Robert Downey Jr scores supporting actor prize at the Baftas

Robert Downey Jr and Da’Vine Joy Randolph have continued their march to Oscar glory as they were named early winners at the Bafta film awards.

Downey Jr won the best supporting actor prize for his role as Lewis Strauss, head of the Atomic Energy Commission, in Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic about J Robert Oppenheimer, Oppenheimer.

Collecting the trophy, the Iron Man star paid tribute to Nolan, saying: “Recently that dude suggested I attempt an understated approach as a last ditch effort to resurrect my dwindling credibility.”

He said he owes the award to Nolan, producer Emma Thomas and star Cillian Murphy, as well as “British influence”.

Oppenheimer also won the Baftas for best cinematography and editing.

Randolph won the supporting actress prize for her turn as a grieving cook in The Holdovers, and hailed her character who would “never (have) got a chance to wear and a beautiful gown” and it was a “responsibility I don’t take lightly”.

Both Downey Jr and Randolph are heavily tipped to win the same prizes at the Oscars next month.

Courtroom drama Anatomy Of A Fall won the first award of the night when it scored the prize for original screenplay.

Co-writer and director Justine Triet said: “The last time I was in London, a woman said to me: ‘After I saw your movie I called my ex and told him to see it to understand why I dumped him’.

“Someone else said ‘Did you put a mic in my kitchen?’”

Gesturing to her co-writer and real-life partner Arthur Harari, Triet said “I would like to make a statement tonight: it’s a fiction and we are reasonably fine.”

Harari referred to the plot of the courtroom drama when he joked that he had recently found himself near a window in an attic.

He added: “I want this room as my witness, if something happens to me, I loved insulating that attic and I’m quite happy tonight.”

The adapted screenplay prize was given to American Fiction, about a frustrated novelist who writes a book that propels him into the centre of the hypocrisy he disdains.

Writer Cord Jefferson said in a “risk-averse industry”, he was grateful his film was made.

Holocaust drama The Zone Of Interest was named best film not in the English language, while The Boy And The Heron was named best animated film – while 20 Days In Mariupol was named best documentary.