British indies Element Pictures and House Productions accumulated six Oscar wins last night for their Film 4 features Poor Things and The Zone of Interest.
Fremantle-backed Element, which has produced TV dramas Normal People, Conversations with Friends, The Dry and BBC1's upcoming The Listeners, turned four of Poor Things’ 11 Academy Awards nominations into wins.
The production design award went to the team of James Price, Shona Heath and Zsuzsa Mihalek, while Nadia Stacey, Mark Coulier and Josh Weston received the award for make-up and hairstyling and Holly Waddington won for costume design. Emma Stone delivered one of the surprises of the night, winning her second best actress Oscar, which many had expected to go to Killers of the Flower Moon’s Lily Gladstone.
Poor Things is available to watch on Disney+ now.
Meanwhile, the British-made German-language Holocaust feature The Zone of Interest – a co-production between former C4 execs Tessa Ross and Juliette Howell’s House Productions, JW Film and Polish producer Extreme Emotions – won in the international feature film category.
The film’s acclaimed soundscape of the horrors of Auschwitz, designed by Tarn Willers and Johnnie Burn, won the sound award.
Film 4’s six awards, which follow its recent tally of nine Baftas, come as C4 prepares to bring its film and drama teams under one exec, as part of its wider proposed job cuts.
Other Oscar wins
Ukraine director Mstyslav Chernov repeated his Bafta success with an Oscar win for 20 Days in Mariupol, which is streamed in the UK on Channel4.com
“This is the first Oscar in Ukrainian history, and I’m honoured, but probably I will be the first director on this stage to say I wish I never made this film,” said Chernov.
He added: “We can make sure that the history record is set straight, that the truth prevails, and that the people of Mariupol and those who’ve given their lives will never be forgotten — because cinema forms memory and memory forms history.”
Canadian film-makers Ben Proudfoot and Kris Bowers won in the documentary short category for their work The Last Repair Shop.
Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer was the big winner at this year’s awards, taking home seven Oscars including best picture, best director, best actor and best supporting actor.
