The Power of the Dog wins best film at British BAFTA awards

Benedict Cumberbatch collected the BAFTA for best director on behalf of Jane Campion as The Power of the Dog continues its winning streak

The Power of the Dog director Jane Campion.

Jane Campion’s western The Power of the Dog has continued its winning streak in the leadup to this month’s Academy Awards, picking up honours for best film and best director at the British film awards on Monday.

Benedict Cumberbatch, Campion’s leading actor in the film, collected the best director award on her behalf at the BAFTA ceremony at the Royal Albert Hall in London.

While Cumberbatch was overlooked in favour of Will Smith for the best actor prize, he read Campion’s acceptance speech in which she offered a “big open-hearted sandwich” to the cast, including Australian Kodi Smit-McPhee, Kirsten Dunst and Jesse Plemons.

Other BAFTAs went to Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast, named outstanding British film, and to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, which collected five technical prizes.

Acting awards went to Joanna Scanlan (for After Love), Ariana DeBose (West Side Story), Troy Kotsur (Coda) and Smith (King Richard).

Lady Gaga, Naomi Campbell and Sienna Miller brought glamour to the red carpet, and several guests wore blue and yellow badges in solidarity with Ukraine.

Australian actor Rebel Wilson, as the awards host, made a show of “sign language” to Russian President Vladimir Putin by holding up her middle finger.

The Power of the Dog, a drama about a sexually repressed cowboy, is set in Montana in 1925 but was filmed in New Zealand.

Since its premiere last September at the Venice Film Festival, where Campion won the Silver Lion, the film has won best film or best director at the major awards.

On Monday it also collected best picture and best director at the Critics Choice Awards in Los Angeles, adding to its haul from the Golden Globes and from the Directors Guild Awards on Sunday, where Campion won outstanding directorial achievement in a theatrical feature.

The film goes into the Academy Awards on March 28 (Australian time) with 12 nominations, including for each of the four main members of the cast. Sydney-based Campion is the only woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar, the last time in 1994 for The Piano.

At the BAFTAs, Cumberbatch gave an insight into Campion’s collaborative process on The Power of the Dog, based on a novel by Thomas Savage and involving Cumberbatch’s character, Phil Burbank. The actor was frequently on set with Savage’s novel, suggesting things that Campion had “better damn well include, or cut, or change”.