‘La La Land’ wins top honours at BAFTA Awads 2017
London, Feb 13 (IANS) Hollywood’s romantic musical “La La Land” won in five categories of its 11 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director for Damien Chazelle and Best Leading Actress for Emma Stone, at the 70th BAFTA Awards here on Sunday.
The movie was also honoured for its Original Music by Justin Hurwitz and Cinematography by Linus Sandgren at the Royal Albert Hall, setting high expectations from the film’s journey at the forthcoming Academy Awards, where it has 14 nominations.
Stone, who plays an aspiring actress in the movie, said “La La Land” was “one of the greatest working experiences of my life”.
She also thanked the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) for bringing the industry together to “celebrate the positive gift of creativity, how it can transcend borders and make people feel a little less alone”, variety.com reported.
Her co-star in the film, Ryan Gosling lost out the Best Leading Actor accolade to Casey Affleck’s performance in “Manchester By The Sea”.
Nevertheless, the “La La Land” team had much to cheer.
Chazelle beat competition from Denis Villeneuve (“Arrival”), Ken Loach (“I, Daniel Blake”), Kenneth Lonergan (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Tom Ford (“Nocturnal Animals”) for the Best Director honour.
The movie — about a romance between a jazz pianist and an aspiring actress who chase their dreams — also had a golden run of winning seven honours at the 74th Golden Globe Awards last month.