Damien Chazelle's Los Angeles musical "La La Land" sang and danced its way to a leading seven Golden Globes nominations, with Barry Jenkins' celebrated coming-of-age tale "Moonlight" close on its heels with six nods.

"La La Land" earned nominations for its lead actors, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, as well best picture, comedy or musical. The film also scored nominations for directing, screenplay, score and original song in the nominations announced Monday in Los Angeles by the Hollywood Foreign Press Assocation.

"Moonlight" led the field in the dramatic categories, including best picture. It earned nods for Jenkins' directing and script, supporting actor favorite Mahershala Ali and supporting actress Naomie Harris.

The other nominees for best picture, drama, were "Manchester by the Sea," "Lion," ''Hell or High Water" and Mel Gibson's "Hacksaw Ridge."

The Weinstein Co.'s "Lion," the story of an Indian boy separated from his family, had an especially good morning. The film also earned nods for Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman.

Kenneth Lonergan's tender portrait of grief, "Manchester by the Sea," landed five nominations, including best actor in a drama for Casey Affleck. Producer Matt Damon, in a statement, thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press "for championing a little movie like ours."

Meryl Streep landed her 30th nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy for "Florence Foster Jenkins." Streep, an eight-time winner, will also be the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement.

Going into the Golden Globe nominations, no film had more momentum than Jenkin's celebrated "Moonlight," a staple of top 10-lists and the best film choice of the Los Angeles Film Critics Association and the Gotham Independent Film Awards.

But "La La Land," the top film choice of the New York Film Critics Circle is viewed as the Oscar favorite, and, as expected, it dominated.

The nominations also verified that this year's awards season won't be nearly so white as last year's. Nominations heaped on "Moonlight," ''Fences," ''Loving" and "Hidden Figures" confirmed what has already solidified as a notably more diverse field.

The Jan. 8 Golden Globes will be hosted by Jimmy Fallon and broadcast by NBC from the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. </s> Damien Chazelle’s Los Angeles musical “La La Land” sang and danced its way to a leading seven Golden Globes nominations, with Barry Jenkins’ celebrated coming-of-age tale “Moonlight” close on its heels with six nods.

“La La Land” earned nominations for its lead actors, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, as well as best picture, comedy or musical. The film also scored nominations for directing, screenplay, score and original song in the nominations announced Monday in Los Angeles by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

“Moonlight,” spread across three chapters of a young man’s life in Miami, led the field in the dramatic categories, including best picture. It earned nods for Jenkins’ directing and script, supporting actor favorite Mahershala Ali and supporting actress Naomie Harris.

“When you see that the HFPA comes back with six nominations you know they saw the work and the love put into the film,” Jenkins said by phone. “It fills my heart.”

The other nominees for best picture, drama, were “Manchester by the Sea,” ”Lion,” ”Hell or High Water” and “Hacksaw Ridge.”

On the television side, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” continued its awards success with five nominations, including best limited series and nods for stars Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance, Sterling K. Brown and John Travolta.

Other awards regulars (“Veep,” ”Transparent”) were recognized, too, though a number of more recent acclaimed shows not eligible for September’s Emmy Awards elbowed their way in, including “The Night Of,” ”Westworld,” ”Atlanta,” ”This Is Us” and “Insecure.” HBO led the networks with 14 nominations.

“Huge thanks to the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and the Russian hackers that made our nominations possible,” joked “Veep” star Julia Louis-Dreyfus on her eighth Globe nod.

The film nominees also verified that this year’s awards season isn’t nearly so white as last year’s. Along with “Moonlight,” nominations were heaped on Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation “Fences” (including acting nods for Washington and Viola Davis), the interracial marriage drama “Loving” (leads Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton were each nominated) and the inspirational NASA drama about African-American mathematicians “Hidden Figures” (for which Octavia Spencer was nominated). Those nominations confirm what has already solidified as a notably more diverse Oscar field.

Kenneth Lonergan’s tender portrait of grief, “Manchester by the Sea,” landed five nominations, including best actor in a drama for Casey Affleck and best supporting actress for Michele Williams. “It will actually be my first time attending the Golden Globes and I’ve been working for more than 20 years, so this moment isn’t lost on me,” said Affleck.

The Weinstein Co.’s “Lion,” about an Indian boy separated from his family, had an especially good morning. The film also earned four nods, including acting nominations for Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman.

Mel Gibson, long a divisive, controversial figure in Hollywood, also had reason to celebrate. His World War II drama “Hacksaw Ridge” landed three nominations, including best director and best actor in a drama for star Andrew Garfield.

But a few of Hollywood’s most revered directors went empty-handed. Neither Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” nor Clint Eastwood’s “Sully” landed anything.

The best actress race is one of the year’s most competitive, though it’s so far been dominated by “Elle” star Isabelle Huppert. She was nominated for best actress in a drama, along with Amy Adams (“Arrival”), Natalie Portman (“Jackie”), Jessica Chastain (“Miss Sloane”) and Negga.

Along with “La La Land,” the best picture, comedy or musical, nominees were “20th Century Women,” ”Sing Street,” ”Florence Foster Jenkins” and — most strikingly — the R-rated superhero romp “Deadpool.” ”As we speak, the entire ‘Deadpool’ team is engaged in a grotesque, early morning tickle-fight,” tweeted the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, who was also nominated.

The Hollywood Foreign Press, a collection of mostly freelance journalists, has a history of sometimes playing favorites and packing its lively banquet with stars. This year’s picks featured some eyebrow-raising outliers like the unheralded Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” for best supporting actor and Jonah Hill for the poorly reviewed “War Dogs.”

The Globes, which will be hosted in Beverly Hills by Jimmy Fallon in Jan. 8, are no Oscar predictor. But their nominations did nothing to unsettle the front-runner status of “La La Land” (the top choice by the New York Film Critics and the Critics’ Choice Awards) or the close pursuit of “Moonlight” (Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Gotham Independent Film Awards winner). “Manchester by Sea” also has the look of a shoo-in.

Other choices were anything but surprising. Meryl Streep landed her 30th nomination for best actress in a musical or comedy for “Florence Foster Jenkins.” The film, about a Manhattan heiress’ quixotic dreams of singing opera, was one of the morning’s biggest winners, scoring four nominations including nods for Hugh Grant and Simon Helberg. Streep, an eight-time winner, will also be the recipient of the Cecil B. DeMille Award for career achievement.

Along with Streep and Stone, the best actress, comedy or musical, nominees include Annette Bening (“20th Century Women”), Hailee Steinfeld for the teen comedy “The Edge of Seventeen” and Lily Collins for Warren Beatty’s Howard Hughes tale “Rules Don’t Apply.”

In a sign of Hollywood’s increasing division between mega blockbusters and smaller independent films, the lead nominee getters were overwhelmingly independent. Lionsgate led the way with 13 nods thanks largely to “La La Land.” The indie outfit A24, producer of “Moonlight,” followed with nine. Amazon Studios, which is distributing “Manchester by the Sea” with Roadside Attractions, outranked goliaths like the Walt Disney Co. (three noms) and Warner Bros. (just one). Plus, Amazon earned five TV nods for “Transparent” and “Mozart in the Jungle.”

The nominees for best animated film are: “Zootopia,” ”Kubo and the Two Strings,” ”Moana,” ”My Life as a Zucchini” and “Sing.” Left out was Pixar’s “Finding Dory,” the year’s top domestic box-office hit.

The best foreign language film nominees are “Elle,” ”The Salesman,” ”Toni Erdmann,” ”Neruda” and “Divines.” </s> Musical “La La Land” won big at Britain’s main film awards on Sunday as it scooped the prize for best film, while Emma Stone and Damien Chazelle picked up awards for best actress and best director respectively. Dev Patel won the best supporting actor award for Lion at British Academy Film Awards 2017.

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La La Land won five gongs in total to keep its hot streak in the movie awards season going before the Oscars later this month, as it also picked up awards for cinematography and original music. Amid the awards there were also veiled references to new US President Donald Trump, who has caused controversy with his plans to build a wall on the Mexican border and his restrictions on migration.

“In a time that’s so divisive I think it’s really special that we were able to come together… to celebrate the positive gift of creativity and how it can transcend borders and how it can help people to feel a little less alone,” Emma Stone said in her acceptance speech.

“La La Land”, a throwback musical about an aspiring actress and a jazz pianist who are trying to make their way in Hollywood, had been nominated for 11 British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards. Its success follows on from the Golden Globes, where it picked up seven awards. It has a joint-record 14 nominations for the Academy Awards on February 26, Hollywood’s highlight of the awards season.

Justin Hurwitz, who won the award for the film’s music, said that he hoped the success of the film might prompt a renaissance in the genre. “I love to go the theatre and see musicals. So if this can help any more musicals get green-lit, that would be amazing,” he told Reuters ahead of the ceremony.

While Stone triumphed, co-star Ryan Gosling lost out in the best actor category to Casey Affleck, for his performance in family drama “Manchester by the Sea”. Gosling was also notable by his absence, with the film’s producers saying he had a family matter to attend to. “Manchester by the Sea” picked up two awards in total, with Kenneth Lonergan’s picking up an award for original screenplay.

A popular pick among the audience in the Royal Albert Hall, Londoner Dev Patel, 26, won best supporting actor for his performance in “Lion”, which charts the real-life story of an Indian boy adopted by an Australian couple. The film also won an award for best-adapted screenplay.

Viola Davis took home the prize for best supporting actress for her performance in “Fences”, an adaption of a Pulitzer Prize-winning play about the life of a black family in 1950s Pennsylvania.

She alluded to issues with race relations in the United States in her acceptance speech, and defended Meryl Streep, who was criticised by Trump after the Golden Globes. “Anyone who labels Meryl Streep ‘an overrated actress’ obviously doesn’t know anything about acting,” she told reporters. “That’s not even just directed towards Donald Trump, that’s directed towards anyone.”

Outspoken director Ken Loach turned his ire onto British politicians, lambasting the “callous brutality” of the government as he accepted the award for “I, Daniel Blake”, an unflinching depiction of a man’s struggles while on benefits.

However, some of the political interventions were more light-hearted. American director Mel Brooks, who wrote and directed “The Producers”, a 1968 comedy about the producers of a musical about Nazi Germany, also made light of the current political situation.

“I’m not afraid of Trump, not at all,” Brooks told reporters, after he won an award for contribution to film, known as the Fellowship. “I think he’s mostly an entertainer.” </s> In what is likely to be the deal at our Academy Awards, “La La Land” has swept the British BAFTAs.

Damien Chazelle has won Best Director, Emma Stone has Best Actress, and the movie’s music has won as well. “La La Land” is Best Picture as well.

Best Actor went to Casey Affleck, Supporting Actress went to Viola Davis for “Fences,” and in a nice surprise, Dev Patel won Best Supporting Actor for “Lion.”

Kenneth Lonergan won Best Original Screenplay for “Manchester.” “Lion” won Best Adapted Screenplay. Ava Duvernay’s “13th” won Best Documentary. “I Daniel Blake” was Best British Film. </s> The candy-colored love letter to musicals “La La Land” has landed a record-tying 14 Academy Awards nominations, matching it with “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for most nominations ever.

“La La Land” has earned nods for best picture, its stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, its songs and its 32-year-old writer-director, Damien Chazelle.

The other nominees for best picture are: “Moonlight,” “Arrival,” “Manchester by the Sea,” “Hell or High Water,” “Lion,” “Fences,” “Hidden Figures” and “Hacksaw Ridge.”

Following two years of “OscarsSoWhite” furor, the Academy of Motion Pictures fielded a notably more diverse field of nominees, led by Barry Jenkins’ luminous coming-of-age portrait “Moonlight,” Denzel Washington’s “Fences” and Theodore Melfi’s “Hidden Figures.” </s> "La La Land" was the darling of the nominations for the 74th Golden Globe Awards, which were announced Monday by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. It pulled in seven nominations, including best picture, best director and best actor and actress nods for its stars Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone.

"Manchester By The Sea," and "Moonlight" were nominated for best movie, drama, along with "Hacksaw Ridge," "Hell or Highwater" and "Lion."

"Moonlight," a coming of age film about a young, gay black man, followed "La La Land" with six nominations, including a best director nomination for Barry Jenkins and best supporting acting nosd for Naomie Harris and Mahershala Ali.

"Manchester By The Sea" scored five nominations.

Casey Affleck, Joel Edgerton, Andrew Garfield, Viggo Mortensen and Denzel Washington will vie for best actor in a motion picture drama while Amy Adams, Jessica Chastain, Isabelle Huppert, Ruth Negga and Natalie Portman are competing for best actress in that category.

"Deadpool" surprised some by snagging multiple nominations including a nomination for best picture, comedy/musical, along with "La La Land," "20th Century Women, "Florence Foster Jenkins" and "Sing Street." On the TV side the verdict is in for "The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story," which led with five nominations, including for best limited series or TV movie. It will compete against "American Crime," "The Dresser," "The Night Manager" and "The Night Of." With its 14 nominations for shows including "Westworld" and "The Night Of," HBO fared the best among networks, followed by FX with nine. Best TV series nods went to "The Crown," "Game of Thrones," Stranger Things, "This Is Us" and "Westworld." "Atlanta", "Blackish," "Mozart In The Jungle", "Transparent," and "Veep" were nominated for best television series, musical or comedy. Caitriona Balfe, Claire Foy, Keri Russell, Winona Ryder and Evan Rachel Wood scored nominations in the best actress in a TV series, drama, category. There were some familiar names in the best actor for a TV series, drama, category: Rami Malek, Bob Odenkirk, Matthew Rhys, Liev Schreiber and Billy Bob Thornton. Anthony Anderson, Gael Garcia Bernal, Donald Glover, Nick Nolte, and Jeffrey Tambor were nominated for best performance by an actor in a TV series, musical or comedy. Rachel Bloom, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Sarah Jessica Parker, Issa Rae, Gina Rodriguez, Tracy Ellis Ross will compete for best actress in a TV musical/comedy. "Kubo and the Two Strings," "Moana," "My Life as a Zucchini," "Sing," "Zootopia" and "Trolls" were nominated for best animated feature. One winner has already been announced: Meryl Streep will be honored with the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement in the film industry. "Meryl's enthralling body of work across a diverse set of genres has made her a role model over the past 40 years, and she will continue to do so for generations to come," Lorenzo Soria, the President of the HFPA, said of the eight time Golden Globe winner. "She is a trailblazer, having paved the way for women in television, film and stage. For shattering gender and age barriers, all with finesse and grace, the HFPA is humbled to bestow this honor upon her." Jimmy Fallon will host the awards ceremony, which is set for January 8 on NBC. </s> LOS ANGELES (AP) — Damien Chazelle’s Los Angeles musical “La La Land” sang and danced its way to a leading seven Golden Globes nominations, with Barry Jenkins’ celebrated coming-of-age tale “Moonlight” close on its heels with six nods.

“La La Land” earned nominations for its lead actors, Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, as well best picture, comedy or musical. The film also scored nominations for directing, screenplay, score and original song in the nominations announced Monday in Los Angeles by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.

“Moonlight,” spread across three chapters of a young man’s life in Miami, led the field in the dramatic categories, including best picture. It earned nods for Jenkins’ directing and script, supporting actor favorite Mahershala Ali and supporting actress Naomie Harris.

The other nominees for best picture, drama, were “Manchester by the Sea,” “Lion,” “Hell or High Water” and “Hacksaw Ridge.”

On the television side, “The People v. O.J. Simpson” continued its awards success with five nominations, including best limited series and nods for stars Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance, Sterling K. Brown and John Travolta.

Other awards regulars (“Veep,” “Transparent”) were recognized, though a number of more recent acclaimed shows not eligible for September’s Emmy Awards elbowed their way in, including “The Night Of,” “Westworld,” “Atlanta,” “This Is Us” and “Insecure.” HBO led the networks with 14 nominations.

The film nominees also verified that this year’s awards season isn’t nearly so white as last year’s. Along with “Moonlight,” nominations were heaped on Denzel Washington’s August Wilson adaptation “Fences” (including acting nods for Washington and Viola Davis), the interracial marriage drama “Loving” (leads Ruth Negga and Joel Edgerton were each nominated) and the inspirational NASA drama about African-American mathematicians “Hidden Figures” (including Octavia Spencer). Those nominations confirmed what has already solidified as a notably more diverse Oscar field.

Kenneth Lonergan’s tender portrait of grief, “Manchester by the Sea,” landed five nominations, including best actor in a drama for Casey Affleck. Producer Matt Damon, in a statement, thanked the Hollywood Foreign Press “for championing a little movie like ours.”

The Weinstein Co.’s “Lion,” about an Indian boy separated from his family, had an especially good morning. The film also earned four nods, including acting nominations for Dev Patel and Nicole Kidman.

Mel Gibson, long a divisive, controversial figure in Hollywood, also had reason to celebrate. His World War II drama “Hacksaw Ridge” landed three nominations, including best director and best actor in a drama for star Andrew Garfield.

But a few of Hollywood’s most revered directors went empty-handed. Neither Martin Scorsese’s “Silence” nor Clint Eastwood’s “Sully” landed anything.



The best actress race is one of the year’s most competitive, though it’s so far been dominated by “Elle” star Isabelle Huppert. She was nominated for best actress in a drama, along with Amy Adams (“Arrival”), Natalie Portman (”Jackie”), Jessica Chastain (“Miss Sloane”) and Negga.

Along with “La La Land,” the best picture, comedy or musical, nominees were “20th Century Women,” “Sing Street,” “Florence Foster Jenkins” and — most strikingly — the R-rated superhero romp “Deadpool.” “As we speak, the entire ‘Deadpool’ team is engaged in a grotesque, early morning tickle-fight,” tweeted the film’s star, Ryan Reynolds, who was also nominated.



The Hollywood Foreign Press, a collection of mostly freelance journalists, has a history of sometimes playing favorites and packing its lively banquet with stars. This year’s picks featured some eyebrow-raising outliers like the unheralded Aaron Taylor-Johnson for Tom Ford’s “Nocturnal Animals” for best supporting actor and Jonah Hill for the poorly reviewed “War Dogs.”

The Globes, which will be hosted in Beverly Hills by Jimmy Fallon in Jan. 8, are no Oscar predictor, but their nominations did nothing to unsettle the front-runner status of “La La Land” (the top choice by the New York Film Critics and the Critics Choice Awards) or the close pursuit of “Moonlight” (Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Gotham Independent Film Awards winner). “Manchester by Sea” also has the look of a shoo-in. </s> The candy-colored love letter to musicals “La La Land” has landed a record-tying 14 Academy Awards nominations, matching it with “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for most nominations ever.

“La La Land” has earned nods for best picture, its stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, its songs and its 32-year-old writer-director, Damien Chazelle.

The other nominees for best picture are: “Moonlight,” ”Arrival,“ ”Manchester by the Sea,“ ”Hell or High Water,“ ”Lion,“ ”Fences,“ ”Hidden Figures“ and ”Hacksaw Ridge.“

List of Canadians nominated for Oscars this year

Complete list of nominees for the 89th Academy Awards

Following two years of “OscarsSoWhite” furor, the Academy of Motion Pictures fielded a notably more diverse field of nominees, led by Barry Jenkins’ luminous coming-of-age portrait “Moonlight,” Denzel Washington’s “Fences” and Theodore Melfi’s “Hidden Figures.”

“Moonlight” tied with Denis Villeneuve’s cerebral science fiction thriller “Arrival” for second most nominees with eight each.

The biggest surprise of the morning was the strong boost of support for Mel Gibson, who had long been shunned in Hollywood. Not only did his World War II drama “Hacksaw Ridge” land a best picture nod, but Gibson scored an unexpected best director nomination.

The nominees for best actor are: Casey Affleck (“Manchester by the Sea”), Andrew Garfield (“Hacksaw Ridge”), Ryan Gosling (“La La Land”), Viggo Mortensen (“Captain Fantastic”), Denzel Washington (“Fences”).

The nominees for best supporting actor are: Mahershala Ali (“Moonlight”), Jeff Bridges (“Hell or High Water”), Michael Shannon (“Nocturnal Animals”), Lucas Hedges (“Manchester by the Sea”) and Dev Patel (“Lion”).

Whether fairly or not, the nominations were seen as a test for the revamped film academy. It will be the first Oscars voted on since academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs ushered in new membership rules and added 683 new members as a way to diversify a predominantly white, male and elderly group, which now numbers 6,687.

The Oscars also rejiggered its nominations format. Instead of announcing nominees live in Los Angeles, pre-produced videos of previous winners introduced each category on Tuesday morning.

Though “La La Land” and other best-picture nominees such as “Arrival” and (less certainly) “Hidden Figures” are knocking on the door of $100 million at the North American box office, none of the best picture nominees has yet grossed more than $100 million.

After an unlikely awards season run, the smart-aleck superhero “Deadpool” ($363.1 million) didn’t managed to crash the party, making this year’s best picture nominees one of the lowest grossing bunch ever.

The regular business of today’s corporate-driven Hollywood is increasingly set apart from the industry’s awards season, where smaller, critically adored films like “12 Years a Slave,” ”Birdman,“ ”Boyhood“ and ”Spotlight“ have recently dominated. Only one major studio — Paramount, which distributed ”Arrival“ and ”Fences“ scored a best picture nomination.

Amazon, however, landed its first best picture nomination for Kenneth Lonergan’s “Manchester by the Sea,” which the streaming retailer partnered with Roadside Attractions to distribute.

The dearth of blockbusters will pose a test for host Jimmy Kimmel, who’ll be presiding over the Feb. 26 Oscarcast for the first time. While the Academy Awards are still among the most-watched TV programs of the year, ratings have been in decline the last two years. Last year’s broadcast, hosted by Chris Rock, drew 34.4 million viewers, an eight-year-low.

Rock’s show, which he introduced as “the White People’s Choice Awards,” was rife with Hollywood’s diversity debate. This year’s — where politics may take over the spotlight — will surely be seen as an improvement. But many have always held that the industry’s inclusivity problems are rooted not in its award shows but in its power brokers: executives, agents and producers. </s> Hollywood romantic musical "La La Land" on Sunday won five awards out of its eleven nominations at the 70th Awards. The ceremony, where Indian-origin British actor bagged the Best Supporting Actor honour for "Lion", also saw celebrities making political statements uninhibitedly.

"La La Land", a feel-good movie exuding an old world charm, clinched the Best Film title, along with a Best Director for Damien Chazelle, Best Leading Actress for Emma Stone, Best Cinematography for Linus Sandgren and Best Original Music for Justin Hurwitz.

The movie's lead star missed out on the Best Actor going to Casey Affleck for "Manchester by the Sea" and Chazelle was pipped to the Best Original Screenplay prize by Kenneth Lonergan for the same film. But largely, the awards at the historic Royal Albert Hall were spread widely.

Movies like "Manchester by the Sea", "Fences", "Lion", "Arrival", "Hacksaw Ridge", "Jackie" and "Florence Foster Jenkins" won, while "Moonlight" seemed to have been eclipsed by them all at the gala, attended by Duke of Cambridge Prince William and Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton.

Prince William awarded the Fellowship to 90-year-old comedian and filmmaker Mel Brooks, who said it was "mighty nice" of the heads to choose an American for the prestigious honour.

In the Supporting Actor category, Dev Patel's act in "Lion" — which also won the Best Adapted Screenplay title for Luke Davies — won among the men, and among the women, Viola Davis took home the honour.

Davis commented on the anomaly that the awards season has diverse nominees this year, telegraph.co.uk reported.

She also took a dig at US President Donald Trump, saying, "Anyone who labels Meryl Streep 'overrated' doesn't know anything about acting".

It was earlier reported that heads had fears that this year's ceremony will be full of celebrities vocalising their political standpoint. And as expected, many of them spoke out.

Lonergan told the audience how his 15-year-old daughter had woken in tears after Donald Trump was elected US President, but had since been on five protest marches since, theguardian.com reported.

"I'm very, very proud of her," he added.

Before the official start of the ceremony itself, chair Jane Lush commented on diversity issues within the industry. Lush said it was shocking that in the 21st Century "your gender, race, and background can still hold you back".

Lush also remarked on the success of British talent in US films, commenting that she feared "someone might build a wall across the Atlantic to keep us out", reported variety.com.

Also, Stephen Fry, who was hosting the gala for the 12th time, took a swipe at Trump. While welcoming veteran actress Meryl Streep to the ceremony, he said Streep was "one of the greatest actresses of all-time. Only a blithering idiot would think otherwise."

Ken Loach, whose gritty movie "I, Daniel Blake" won the Outstanding British Film award, spoke passionately about endorsing a truth "that the most vulnerable and poorest people are treated by this (British) government with a contempt and a callous brutality that is disgraceful".

Other award winners — "Jackie" won the Best Costume Design Award, "Arrival" won Best Sound, "Hacksaw Ridge" won Best Editing, and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them" got Best Production Design.

Hungarian director Laszlo Nemes's "Son of Saul" won the Best Film Not in the English Language, while "Kubo and the Two Strings" emerged as a surprise winner in the Animated Film category, and "The Jungle Book" won for special visual effects.

Now with "La La Land" registering maximum wins at Awards, all eyes are on the Oscars — to be held on Februay in Los Angeles — where the film has 14 nominations.
La La Land leads nominations.