All Quiet on the Western Front wins 7 BAFTAs, including best film
- The German war film had 14 nominations, tying with Ang Lee’s martial arts drama Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which earned 14 nominations in 2001
- Malaysia’s Michelle Yeoh was nominated for best actress for Everything Everywhere All At Once, but lost out to Cate Blanchett for Tar
A gut-wrenching war film from Germany and pitch-black Irish comedy were the big winners as British cinema handed out its annual BAFTA awards on Sunday, with less than a month to go to the Oscars.
With 14 nods, German director Edward Berger’s All Quiet on the Western Front started the night as the joint most-nominated foreign-language film in the BAFTA academy’s 76-year history.
The Netflix drama triumphed with seven awards, including best film and best director for Berger, as well as original score and cinematography, in the build-up to the Academy Awards on March 12.
Berger credited his daughter Matilda for turning his “doubts into trust”, after she told him he had to make a film of Erich Maria Remarque’s powerful 1929 novel, which she was reading at school.
Producer Malte Grunert said the British plaudits for a German-language film were “just incredible”, and it has also amassed nine Oscar nominations.
With a nod to modern-day conflicts including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said that the film and novel showed that “war is anything but an adventure”.