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Sam Mendes Takes Home Best Director Award At The BAFTAs For 1917

Sam Mendes Takes Home Best Director Award At The BAFTAs For 1917

​The English film and stage director beat out fierce competition from Martin Scorsese for ​The Irishman​ and Todd Phillips for ​​​Joker​

Niamh Spence

Niamh Spence

Director Sam Mendes has collected the 2020 BAFTA award for Best Director for his World War I epic 1917, having beaten Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Todd Phillips (Joker), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Bong Joon-ho (Parasite) to the top spot.

The critically acclaimed 1917 was nominated for nine awards at the 73rd BAFTA awards this evening, including Best Picture and Best British Film - both of which it went on to win.

Sam Mendes with his BAFTA.
PA

Sam Mendes, who wrote and directed the film, collected the award for Best Director - his first win for that category, after a previous nomination in 2000 for American Beauty.

Mendes has also won a BAFTA previously, for the 'Best British Film' category in 2013 for his work on the James Bond movie Skyfall.

But he's managed to beat off fierce competition once again for tonight's win, with his film also scooping several other awards including Best Film, Outstanding British Film, Special Visual Effects, Sound, Production Design and Cinematography earlier this evening.

Universal Pictures

1917 is up for an array of awards this season, and is even the bookies' favourite to win the highly coveted Best Film Oscar at next week's Academy Awards.

With the stellar cast out in full support tonight including Colin Firth, Daniel Mays and lead George MacKay, the war biopic has already been likened to Saving Private Ryan - with critics writing rave reviews, particularly for relatively unknown actor George MacKay, who plays one of the lead roles.

The film is set in the north of France and tells the story of two young British soldiers, named Schofield (played by George MacKay) and Blake (Dean-Charles Chapman).

George Mackay takes one of the lead roles in the World War I biopic.
Universal Pictures

The harrowing and dramatic movie has already won Best Motion Picture at the Golden Globes back at the start of the year, which could be a good indication of even more successes to come - last year Bohemian Rhapsody won the same award at both the Golden Globes and then the Oscars.

Critics gave the film glowing reviews, which came out in the US in December, followed by the UK at the start of 2020.

Featured Image Credit: Universal Pictures

Topics: Entertainment, TV and Film, News