Baftas 2024: Ten records that could be broken at the UK film awards ceremony

Britain’s biggest night in film could see a number of stars break records
Anatomy Of a Fall star Sandra Hüller (left) and The Color Purple star Fantasia Barrino (right) could break records
ES Composite
Lizzie Edmonds @lizzieedmo18 February 2024
The Weekender

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Britain’s biggest night in film, the Baftas, is returning on Sunday with a string of stars expected to attend the glitzy awards ceremony in London.

Cillian Murphy, Bradley Cooper, Carey Mulligan, Margot Robbie and Emma Stone are expecting to attend the event - held for a second year in a row at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s Southbank. 

On Friday it was confirmed that the Prince of Wales, who is president of Bafta, will also attend, marking his first major public appearance since the Princess of Wales underwent abdominal surgery earlier this year. 

Oppenheimer, Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic about atomic bomb creator J Robert Oppenheimer, is expected to be a big winner as it leads the nominations with 13 nods.

It stars Murphy, Emily Blunt and Robert Downey Jr - all of whom are in the running for awards. 

The night will be a celebration of British film but also, according to analysis by Bonus Code Bets, it could be a record-breaking night too.

Emma Stone is nominated for Best Actress
Getty Images for Critics Choice

Here are ten records that could be broken on Sunday night:

  1. German star Sandra Hüller could win best actress for her role in Anatomy Of a Fall and best supporting actress for The Zone of Interest which has never happened before. However, Carey Mulligan, Emily Blunt, Emma Stone and Margot Robbie will be hoping to take one or both of the gongs away from her. 
  2. In the past 76 editions of the Baftas, no woman of colour has ever won best actress, but Fantasia Barrino, star of The Color Purple, or Vivian Oparah, star of Rye Lane, will be hoping to make history.
  3. Mulligan, star of Maestro, and Stone, Poor Things, could join 15 other actresses that have won best actress twice or more. Stone won the first time in 2016 for La La Land and Mulligan won in 2009 for An Education.
  4. Saltburn star Barry Keoghan and Oppenheimer lead Cillian Murphy could become the first Irish-born actors to ever win best actor. Keoghan was born in Dublin while Murphy was born in Cork.
  5. Keoghan could also achieve the rare feat of winning best actor a year after winning best supporting actor for his performance in The Banshees of Inisherin. 
  6. Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi or Talk to Me actor Sophie Wilde could become the first Australian actors to win in the Bafta Rising Star category.
  7. Barbie’s Jacqueline Durran could tie with Oscar-winning Mad Max and Curella designer Jenny Beavan for the most wins in the Best Costume Design category if she wins her fourth gong on Sunday.
  8. Celebrated movie Anatomy of a Fall could increase France’s record for the most wins in the best non-English language film category. If successful, it would be France’s eighth win in the category
  9. The Boy and The Heron could break a 26 year-long streak of American productions winning best animated film. It would make it a first Japanese production to win and also the first win for director Hayao Miyazaki.
  10. Oppenheimer, which holds 13 nominations, or Poor Things, 11 nominations, could tie or break the 1969 record of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid for the most Bafta wins in one night, which stands at nine. Killers of The Flower Moon, nine nominations, or The Zone of Interest, also nine nominations,  could have a chance to tie the record.
Cillian Murphy is likely to win best actor
PA Wire

The ceremony will feature a live musical performance by Ted Lasso star Hannah Waddingham and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who will sing her 2001 hit Murder On The Dancefloor after it experienced a surge in popularity from the closing moments of Saltburn.

The Bafta film awards will be hosted by Doctor Who star David Tennant at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday February 18. The ceremony will be broadcast on BBC One and iPlayer from 7pm.

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