Roma maintains its position as Oscar frontrunner after BAFTA win

Ahead of the 2019 Oscars, is Best Picture Roma's to lose?

The Netflix film on Sunday took Best Film at the 2019 British Academy Film Awards, the British equivalent of the Oscars and the last major awards show before the Academy Awards, per The Wrap. Roma's Alfonso Cuarón also took home Best Director. BAFTA's track record of predicting the Best Picture Oscar has been a bit mixed, with the organization incorrectly picking Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri in 2018, La La Land in 2017, and The Revenant in 2016. But the BAFTAs and the Oscars did line up consistently from 2009 through 2014.

Roma's BAFTA win comes after it already took home the top prizes at the Critics Choice Awards and the Directors Guild of America Awards, although Green Book is a strong Oscar contender as well, having won at the Golden Globe Awards and the Producers Guild of America Awards. Many pundits felt the BAFTAs would go for the British film The Favourite, so the fact that Roma reigned puts it in an even stronger position ahead of the Oscars, voting for which begins on Feb. 12.

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That's not to say BAFTA didn't love The Favourite, though, as the film picked up seven awards, including Best Actress in a Leading Role for Olivia Colman and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Rachel Weisz. But Oscar frontrunners Glenn Close and Regina King don't necessarily need to panic. Gold Derby points out a number of instances in which British actors have had the advantage at the BAFTAs over the eventual Oscar winner, such as when Dev Patel defeated Mahershala Ali in 2017, but Ali won the Oscar.

Speaking of Ali, he took Best Actor in a Supporting Role at the BAFTAs, while Rami Malek took Best Actor in a Leading Role as both actors look to have their respective Oscars locked up. Read the full BAFTA results at The Wrap.