Bafta Film Awards 2021: 'Nomadland' leads the pack with four wins, including Best Film

Watch: Trailer for Nomadland

The big winner from Sunday night's Bafta Film Awards was Chloe Zhao's acclaimed Nomadland, which won four gongs.

Zhao's contemporary drama earned Best Film and Best Director, as well as Best Actress for Frances McDormand and the honour for Best Cinematography.

Read more: Chloe Zhao makes history at Golden Globes

The movie follows McDormand's character, Fern, as she pursues a nomadic lifestyle after losing her livelihood in the Great Recession of the late noughties.

Zhao and McDormand worked with real-life nomads — many of whom appear in the movie — in order to enhance the authenticity of the storytelling.

The Baftas mark another night of a dominant awards season for Nomadland, which has hoovered up top honours from the Golden Globes, the Producers Guild of America, the Directors Guild of America and the Critics Choice Awards.

Although the Baftas are no longer a great method for predicting the Oscars — the last six Best Film Bafta winners have failed to repeat the feat at the Academy Awards — Nomadland's dominance elsewhere makes it a clear favourite.

Read more: Zhao says she had creative freedom on Eternals

Zhao is also on course to win Best Director at the Oscars, which would make her just the second woman ever — and the first woman of colour — to win the award.

Her attention will then turn to completing work on her next project, which is the Marvel blockbuster Eternals — due for release in November.

Nomadland is set to be released in the UK via the Star section of Disney+ from 30 April.

Other big winners at the Baftas included The Father, which scooped two awards, including a surprise victory for Sir Anthony Hopkins in Best Actor — an award which was expected to be given posthumously to Chadwick Boseman.

The Father was one of five movies to earn two awards, with the others being Pixar animation Soul, blackly comic thriller Promising Young Woman, hearing loss drama Sound of Metal and the Boseman-starring Ma Rainey's Black Bottom.

The other acting awards were won by Yuh-jung Youn for Minari and Daniel Kaluuya for Judas and the Black Messiah, with the former winning online plaudits for her unconventional acceptance speech.

Read more: Noel Clarke praised for "inspiring" Baftas speech

Meanwhile, British drama Rocks managed just one award — for Best Casting — from its seven nominations, though leading lady Bukky Bakray did win the EE Rising Star Award.

The ceremony was held over two nights, with Clara Amfo presenting night one and Dermot O'Leary and Edith Bowman taking centre stage for the second event.

Watch: Baftas pay tribute to Prince Philip