Rebel Wilson was taking no prisoners at tonight's BAFTA Film Awards with a speech that skewered the lack of diversity in the Best Director category... and her own film Cats.

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Presenting the award for Best Director, Wilson listed off the all-male nominees before adding, "I don’t think I could do what they do – honestly, I don’t have the balls."

Sam Mendes went on to win the award for 1917, beating Martin Scorsese (The Irishman), Todd Phillips (Joker), Quentin Tarantino (Once Upon A Time… In Hollywood) and Bong Joon-Ho (Parasite).

LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 08: Sam Mendes attends The Olivier Awards with Mastercard at Royal Albert Hall on April 8, 2018 in London, England. (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Sam Mendes (Photo by Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)

Notably not up for any BAFTAs was Cats, which starred Wilson as Jennyanydots and was savaged by critics upon its release in December.

Joking that her black dress was "from a funeral I just went to for the feature film Cats", Wilson continued: "Cats... strangely not nominated for any awards. I’m not sure if everyone here is across the controversy, but this year there has been a distinct lack of nominations for felines."

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BAFTAs host Graham Norton also joked about the lack of diversity in this year's nominations, calling 2019 “the year when white men finally broke through” and referring to Joker - which led the pack with 11 nominations - as “the story of a white man who makes himself even whiter”.

Authors

Morgan JefferyDigital Editor

Morgan Jeffery is the Digital Editor for Radio Times, overseeing all editorial output across the brand's digital platforms. He was previously TV Editor at Digital Spy and has featured as a TV expert on BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 5 Live and Sky Atlantic.

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