Several actresses chose to take activists as their guests to the BAFTAs, echoing a similar gesture at last month’s Golden Globes ceremony in the US.
But who are they?
Eileen Pullen and Gwen Davis, guests of Gemma Arterton
Now in their eighties, they were among the 187 ‘Dagenham Girls’ who walked out of the Ford Motor Company’s Dagenham plant in June 1968 in a row over pay inequality.
The strike was called after it was revealed that women working at the plant were paid 15 per cent less than their male counterparts because their work was considered unskilled.
It lasted three weeks and brought all car production to a halt, and led to the 1970 Equal Pay Act.
The events inspired the 2010 film Made in Dagenham, which was later turned into a West End musical which starred Miss Arterton, who also appeared in the St Trinian’s films and the Bond film Quantum of Solace.
Eileen Pullen (right) and Gwen Davis (left), guests of Gemma Arterton (centre)
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah, guest of Andrea Riseborough
Also known as Lady Phyll, she co-founded UK Black Pride in 2005 to showcase black gay culture in Britain.
She is a trustee of gay rights group Stonewall and was formerly head of political campaigns and equality at the Public and Commercial Services trade union.
In 2016 she refused an MBE because she said gay, lesbian and transsexual people were still being persecuted and tortured under laws put in place by the British Empire.
She told lesbian magazine Diva she was ‘honoured and grateful’, but said: ‘As a trade unionist, a working class girl, and an out black lesbian, I want to stand by my principles and values.
‘I don’t believe in empire. I don’t believe in, and actively resist, colonialism and its toxic and enduring legacy in the Commonwealth.’
Andrea Riseborough is best-known for her 2008 portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in the BBC’s The Long Walk To Finchley, and appeared last year in Channel 4’s National Treasure, with Robbie Coltrane and Julie Walters.
Phyll Opoku-Gyimah (pictured left), guest of Andrea Riseborough (right)
Laura Bates, guest of Gemma Chan
Laura Bates launched the Everyday Sexism project in 2012 to encourage people to share their experiences of sexism.
She has been outspoken about receiving death and rape threats because of her campaign work, which included lobbying Facebook to block images of sexual violence.
Miss Bates has also worked with the British Transport Police to retrain 2,000 officers about sexual offences, which was credited with leading to a 25 per cent increase in the reporting of such offences.
Gemma Chan, a former model, appeared in the Channel 4 drama Humans.
Laura Bates (pictured left) guest of Gemma Chan (right)
Marai Larasi, guest of Tessa Thompson
Miss Larasi is the executive director of Imkaan, a British black feminist organisation which campaigns against violence towards black, minority ethnic and refugee women and girls.
She is also co-chairman of the End Violence Against Women Coalition, and co-author of a UN report on preventing abuse of women and girls.
She was awarded an MBE for her campaign work in 2010, and last month attended the Golden Globes as the guest of Emma Watson.
US actress Tessa Thompson has been an outspoken supporter of the Time’s Up movement and was nominated for the Bafta rising star award last night for her role in Thor: Ragnarok.
Marai Larasi (right), guest of Tessa Thompson (left)
Afua Hirsch, guest of Naomie Harris
Guardian journalist Afua Hirsch hit the headlines in 2017 when she suggested Nelson’s statue in Trafalgar Square should be taken down because he was a ‘white supremacist’ who spoke in favour of slavery.
She supported the campaign to remove the statue of Cecil Rhodes at Oriel College in Oxford, following claims that it was unfair for black students to have to see the colonialist leader.
Born in Britain to a Ghanaian mother and a British father, Miss Hirsch is the author of best-selling book Brit(ish) which considers race and identity in modern Britain.
Naomie Harris played Winnie Mandela in Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom and Miss Moneypenny in the Bond films Skyfall and Spectre.
Afua Hirsch (pictured right), guest of Naomie Harris (left)