The BAFTAs, or British Academy of Film and Television Awards, announced their nominees this morning. These tend to honor Oscar contenders, as well as British films that aren't in the Oscar conversation. I really like the metaphorical significance of that, since British cinema is unfortunately in such a state of disarray (the UK Film Council was dissolved last year), and for years now most "British" films have been UK/USA co-productions. I'm not saying their aren't purely British films out there (as evidenced below), but their film industry, to my understanding, isn't substantial. Maybe some of my British readers can help me better understand it?
By the way, the Oscar nominations are live in exactly one week. Get pumped!
Anyway, the nominees are below.
BEST FILM
BLACK SWAN Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
INCEPTION Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin
TRUE GRIT Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
True Grit is an interesting choice, since the Western is such an "American" genre. But its pretty much what could have been expected.
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
127 HOURS Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson
ANOTHER YEAR Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
FOUR LIONS Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
THE KING’S SPEECH Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
MADE IN DAGENHAM Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley
All five of these films are or were Oscar contenders at some point. The King's Speech is nominated in this and Best Film, so its safe to assume it will win at least one of them?
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE ARBOR Clio Barnard (Director), Tracy O’Riordan (Producer)
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP Banksy (Director), Jaimie D’Cruz (Producer)
FOUR LIONS Chris Morris (Director/Writer)
MONSTERS Gareth Edwards (Director/Writer)
SKELETONS Nick Whitfield (Director/Writer)
I've heard good things about Monsters and Four Lions, but I'm rooting for Exit Through the Gift Shop. If you haven't seen it, its a watch instant watch on Netflix. Watch it now.
DIRECTOR
127 HOURS Danny Boyle
BLACK SWAN Darren Aronofsky
INCEPTION Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH Tom Hooper
THE SOCIAL NETWORK David Fincher
It seems that they like Danny Boyle more than the Coens or O. Russell, which isn't all that surprising. I really liked what Boyle did with 127 Hours, and I've been rooting for him to Oscar nominated all along, so maybe this will be the boost he needs?
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BLACK SWAN Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin
THE FIGHTER Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
INCEPTION Christopher Nolan
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
THE KING’S SPEECH David Seidler
The Black Swan script has gotten a lot more attention than I thought it would. I think the writers are probably riding on the massive buzz for the film/Portman/Aronofsky.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 HOURS Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Aaron Sorkin
TOY STORY 3 Michael Arndt
TRUE GRIT Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo is an interesting choice, though not necessarily one that I would have chosen. The Winter's Bone snub here isn't all that surprising to me, since that film has a very specific feel to it that I don't even think translates to the whole of the US, much less the globe.
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BIUTIFUL Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev
I AM LOVE Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante
OF GODS AND MEN Xavier Beauvois
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella
ANIMATED FILM
DESPICABLE ME Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
TOY STORY 3 Lee Unkrich
No Tangled or The Illusionist? Is Despicable Me becoming the new frontrunner for that third Oscar slot?
LEADING ACTOR
JAVIER BARDEM Biutiful
JEFF BRIDGES True Grit
JESSE EISENBERG The Social Network
COLIN FIRTH The King’s Speech
JAMES FRANCO 127 Hours
This is a still-volatile race that could see some upsets. Bardem is a pleasant surprise, and if Oscar voters see his film, he could be peaking at just the right moment for him to sneak in. Though Ryan Gosling and Robert Duvall could also weasel their way in, despite being ignored here.
LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING The Kids Are All Right
JULIANNE MOORE The Kids Are All Right
NATALIE PORTMAN Black Swan
NOOMI RAPACE The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
HAILEE STEINFELD True Grit
Category fraud repaired (Steinfeld - don't tell me someone who's in virtually every scene and is the driving narrative force is a supporting character. True Grit is MATTIE'S story, not Rooster's). And Moore is nominated too! I like this category, despite the obvious snubs that had to happen (Nicole Kidman? Michelle Williams?)
SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTIAN BALE The Fighter
ANDREW GARFIELD The Social Network
PETE POSTLETHWAITE The Town
MARK RUFFALO The Kids Are All Right
GEOFFREY RUSH The King’s Speech
Postlethwaite (RIP) takes Jeremy Renner's usual spot, but I'm just glad that Ruffalo is still getting nominated. What a wonderful performance!
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS The Fighter
HELENA BONHAM CARTER The King’s Speech
BARBARA HERSHEY Black Swan
LESLEY MANVILLE Another Year
MIRANDA RICHARDSON Made in Dagenham
Its really awesome to see Hershey, Manville, and Richardson earn nominations, but have you noticed the big snub here? Its Golden Globe winner and presumed front-runner Melissa Leo. Hmmm.....
ORIGINAL MUSIC
127 HOURS AR Rahman
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Danny Elfman
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON John Powell
INCEPTION Hans Zimmer
THE KING’S SPEECH Alexandre Desplat
CINEMATOGRAPHY
127 HOURS Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak
BLACK SWAN Matthew Libatique
INCEPTION Wally Pfister
THE KING’S SPEECH Danny Cohen
TRUE GRIT Roger Deakins
EDITING
127 HOURS Jon Harris
BLACK SWAN Andrew Weisblum
INCEPTION Lee Smith
THE KING’S SPEECH Tariq Anwar
THE SOCIAL NETWORK Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
PRODUCTION DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara
BLACK SWAN Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson
INCEPTION Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
THE KING’S SPEECH Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
TRUE GRIT Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
COSTUME DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Colleen Atwood
BLACK SWAN Amy Westcott
THE KING’S SPEECH Jenny Beavan
MADE IN DAGENHAM Louise Stjernsward
TRUE GRIT Mary Zophres
SOUND
127 HOURS Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron
BLACK SWAN Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella
INCEPTION Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
THE KING’S SPEECH John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin
TRUE GRIT Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN Dan Schrecker
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait'Hadi, Christian Manz
INCEPTION Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb
TOY STORY 3 Nominees TBC
Alice in Wonderland = ew. But interesting choice in Toy Story 3.
MAKE UP & HAIR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
THE KING’S SPEECH Frances Hannon
MADE IN DAGENHAM Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
SHORT ANIMATION
THE EAGLEMAN STAG Michael Please
MATTER FISHER David Prosser
THURSDAY Matthias Hoegg
SHORT FILM
CONNECT Samuel Abrahams, Beau Gordon
LIN Piers Thompson, Simon Hessel
RITE Michael Pearce, Ross McKenzie, Paul Welsh
TURNING Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Alison Sterling, Kat Armour-Brown
UNTIL THE RIVER RUNS RED Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis
THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
GEMMA ARTERTON
ANDREW GARFIELD
TOM HARDY
AARON JOHNSON
EMMA STONE
All of these rising stars are excellent choices. I can't even choose which one I like the most - Stone, Hardy, and Garfield are all so amazing!
Your thoughts? Comment below!
2 comments:
I'd vote for Garfield, though Stone and Hardy are also grand choices. The nominations for The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo boggle my mind. Sure, over Winter's Bone, that's fine. That's an American tale. But over Rabbit Hole? That drives me crazy! What is the magic spell those Swedish films hold over people?
*Ahem* Anyway. Moore's nomination thrills me, I wish Leo had been nominated, but I'm excited for Manville and Richardson and highly anticipate their films. Sooon!
I'm surprised by all of the love for Dragon Tattoo as well. Maybe its because its a global phenomenon, but a more arty one? I don't know; I wasn't too impressed by the movies.
And the lack of love for Rabbit Hole really bothers me. I'm hopefully seeing the movie this week, but it seems like the type of film that's catnip for awards groups of all kinds. Maybe the shifting paradigms of what constitutes as an "awards film" are hurting its chances.
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