Sinners star Wunmi Mosaku couldn’t hold back her tears as she became the first British star to take home a gong at the British Academy Film Awards at London’s Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, Daily Mail reports.
After a star-studded red carpet, Hollywood’s finest settled into the iconic venue to reveal who had received the coveted honours.
Wunmi Mosaku, who is pregnant with her second child, thanked her husband, family and daughter from the stage.
The actress said that playing priestess Annie in the vampire drama Sinners she had connected with a part of herself which she had ‘dimmed as an immigrant trying to fit in.’
Ryan Coogler wrote the role of Hoodoo priestess Annie in Sinners especially for Mosaku, who was raised in Manchester and sang for 11 years in the Manchester Girls’ Choir.
Later, Wunmi Mosaku broke down into tears in the Winners Press Conference room on finding out Sinners’ director and writer, Ryan, won the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay.
She said: ‘Ryan credits everyone who’s ever poured into him. He doesn’t have an ego. He says, “I couldn’t have done it without you. You couldn’t have done it without the audience. You couldn’t have done it without the crew, catering, like everyone”.
‘He lets everyone know on the set that they are so important and we can’t do it without them. So yeah, that’s what makes Ryan so special, because it’s true we, none of we all are standing on the shoulders of giants, and even if you feel small, you’re still a giant in someone’s world.
‘And those are the people who poured into writing. And that’s why he saw he wasn’t affected by what the outside world told him was valuable.
‘He said, “No, she’s valuable. I want Annie [Wumni’s character] to look like her, feel like her”, because those are the people who love him.’
A Rada graduate, she was catapulted into the spotlight in the 2010 film I Am Slave, in which she played a Sudanese girl sold into slavery.
She won a TV BAFTA as best supporting actress for her role as Damilola Taylor’s mother Gloria in Damilola, Our Loved Boy. She’s appeared in blockbusters Deadpool & Wolverine and Batman vs Superman.
Wunmi Mosaku was born in Zaria, Nigeria to parents who are both professors. She now lives in Los Angeles and is expecting her second child.
‘It’s just been the best feeling ever because we really loved this film,’ said Wunmi, who has previously won a Bafta TV Award for her role as Gloria Taylor in the TV film Damilola, Our Loved Boy.
Of Sinners, she said: ‘We really poured everything we had into it, and so the audiences showing up and showing so much love for the film last year was so overwhelming and so affirming. Now to have these nominations come in, it’s just been the cherry on top.’
The first award of the night was for Special Visual Effects, which was awarded to Avatar: Fire and Ash.
This year’s Special Award recipients include Dame Donna Langley, who will be honoured with this year’s BAFTA Fellowship, the arts charity’s highest accolade.
The British Chairman of NBCUniversal Entertainment will be celebrated for her prolific career and as of the most influential and respected figures in the entertainment industry.
Additionally, Clare Binns, Creative Director of Picture House Cinemas, will be presented with the BAFTA Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award.
The honour recognises her role in championing diverse and fiercely independent work on big screens around the United Kingdom.
One Battle After Another will be no doubt be hoping to win one award after another, with Paul Thomas Anderson’s latest film earning a remarkable fourteen nominations at this year’s ceremony.
But it faces stiff competition, notably from supernatural horror Sinners, with thirteen nominations, and Hamnet, director Chloé Zhao’s moving drama about the death of Shakespeare’s only son, with eleven.
Adapted for the screen from Maggie O’Farrell’s award-winning novel about the Bard’s family life, Hamnet has broken the record for the most nominations for a female-directed film in BAFTA history.
Irish star Jessie Buckley has been nominated for her lead role in the film after already scoring a Golden Globe and a Critics Choice Award and nominations for the Academy Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Co-star Paul Mescal, who was was snubbed during Oscar nominations, will also be hoping for an award after earning a Supporting Actor BAFTA nod.
Elsewhere, Marty Supreme and Timothée Chalamet will be hoping to make it three times lucky after earning eleven BAFTA nominations, including Best Film and Best Actor, following recent wins at the Golden Globes and Critics Choice Awards.
Frankenstein and Sentimental Value each have eight whilst there are five nominations for I Swear and Bugonia, and three nominations for The Ballad of Wallis Island, Pillion and F1.
Also vying for the Leading Actress BAFTA are Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs I’d Kick You; Kate Hudson for Song Sung Blue; Chase Infiniti for One Battle After Another; Renate Reinsve for Sentimental Value and Emma Stone for Bugonia.
Leonardo DiCaprio could earn his second ever BAFTA after scoring his seventh nomination, this year for his Leading Actor performance in the already heavily decorated movie One Battle After Another.
First time BAFTA Film nominees include Robert Aramayo, Odessa A’zion, Rose Byrne, Chase Infiniti, Michael B. Jordan, Inga Ibsdotter Lilleaas, Stellan Skarsgård, and Teyana Taylor.
Emma Baehr, Executive Director of Awards and Content, said: ‘We are delighted to welcome so many of this year’s remarkable nominees to London for the EE BAFTA Film Awards, a vibrant celebration of the creativity, craft and collaboration that goes into British and global cinema.
‘It’s especially exciting to have such an impressive lineup of presenters joining us on the night, representing the very best of film and the wider creative industries.
‘This year’s ceremony is set to be an unforgettable occasion for audiences at home and in the room.’
BAFTA’s mission as a charity is to champion the creative and cultural importance of the screen arts across film, games and television.
Through its Awards ceremonies and year-round programme of talent initiatives and learning events that include masterclasses, lectures, scholarships, bursaries and mentoring schemes in the UK and North America, BAFTA identifies and celebrates excellence, discovers, inspires and nurtures new screen talent, and enables learning and creative collaboration.
The ceremony will be broadcast at 7pm on BBC One and iPlayer in the UK, and on E! in North America at 8:00pm Eastern Time. The awards will also be available on a number of other broadcasters internationally.