DUBAI/LONDON: Hollywood actress Anna Kendrick hit the red carpet at the 78th British Academy Film Awards in an archival look by Lebanese designer Georges Chakra on Sunday night in London.
Kendrick showed off a silk chiffon pleated gown adorned with bands of cascading black crystal fringe and a sweeping train from the designer’s Fall/Winter 2005-2006 couture collection at the BAFTAs.
Anna Kendrick showed off a look from Georges Chakra's Fall/Winter 2005-2006 couture collection. (Getty Images)
Meanwhile, Papal thriller “Conclave” and immigrant epic “The Brutalist” tied for top honors at the ceremony, with each film picking up four coveted gongs.
“Conclave,” directed by German-born Edward Berger, won the BAFTA for the best film with its tale of the intrigue and horse-trading behind the scenes during the election of a new pope.
Accepting the award, Berger recalled the journey to make the film took seven years, paying tribute to British screenplay writer Peter Straughan's “wonderful script” and lead actor Ralph Fiennes.
US filmmaker Brady Corbet took the BAFTA for best director for “The Brutalist”, while leading man Adrien Brody scooped up the best actor gong for his portrayal of a Hungarian Holocaust survivor and architect who emigrates to the United States.
Brody told a winners press conference that the film was “an opportunity for me to honor my own ancestral struggles.”
In “a film that speaks to tremendous cruelty and despicable behavior in our past... we see elements existing today that can guide us and remind us of that,” he added.
Veteran British actor Fiennes, who played a cardinal in “Conclave”, once again saw his hopes of winning a BAFTA gong dashed, losing out to Brody in the race for the honour.
Scandal-hit “Emilia Perez”, a surreal musical about a Mexican druglord, had been heavily favored at the beginning of the year. But it ended the evening with just two BAFTAs, including one for Zoe Saldana for best supporting actress.
Until last month, French director Jacques Audiard's movie had been expected to be a frontrunner having won 11 nominations.
But old racist and Islamophobic tweets by lead actor Karla Sofia Gascon surfaced at the end of January, shaking up the race just before the London ceremony and the Oscars on March 2.
