BAFTA Film Awards 2024 are currently underway at the Royal Festival Hall in London, where the best of film and acting performances of the year according to the British Academy are being honored.
When the nominations for the 77th BAFTA Awards were unveiled on January 18th, Oppenheimer led with 13 nods, and in the initial hours of the awards ceremony, it has already picked up prizes for editing and cinematography as well as Best Supporting Actor for Robert Downey Jr.
Robert Downey Jr. wins Best Support Actor Award at BAFTAs 2024
Robert Downey Jr, who last won a BAFTA in 1992 for Chaplin, said in his acceptance speech, “I am going to tell you the entirety of my life in 30 seconds. This is the story, start the clock. When I was 15, I wanted to be Peter O’Toole. When I was 25, I worked for Richard Attenborough with Anthony Hopkins, when I was 35, I finally understood why Dicki thought Tony would be a better role model for me than Peter. When I was 42, I did two films for Guy Ritchie and learned how to make big Hollywood movies with a civil British flare. I then played a guy named Tony in the MCU for about 12 years”
Continuing, he said of his Oppenheimer director, “And then recently, that dude Chris Nolan suggested I attempt to understand approaches as a last-ditch effort to perhaps resurrect my dwindling credibility.”
Robert Downey Jr. bested fellow contenders Robert De Niro (Killers of The Flower Moon), Jacob Elordi (Saltburn), Ryan Gosling (Barbie), Paul Mescal (All of Us Strangers), and Dominic Sessa (The Holdovers) to take home the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actor.
“I share this with my fellow nominees, this has been an exceptional year,” RDJ added in his acceptance speech tonight.
Robert Downey Jr. as Lewis Strauss in Oppenheimer
58-year-old Robert Downey Jr. won the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the United States Atomic Energy Commission Member Lewis Strauss in Christopher Nolan’s historical biographical drama Oppenheimer featuring Cillian Murphy in the titular role.
For his aforementioned role, Robert Downey also won the Golden Globes Award and The Critics Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor earlier this year.
