DUBAI: Portuguese model Sara Sampaio showed off a classic black gown by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad at the BAFTA awards in London on Sunday, while Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones opted for a multi-hued gown by Lebanese Italian designer Tony Ward.
Sampaio’s look hailed from Murad’s Pre-Fall 2023 collection and featured a voluminous taffeta skirt along with a bodice boasting a sweetheart neckline and a daring peek-a-boo cutout.
Portuguese model Sara Sampaio showed off a classic black gown by Lebanese designer Zuhair Murad. (Getty Images)
Zeta-Jones, meanwhile, capitalized on the current trend for all things lilac with her purple-to-gold ombre gown in beaded tulle, which featured a yellow train in ruffled organza.
Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea International Film Festival CEO Mohammed Al Turki was also seen on the red carpet in a Giorgio Armani suit.
The annual awards show saw a gut-wrenching war movie from Germany and pitch-black Irish comedy crowned as the big winners.
With 14 nods, German director Edward Berger's “All Quiet on the Western Front” started the night as the joint most-nominated foreign-language film in the BAFTA academy's 76-year history, AFP reported.
Actress Catherine Zeta-Jones opted for a gown by Lebanese Italian designer Tony Ward. (Getty Images)
The Netflix drama triumphed with seven awards, including best film and best director for Berger, as well as original score and cinematography, in the buildup to the Academy Awards on March 12.
Berger credited his daughter Matilda for turning his “doubts into trust,” after she told him he had to make a movie of Erich Maria Remarque's powerful 1929 novel, which she was reading in school.
Producer Malte Grunert said the British plaudits for a German-language film were “just incredible,” and it has also amassed nine Oscar nominations.
With a nod to modern-day conflicts including Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he said that the film and novel showed that “war is anything but an adventure.”
German movie director Edward Berger poses with the award for best director for 'All Quiet on the Western Front' during the BAFTA British Academy Film Awards ceremony. (AFP)
The German movie had tied with Ang Lee's martial arts drama “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” co-starring Michelle Yeoh, which also earned 14 BAFTA nominations in 2001.
Yeoh was nominated for best actress this year as a worn-down laundromat owner who transforms into a high-kicking heroine, in the wildly inventive “Everything Everywhere All At Once.”
Yeoh's kung-fu science-fiction film received 10 BAFTA nominations, but only won one, for editing.
Also on 10 nominations, but faring far better in London, was the Irish tragicomedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” co-starring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson.
Its four wins included best supporting actor for Barry Keoghan and best supporting actress for Kerry Condon.
“Banshees” director Martin McDonagh, one of the rare UK nominees for this year's top gongs, did win “best British film” despite the heavily Irish profile of “Banshees,” and best original screenplay.
