The Awardist

Minari star Yuh-Jung Youn hilariously thanks 'snobbish' Brits for BAFTA win

The beloved actress gives an adorable acceptance speech as she cements her Oscar lead, while Chloé Zhao's Nomadland continues to steamroll with a BAFTA Best Film victory.

By

Joey Nolfi

Published on April 11, 2021 04:26PM EDT

After shaking up the Oscar race with perhaps the most singular list of nominees on the 2021 trail, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards have maintained strong momentum for Academy Awards frontrunners days before final Oscar voting opens.

The awards body named its full list of annual winners on Sunday night, continuing the upward trajectories of Chloé Zhao (Best Director) and her steamrolling frontrunner Nomadland (Best Film), as well as major players like Supporting Actress champion Youn Yuh-Jung (Minari) and Supporting Actor winner Daniel Kaluuya (Judas and the Black Messiah). The BAFTAs also ignited potential Oscar fires for respective Nomadland and The Father leads Frances McDormand and Anthony Hopkins, who earned their first major accolades in the run-up to the Oscars at the BAFTA ceremony.

"I'm just very honored being nominated — well, not nominated, I'm the winner now!" Youn said in her acceptance speech, one week after moving into prime position as the Oscar frontrunner with a surprise win at the Screen Actors Guild Awards, before going on to joke: "Every award is meaningful, but this one, especially being recognized by British people, known as snobbish people, [that] they approve of me as a good actor, I am very, very, very happy. Thank you so much."

Earlier this weekend, Zhao became the first woman of color in history to win the DGA Awards' top prize on Saturday night, cleaning up at yet another awards ceremony as Nomadland stacks its way to a likely Best Picture victory at the April 25 Oscars.

Sharing a significant number of members with the Academy, BAFTA has long been considered a reliable indicator of Oscar voting patterns, though the group hasn't shared a Best Picture winner with the Academy since 2013's 12 Years a Slave. Across the last 20 years, only eight films have won both Best Film at the BAFTAs and Best Picture at the Oscars. Last year's 1917 ultimately lost the Oscar to Parasite despite winning a seemingly unbeatable trifecta or precursor awards from the Producers Guild of America, the Director's Guild of America, and the BAFTA.

This year, BAFTA largely deviated from the awards season narrative (SAG winner Viola Davis and Promising Young Woman lead Carey Mulligan missed out) thanks to its implementation of small category juries to help determine nominees, with an official voting standard that indicated there "should be a minimum of 50 percent of BAFTA members on each jury, however the balance of diversity is the overriding factor, rather than balance of members and non-members." This meant that potential nominees could've been determined by non-BAFTA members, though, according to a BAFTA representative in a statement to EW, "95 percent of the jurors were BAFTA members" for this year's nominations.

Final Oscar voting opens on April 15 and lasts through April 20. See the full list of 2021 BAFTA Awards winners below.

Outstanding British Film

Calm With Horses
The Dig
The Father
His House
Limbo
The Mauritanian
Mogul Mowgli
WINNER: Promising Young Woman
Rocks
Saint Maud

Best Short Animation

WINNER: The Owl and the Pussycat
The Fire Next Time
The Song of a Lost Boy

Best Short Film

WINNER: The Present
Eyelash
Lizard
Lucky Break
Miss Curvy

Best Casting

WINNER: Rocks
Calm with Horses
Judas and the Black Messiah
Minari
Promising Young Woman

Best Adapted Screenplay

The Dig
WINNER: The Father
The Mauritanian
Nomadland
The White Tiger

Best Original Screenplay

Another Round
Mank
WINNER: Promising Young Woman
Rocks
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Supporting Actress

Niamh Algar — Calm With Horses
Rosar Ali — Rocks
Maria Bakalova — Borat Subsequent Moviefilm
Dominique Fishback — Judas and the Black Messiah
Ashley Madekwe — County Lines
WINNER: Yuh-jung Youn — Minari

Best Lead Actress

Bukky Bakray — Rocks
Radha Blank — The Forty-Year-Old Version
Vanessa Kirby — Pieces of a Woman
WINNER: Frances McDormand — Nomadland
Wunmi Mosaku — His House
Alfre Woodard — Clemency

Best Animated Film

Onward
WINNER: Soul
Wolfwalkers

Best Film Not in the English Language

WINNER: Another Round
Dear Comrades!
Les Miserables
Minari
Quo Vadis, Aida?

Best Cinematography

WINNER: Nomadland
Judas and the Black Messiah
Mank
The Mauritanian
News of the World

Best Costume Design

WINNER: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Ammonite
The Dig
Emma
Mank

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer

WINNER: His House
Limbo
Moffie
Rocks
Saint Maud

Best Editing

WINNER: Sound of Metal
Nomadland
The Father
Promising Young Woman
The Trial of the Chicago 7

Best Makeup and Hair

WINNER: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
The Dig
Mank
Pinocchio
Hillbilly Elegy

Best Production Design

WINNER: Mank
The Dig
The Father
News of the World
Rebecca

Best Original Music

Mank
Minari
News of the World
Promising Young Woman
WINNER: Soul

Best Sound

WINNER: Sound of Metal
Greyhound
News of the World
Nomadland
Soul

Best Special Visual Effects

WINNER: Tenet
Greyhound
The Midnight Sky
Mulan
The One and Only Ivan

Best Documentary

WINNER: My Octopus Teacher
Collective
David Attenborough: A Life on Our Planet
The Dissident
The Social Dilemma

Best Supporting Actor

WINNER: Daniel Kaluuya — Judas and the Black Messiah
Barry Keoghan — Calm With Horses
Alan Kim — Minari
Leslie Odom, Jr. — One Night in Miami...
Clarke Peters — Da 5 Bloods
Paul Raci — Sound of Metal

Best Lead Actor

Riz Ahmed — Sound of Metal
Chadwick Boseman — Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
Adarsh Gourav — The White Tiger
WINNER: Anthony Hopkins — The Father
Mads Mikkelsen — Another Round
Tahar Rahim — The Mauritanian

Best Director

Thomas Vinterberg — Another Round
Shannon Murphy — Babyteeth
Lee Isaac Chung — Minari
WINNER: Chloé Zhao — Nomadland
Jasmila Žbanić — Quo Vadis, Aida?
Sarah Gavron — Rocks

Best Film

The Father
The Mauritanian
WINNER: Nomadland
Promising Young Woman
The Trial of the Chicago 7

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