BAFTAs 2020: '1917' wins Best Picture

1917 won the Best Picture BAFTA at tonight’s EE British Academy Film Awards. It won over The Irishman, Joker, Once Upon A Time...In Hollywood, and Parasite.

Returning to the stage, having already been up to collect awards for Outstanding British Film and Best Director, Sir Sam Mendes said: "Thank you for giving us a really wonderful night. Thank you to all the people who have gone to see this in the cinemas, it's still on."

Star George MacKay added: "We would like to share this with every single member of the crew and the team who gave their time. The whole process in the film itself show the goodness that will come in going for something that is bigger than yourself."

Read more: Full list of BAFTAs 2020 winners

The film also won trophies for Cinematography, Special Visual Effects, Sound, and Production Design.

Mendes has said that he "couldn't be more thrilled" with the success of his film, adding that he is particularly pleased that large numbers of people have watched it in the cinema.

He said that he is also pleased that his family's story was able to be told to so many people.

He added: "Obviously there's the personal delight in seeing a story that was very close to me and my family to some degree then be developed and enlarged and become this thing."

Roger Deakins's win for best cinematography means he has become the most-decorated winner of that category, while Sir Sam won his first directing prize, making him the first British winner in the category since Danny Boyle won for Slumdog Millionaire.

Krysty Wilson-Cairns, who co-wrote war film 1917 with director Sir Sam Mendes, said that she was shocked at the critical reception to the film, which won a total of seven awards from nine nominations, including outstanding British film.

Speaking to the PA news agency on the red carpet, Wilson-Cairns said: "It's so lovely, it's slightly bewildering, it's all a bit mad, it's my first rodeo, I'm loving it and I'm terrified."

On the need for change within the industry, she said: "I think there's still a long way to go, not just for women, but for people of colour, differently abled people, just across the board I think what we really need to push for in the next decade is different people being able to tell their own stories."

1917 is in cinemas now.