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LONDON (AP) - The atomic epic "Oppenheimer" won seven awards, including best picture, direction, and actor, at the 77th edition of the British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) on Sunday, solidifying its status as the favorite for the upcoming Oscars next month.
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The gothic fantasy "Poor Things" took home five awards, and the Holocaust drama "The Zone of Interest" won three.
Christopher Nolan received his first BAFTA for best direction for "Oppenheimer," and Cillian Murphy won the best actor award for portraying physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb.
Murphy expressed gratitude for embodying such a "colossally" complex character.
Emma Stone was named best actress for bringing to life the wild and energetic Bella Baxter in "Poor Things," a steampunk-style visual spectacle that won awards for visual effects, production design, costume design, and hair and makeup.
"Oppenheimer" had 13 nominations but did not break the record of nine trophies set in 1971 by "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid."
It won the best picture race against "Poor Things," "Killers of the Flower Moon," "Anatomie d’une chute," and "The Holdovers." "Oppenheimer" also won awards for editing, cinematography, and original music, as well as the best supporting actor award for Robert Downey Jr.
Da’Vine Joy Randolph was named best supporting actress for her role as a cook in a boarding school in "The Holdovers" and said she felt a "responsibility that I don't take lightly" in telling the stories of underrepresented people like her character Mary.
"Oppenheimer" faced tough competition in what was widely considered an outstanding year for cinema and an awards season energized by the end of the actor and writer strikes that paralyzed Hollywood for months.
"The Zone of Interest," a British production filmed in Poland with a mostly German cast, was named best British film and best non-English language film, a combination that occurred for the first time, and also won the award for best sound, described as the true star of the film.
Jonathan Glazer's unsettling drama unfolds in a family's house near the walls of the Auschwitz extermination camp, whose horrors are heard and implied rather than seen.
The ceremony included musical performances by "Ted Lasso" star Hannah Waddingham, singing "Time After Time," and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who performed her 2001 hit "Murder on the Dancefloor," which returned to the charts after appearing in "Saltburn."
Film curator June Givanni, founder of the June Givanni Pan African Film Archive, was honored for her outstanding British contribution to cinema, while actress Samantha Morton received the academy's highest honor, the BAFTA Fellowship.
Morton, who grew up in foster homes and institutions, emphasized the importance of representation.
"The stories we tell have the power to change people's lives," she said. "Film changed my life, transformed me, and brought me here.
"I dedicate this award to all the children in care, or who have been in care and did not survive."