La La Land fails to win Baftas landslide in night of diversity
La La Land won five awards, but didn’t live out the prediction that the musical would break Bafta records
The script predicted that La La Land would clean up at the Baftas. Instead the unashamedly old-fashioned feel-good musical – an antidote to the age – came away from the 2017 ceremony with five awards, including the top prize of best film.
It was a good night but far from the juggernaut which had been widely anticipated. The prizes were spread strikingly widely with more than 15 winners including Manchester By the Sea, Fences, Lion, Arrival, Hacksaw Ridge, Jackie, and Florence Foster Jenkins.
Some had tipped La La Land to finally break the Bafta record set by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, which won nine prizes in 1971.
It did not come close, although those involved can hold their heads high with awards for best film, best director for Damien Chazelle, best actress for Emma Stone, best cinematography and original music.
Ryan Gosling missed out on best actor to Casey Affleck for his unforgettable performance in Manchester By the Sea , and Chazelle was pipped to best original screenplay prize by Kenneth Lonergan for the same film.
Lonergan told the audience how his 15-year-old daughter had woken in tears after Donald Trump was elected US president, but had since been on five protest marches since. “I’m very, very proud of her.”
La La Land – a romance between an aspiring actor (Stone) and a jazz pianist (Gosling) – has proved popular with many because it is about as far from politics and worrying about Trump and Brexit and the refugee crisis, North Korea and beached whales in New Zealand, as it is possible to get.