Senna drives off with Bafta

An archive footage-based profile of legendary Formula 1 driver Ayrton Senna has taken the Bafta for Best Documentary despite being snubbed by the Oscars.

The omission of director Asif Kapadia’s Senna was one of the more controversial aspects of a contentious shortlist for the Documentary Feature Oscar.

The rules for factual Oscar nominations have since been changed, but Senna has pressed on into awards season regardless and won Best Documentary and Best Editing at last night’s Baftas in London.

The film beat Martin Scorsese’s bio film George Harrison: Living in the Material World and also Project Lim, about a chimpanzee taken from its mother to live with a human family. It lost out to spy drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in the Best British Film category.

Senna is a coproduction from Universal Pictures, Working Title, StudioCanal and Midfield Films.