BAFTA Nominees

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!