The winner of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ best film prize has gone on to lose the best picture Oscar each of the last four years: “Boyhood” was felled by “Birdman,” “The Revenant” was routed by “Spotlight,” “La La Land” (infamously) lost to “Moonlight,” and last year, “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri” bowed to “The Shape of Water.”What does that mean? First and foremost, it means these are separate voting bodies with separate takes on the year’s films, but it’s notable that the last three or four races have been rather close in the lead-up to the Oscars.
The difference-maker, presumably, has been the motion picture academy’s use of the preferential ballot to determine its winner.So while there is cause for celebration at Netflix with Alfonso Cuaron’s “Roma” having won the BAFTA prize on Sunday, that ought to be tempered a little bit.
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