian Murphy, as well as ‘British influence’.
Gesturing to Nolan, he said: ‘Recently that dude suggested I attempt an understated approach as a last ditch effort to resurrect my dwindling credibility.’
Meanwhile, Da’Vine was crowned victorious in the Best Supporting Actress category for her part in The Holdovers.
![BAFTAs 2024: Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, Da'Vine Joy Randolph of The Holdovers Named Best Supporting Actress 2 Robert Downey Jr and Da'Vine Joy Randolph received some of the first gongs of the night at BAFTA Film Awards at The Royal Festival Hall on Sunday](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/18/18/81415893-13097867-image-a-60_1708280515110.jpg)
Robert Downey Jr and Da’Vine Joy Randolph received some of the first gongs of the night at BAFTA Film Awards at The Royal Festival Hall on Sunday
She took to the stage and told the presenter ‘you are so handsome’ – prompting laughter from the audience.
‘Thank you for trusting me with this beautiful character,’ she says.
Becoming emotional, she says that being able to ‘wear this beautiful gown, standing on the stage in London, is not a responsibility I take lightly’.
Randolph plays school cook Mary in the film set at a boarding school in the early 1970s.
The night kicked off with French legal drama Anatomy Of A Fall winning the Original Screenplay award after premiering in Cannes back in May.
Collecting the award, co-writer and director Justine Triet, said: ‘The last time I I was in London, a woman said to me: ‘After I saw your movie I called my ex and told him to see it to understand why I dumped him.’
‘Someone else said ‘Did you put a mic in my kitchen?’
Gesturing to her co-writer and partner Arthur Harari, Triet said ‘I would like to make a statement tonight: it’s a fiction and we are reasonably fine.’
Harari referred to the plot of the courtroom drama when he joked that he had recently found himself near a window in an attic.
He added: ‘I want this room as my witness, if something happens to me, I loved insulating that attic and I’m quite happy tonight.’
![BAFTAs 2024: Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, Da'Vine Joy Randolph of The Holdovers Named Best Supporting Actress 4 Da'Vine Joy Randolph has been crowned victorious in the Best Supporting Actress category for her part in The Holdovers](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/18/18/81415897-13097867-image-a-61_1708280524370.jpg)
Da’Vine Joy Randolph has been crowned victorious in the Best Supporting Actress category for her part in The Holdovers
![BAFTAs 2024: Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, Da'Vine Joy Randolph of The Holdovers Named Best Supporting Actress 6 Justine Triet and Arthur Harari accept the Original Screenplay Award for Anatomy of a Fall](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/18/18/81416179-13097867-image-a-71_1708281354964.jpg)
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari accept the Original Screenplay Award for Anatomy of a Fall
![BAFTAs 2024: Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, Da'Vine Joy Randolph of The Holdovers Named Best Supporting Actress 8 Following this, drama film Earth Mama was honoured with the BAFTA outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer (pictured Savanah Leaf)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/18/18/81416209-13097867-image-a-72_1708281453916.jpg)
Following this, drama film Earth Mama was honoured with the BAFTA outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer (pictured Savanah Leaf)
Next up, black comedy Poor Things has won the BAFTA for special visual effects.
VFX supervisor Simon Hughes said receiving the special visual effects Bafta for the surreal black comedy Poor Things was a career highlight.
‘It’s the peak of my career, absolutely for me,’ he said.
‘And to have it happen on such a unique film like this is just a real eye-opener, it’s been such a surreal and such a rewarding experience.’
Following this, drama film Earth Mama was honoured with the BAFTA outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.
Director Savanah Leaf was sobbing as she took to the stage to be presented with the award for her tale of a pregnant single mother.
Leaf said ‘this is crazy’, adding: ‘Our lead had never acted before and she poured her heart into this and she was so fearless.’
The director was given the award alongside Irish producers Shirley O’Connor and Medb Riordan.
![BAFTAs 2024: Robert Downey Jr. Wins Best Supporting Actor for Oppenheimer, Da'Vine Joy Randolph of The Holdovers Named Best Supporting Actress 10 The Zone Of Interest won the BAFTA for a film not in the English language (pictured Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn)](https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2024/02/18/18/81416223-13097867-image-a-81_1708281528951.jpg)
The Zone Of Interest won the BAFTA for a film not in the English language (pictured Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn)
The Zone Of Interest won the BAFTA for a film not in the English language.
Director Jonathan Glazer said it was ‘an out of body experience’ to win the award as he paid tribute to his collaborators.
Producer James Wilson thanked Glazer for his ‘virtuosity and his friendship’.
He continued: ‘Walls aren’t new from before or since the Holocaust and it seems stark right now that we should care about innocent people being killed in Gaza or Yemen or Mariupol or Israel.’
He added: ‘Thank your for recognising a film that asks us to think in those spaces.’
The casting Bafta has been given to Susan Shopmaker for private school-set The Holdovers, while the editing award has gone to Jennifer Lame for Second World War biopic Oppenheimer.
Comedy drama American Fiction has won best adapted screenplay at the Bafta film awards ceremony.
American writer and former Gawker journalist Cord Jefferson said winning a Bafta was ‘surreal’, and that he had his speech written for him because he did not think he would need it.
Jefferson said in a ‘risk-averse industry’, he is thankful for his film – about a novelist who spoofs the ‘black genre’ of books, which becomes a ruse he has to maintain – was made.
The Boy And The Heron has won the best animated film Bafta.
Filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki is not at the ceremony so the award was collected by presenters Paul Mescal and Andrew Scott.