Baftas 2024: DaVine Joy Randolph wins ‘Best Supporting Actress’
DaVine Joy Randolph has won the Bafta for ‘Best Supporting Actress’ for her performance in Alexander Payne’s comedy-drama film The Holdovers, beating the likes of Claire Foy and Emily Blunt to the award.
The Holdovers, also starring Paul Giamatti and Dominic Sessa, takes place in the winter of 1970 and sees a strict boarding school classics teacher take care of a small group of students with nowhere to go for Christmas. Randolph plays the school’s cafeteria manager, Mary Lamb.
During Randolph’s acceptance speech, the actor explained how Britain had a special place in her heart after gaining her first acting job in the capital. She also labelled director Alex Payne a “singular talent” while picking up the award.
Talking of the “full circle moment,” Randolph was quick to share her appreciation for her cast with a special call out for Dominic Sessa, and how “lucky I am to say that I was there to witness your talent at the very beginning.”
However, most praise was saved for the movie’s lead, Paul Giamatti. Randolph continued: “Paul Giamatti. Oh gosh, I cry every time I say your name. You represent everything that is true and good about this craft. Your generosity, curiosity and rigour inspire me every day. I am proud to call you a friend.”
Of her character, Randolph exclaimed that Mary “showed us all what’s possible when you look beyond your difference and how healing the simple act of empathy can be.”
In Far Out’s review of The Holdovers, we wrote, “Where The Holdovers so effortlessly succeeds is in its sheer simplicity, focusing all its efforts on the relationship between its three lead characters, who guide the film on a gentle exploration of the cycle of reconciliation that life demands.
The review continued, “A plea for human connection during a seasonal period that often forces us to look inward as much as it tries to make us consider those around us, The Holdovers is an intimate love story in more ways than one.”
Randolph has joined a list of acting talent who have recently won the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ Bafta, including Kerry Condon, Ariana DeBose, and Youn Yuh-jung.
What is The Holdovers about?
The Holdovers, directed by Alexander Payne and starring Paul Giamatti, DaVine Joy Randolph and Dominic Sessa, takes place in the winter of 1970. Paul Hunham is a strict boarding school classics professor who must take care of a handful of students with nowhere to go over the Christmas break.
Though the people left behind at Christmas are experiencing various sorts of malaise, they are forced to spend time with one another and thereby come to have a better understanding of other human beings and, therefore, themselves.
Check out the trailer for The Holdovers below.
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