It's not looking good...
Following the 2017 awards season trend, La La Land was of course the hot favourite in the run up to the 2017 BAFTAs, receiving a whopping 11 nominations (yes, really!), closely followed by Arrival and Nocturnal Animals who have 9 nominations a piece.
We all expected them to clean up, potentially bagging all 11 - especially after the film's performance at the Golden Globes, picking up every single award it was nominated for (a whopping six statues FYI). Not to mention - the film broke records with its number of Oscar nominations, receiving 14 nods from the Academy Awards (matching the all time record with Titanic and All About Eve).
It's safe to say all eyes were on the La La Land cast and crew, and although they did bag a few statues, they certainly didn't sweep the board.
Emma Stone picked up Best Actress and Damien Chazelle bagged Best Director, not to mention La La Land also won Best Film Music, Best Cinematography and Best Film, but all in all, the film bagged five awards, six less than we expected.
It did a better sweep than at the SAG awards, however, where the 2017 award season frontrunner left with just one award.
The film was at a disadvantage before the ceremony had even taken place, with La La Land not nominated for the best ensemble SAG award, the SAG-AFTRA’s version of a best picture award, but the night went further downhill when Ryan Gosling lost the award for best actor.
Emma Stone won the sole La La Land award of the night, snagging Best Female Actor, presented with the award by her Superbad co-star Jonah Hill and delivering a heartfelt speech.
‘Ryan, you’re the best. That’s just the truth no one can argue with’ she announced to her La La Land co-star who lost out in the best actor category to Denzel Washington, before thanking her director Damien Chazelle and the rest of the cast, ignoring the signal to wrap up her speech several times.
‘We’re in a tricky time in the world and our country and things are inexcusable and scary and need action,’ she said, following the SAG trend with a political message. ‘I’m so grateful to be part of a group of people that cares and wants to reflect things back to society.’
She continued: ‘To get to be a part, even a tiny, tiny part, of a group of people that cares about reflecting society and bringing people joy and making them laugh and giving people hope, maybe, or, God, I know I have to wrap up, I feel like I’m going to faint!’, she said leaving the stage and prompting laughs from the crowd.
While Ryan Gosling didn’t get the opportunity to treat us to another emotional speech (we’re still feeling teary after his one at the Golden Globes), the internet is making do with his sweet reaction to Emma’s, blushing at her words about him.
Known to be predicative of the Oscars, the SAG and the BAFTA results don’t bode well for the cast of La La Land and some have started to speculate that the film’s award-winning streak is over.
