'When I won my Bafta my speech went out of the window'

• Cornish filmmaker Jenkin is the writer/director of Bait and Enys Men

• He won the BAFTA Award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for the former film in 2020

• Ahead of the 2025 Baftas, he looks back on the night he won his Bafta

I had so little contact with the world of Bafta up until that point, so I had absolutely no context whatsoever. I was going on what everybody else was saying. But also, at that stage, it was like a sort of bonus.

I was recording the director's commentary for the Blu-ray release [of Bait] with Mark Kermode and he said to me, "Oh, you should get a nomination for Best Debut, you should get shortlisted for Best British film, if there was any justice." And that's the two we got nominated for.

Of course, I think on the night, [Best British Film] was the first award that was announced. That did kind of worry me at that point, because I thought, "Oh, God, everybody at home is watching this. They've just seen it get announced and we didn't win [note: Sam Mendes' 1917 won].

I hope people at home aren't turning off, because that's actually the one we were never going to win."

I do have to be reminded that I'm not 22 because you know the old cliche, it's taken 20 years to become an overnight success. As far as I'm concerned, I haven't got any older, I've just been waiting for this moment. [Bait] wasn't the first film I've made, but all of my previous films had luckily been so unsuccessful that none of them counted as the debut (laughs).

I went [to the ceremony] with my sister and Mary, my partner and my Mum. I don't know whether I made a conscious decision to make sure I was experiencing it and remembering it all the time, but I do remember it all very clearly.

It was kind of an all-day thing because you’re getting ready and you’ve got quite a lot of time to think about it. I decided to write a speech because I thought this is so massive that if we do win it, I need to have written something down. So I distracted myself by trying to write and learn a speech which just completely went out the window when we won. In the footage of me, I've got my hand in my pocket to take the speech out, but I never got it out.

[On the night] it was going to be me and Mary, my partner, who is in the film. And my sister said to my Mum, "Do you want to go?" They bought tickets so they could sit right down with us, rather than being up in the gods, so it was really lovely.

I remember it being read out that we won the debut. I stood up and looked at my mum and she was just staring at me. I'll always remember that — we were just like staring at each other in disbelief and everything kind of went very quiet.

I didn't put [the Bafta statue] down. We went back to the hotel after the meal and then we went to the Netflix party at the Chiltern Firehouse. I could have left the award at the hotel. In fact, when we got to the party, I only had a plus one. I had my sister with me as well as Mary and they wouldn't let us in.

It was actually [film critic] Jason Solomons who turned up and he said to this doorman, "Go and get the manager." And the manager came out and Jason said, "This guy has won a Bafta and he's not being allowed in." The manager was like, "Sure, come through, Mr. Jenkin" and my sister and Mary came through with me.

I remember being on my local radio station the next day. They rang for an interview and I was having breakfast in the hotel after about two hours sleep. I wandered outside to get some good reception and I stood on the road, live on Radio Cornwall still holding the Bafta.

It was definitely like that for a couple of days. I remember going into our local Co-Op and the guy on the checkout said, "Congratulations on the Bafta. You haven't got it with you?" And I said, "It’s in the car!"

Mark Jenkin told his story to Ben Falk.

The EE Bafta Film Awards 2025 will take place on Sunday, 16 February, 2025, and the ceremony will be broadcast from 7pm on BBC One from the iconic Royal Festival Hall.

Bait is streaming on BFI Player.