Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis moved from television to cinema with feature documentary The Imposter, which Layton directed and Doganis produced.
They won the Bafta for outstanding British debut in 2013, beating films including The Muppets and Wild Bill. The partners at production company Raw went on to make American Animals (2018) and their latest Amazon MGM Studios thriller Crime 101 — starring Chris Hemsworth, Halle Berry, Mark Ruffalo and Barry Keoghan — which is currently in cinemas.
What do you remember about the ceremony?
Bart Layton: We thought we had pretty stiff competition. We felt we had made a distinctive film, but it was a documentary and we were in a category with people who had made brilliant features, so I’m not sure I had super-high hopes.
We were also nominated for best documentary, but at that point Searching For Sugar Man was sweeping everything. We were just excited to be there.
Dimitri Doganis: It was extraordinary to witness the scale of the hoopla and the preparation — the lavishness of everything, from the grooming to the gifting suites. Coming from the doc world, seeing it for the first time was breathtaking. It was hard not to be overwhelmed.
How did you feel when you won?
Doganis: You listen to all the other awards going on, and you get nervous as your one gets closer.
I thought I was going to be relatively chilled about it, but I could feel my adrenaline rising. It was like, “Okay, it’s fine, breathe.” And then when you hear that you’ve won, there’s a physical response that’s completely beyond your control.
Layton: Life can give you shocks of bad news — that happens. It’s rare in life you get a shock of good news. That’s why it’s slightly intoxicating.
What do you recall from giving your speech?
Layton: I hadn’t written a speech because I felt that if you do, you’re never going to win. But just before we all sat down I went to the loo, and I was next to Samuel L Jackson. When I got on the stage, it was the first thing that came into my mind and so I made a joke: “First a pee next to Samuel L Jackson, and now this.” That got a good laugh, and then we relaxed.
Doganis: Billy Connolly presented it, and that was great because it felt like there was a friendly and almost fatherly figure who was going to make it all okay.
Did you meet any other heroes?
Layton: I walked off stage and got a hug from George Clooney. He was so lovely. And then I got sat next to Quentin Tarantino at the dinner, which was cool.
Doganis: For me, it wasn’t so much about being starstruck by movie stars, but about the sense that maybe you’ve arrived, and you possibly even belong to this community of incredibly proficient, creative storytellers.
What happened afterwards?
Layton: We were at a party hosted by Harvey Weinstein, and we felt like we’d borrowed someone else’s life for the night. The irony is that our film was called The Imposter, and I felt like an imposter for a lot of the evening. The unwritten rule is that you hold your Bafta the whole time. But I put mine down, and I was chatting to the Bond writers, and then I turned round and it was gone. I went to find my wife, because I figured she would have it, but she was dancing with Bradley Cooper and Leo DiCaprio — she had absolutely no interest in either me or the Bafta. And we thought, “Oh, it’ll show up.” But the party ended at about five in the morning, and there was still no sign of it. I thought, “This is really weird. We’ve had this incredible night, and I’m going home with no Bafta.”
Then the security from the club got involved. They went through all the CCTV, and they found the guy who had taken it. We won’t mention his name, but I will say that he was not in the film industry, and he was extraordinarily wealthy. I guess he thought it was a jape. Someone was dispatched to his house to get it back.
What did you do the next day?
Layton: At seven in the morning we were in the Savoy Hotel bar, having cocktails, thankfully getting the award back - on cloud nine. Five hours later, I was in Chessington Holiday Inn doing a speed-awareness course. So that was a grounding experience.
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