Veteran filmmaker Ken Loach poses at Baftas with sign calling for Gaza ceasefire

Veteran filmmaker Ken Loach and his long-standing screenwriter Paul Laverty have posed at the Baftas with a sign calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

The 87-year-old was attending the ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall when he made the gesture while posing for photographers.

As well as Laverty, who scripted Loach’s The Old Oak – which was nominated in the Outstanding British Film category, the director was accompanied by the film’s stars Claire Rodgerson and Dave Turner, and producer Rebecca O’Brien.

Posting the photograph on X, the Stop The War Coalition stated: “Ken Loach, Paul Laverty and co had a message for the #BAFTAs this evening: #CeasefireNow!”

Loach’s Sixteen Films also reposted the image and stated: “Ceasefire now”

The Old Oak tells the story of a struggling pub landlord in a former mining community in County Durham where tensions rise after Syrian refugees are housed there.

Although the film did not win, Loach was praised by Samantha Morton in her acceptance speech for her Bafta Fellowship award.

She said: “When I first saw Ken Loach’s Kes on a huge telly that was wheeled into my classroom I was forever changed.

“Seeing poverty and people like me on the screen, I recognised myself – representation matters.”