The nominees for the British equivalent of the Oscars have been released. Last week a long list of nominees was produced and the collected 6,500 members of BAFTA (British Association of Film and Television Arts) have whittled it down to a short list who will be competing to pick up prizes on February 12th. There are some surprises and on the whole the list is good, but there are reasons as to why you can raise an eyebrows at some of their decisions.
In terms of the big hitters, it is with massive relief and unbounded joy that Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy holds the second most nominations out of all with 11 nods, just one behind the much touted and absolutely fabulous silent film The Artist. Of course this does not spell Oscar success and the first (and only) place the film would get any recognition would be BAFTA, but it’s a sign of better times for a film that has been roundly ignored during the awards season.
It is a top draw British masterpiece that is dead on every level, it was the best film of last year and it deserves to sweep (although that may be unlikely). Gary Oldman in particular deserves to win for Best Actor, for which he is rightfully nominated, and the film will hopefully pick up Best British Film, if not Best Film.
Of course the leading contender is The Artist and with the amount of nominations it has, it is on track to clean up. It has taken nods in the 5 big categories of Best Film, Director, Original Screenplay, Actor and Actress as well as some technicals which it could very well walk off with. I think the film is great and a really fun watch and to a certain extent the awards recognition it is getting is roundly welcomed. The third most nominated is Martin Scorsese‘s Hugo with 9 nods, but it has been surprisingly shut out of the Best Film category. Probably a fore bearer of it perhaps being unrewarded by the British Academy.
Other nice surprises include Lynne Ramsay being nominated for directing We Need To Talk About Kevin, Melissa McCarthy getting a nod for Bridesmaids (PS let’s get her to the Oscar stage now) and Drive coming away with a handful of impressive nominations including Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actress and Best Editing.
Now, not everything is fine and dandy, there is a particular bone I have to pick with the British Academy. I emphasize British because to a certain extent the job of the BAFTA Awards is to award certain particular British films that wouldn’t otherwise get acclaim in other territories. The most howling error and spectacular misjudgement by BAFTA is not nominating Olivia Colman for her absolutely heartbreaking and emotionally crippling performance in Paddy Considine‘s amazing Tyrannosaur.
I said Tyrannosaur was the 8th best film of last year and Olivia Colman‘s performance was by far the best leading female performance of 2011. However, there wasn’t a cat in hell’s chance of her being Oscar nominated. But, the critical acclaim she received from British critics led me to assume she’d be a shoe in for a BAFTA nomination, if not a win. In recent years she has stacked up an impressive array of comedy credits inside Britain and she has presumably worked with many Academy members so how she ended up not in the shortlist, which includes Berenice Bejo for The Artist, when that is supporting performance, is beyond me.
Tyrannosaur also came away with one lonely nod for Best Debut, and the terrific Kill List scored zero. My Week With Marilyn has been grossly overpraised and the overpraise continues here by BAFTA awarding it 6 nominations. All of which, with the exception of one, aren’t deserved. Albert Brooks was also shut clean out of the Supporting Actor category while Jim Broadbent gets a nomination for The Iron Lady. Considering the strong showing for Drive, I am stunned he wasn’t included when he is a clear Oscar frontrunner.
As far as predictions go for the major categories, in the end, Best Film and Director I imagine will end up in the hands of The Artist and Michel Hazanavicius, Best Actor will probably go to Michael Fassbender for his fantastic performance in Shame, Best Actress – Meryl Streep, no contest. Supporting Actor and Actress are a bit tougher but I’m going to say Christopher Plummer and Jessica Chastain will take the cake there.
All in all, the list is strong but there are some glaring errors that BAFTA should be ashamed of. But that’s par for the course with awards season, you’re always going to have some controversy. The full list of nominees is below.
BEST FILM
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
My Week With Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need To Talk About Kevin
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Attack The Block – Joe Cornish (Director/Writer)
Black Pond – Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer)
Coriolanus – Ralph Fiennes (Director)
Submarine – Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer)
Tyrannosaur – Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer)
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
Incendies
Pina
Potiche
A Separation
The Skin I Live In
DOCUMENTARY
George Harrison: Living In The Material World
Project Nim
Senna
ANIMATED FILM
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
Arthur Christmas
Rango
DIRECTOR
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig – Bridesmaids
John Michael McDonagh – The Guard
Abi Morgan – The Iron Lady
Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash – The Descendants
Tate Taylor – The Help
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon – The Ides Of March
Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin – Moneyball
Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
LEADING ACTOR
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame
LEADING ACTRESS
Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis – The Help
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Jim Broadbent – The Iron Lady
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh – My Week with Marilyn
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Ides of March
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Carey Mulligan – Drive
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Judi Dench – My Week with Marilyn
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer – The Help
ORIGINAL MUSIC
The Artist – Ludovic Bource
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Hugo – Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Alberto Iglesias
War Horse – John Williams
CINEMATOGRAPHY
The Artist – Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo – Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo – Robert Richardson
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Hoyte van Hoytema
War Horse – Janusz Kaminski
EDITING
The Artist – Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
Drive – Mat Newman
Hugo – Thelma Schoonmaker
Senna – Gregers Sall, Chris King
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Dino Jonsater
PRODUCTION DESIGN
The Artist – Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan
Hugo – Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
War Horse – Rick Carter, Lee Sandales
COSTUME DESIGN
The Artist – Mark Bridges
Hugo – Sandy Powell
Jane Eyre – Michael O’Connor
My Week With Marilyn – Jill Taylor
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – Jacqueline Durran
MAKE UP & HAIR
The Artist – Julie Hewett, Cydney Cornell
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
Hugo – Morag Ross, Jan Archibald
The Iron Lady – Marese Langan
My Week With Marilyn – Jenny Shircore
SOUND
The Artist – Nadine Muse, Gérard Lamps, Michael Krikorian
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows – Part 2 – James Mather, Stuart Wilson, Stuart Hilliker, Mike Dowson, Adam Scrivener
Hugo – Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy – John Casali, Howard Bargroff, Doug Cooper, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley
War Horse – Stuart Wilson, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Richard Hymns
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn – Joe Letteri
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 – Tim Burke, John Richardson, Greg Butler, David Vickery
Hugo – Rob Legato, Ben Grossman, Joss Williams
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes – Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White
War Horse – Ben Morris, Neil Corbould
SHORT ANIMATION
Abuelas
Bobby Yeah
A Morning Stroll
SHORT FILM
Chalk
Mwansa The Great
Only Sound Remains
Pitch Black Heist
Two And Two
THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Adam Deacon
Chris Hemsworth
Chris O’Dowd
Eddie Redmayne
Tom Hiddleston