Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Tis the Season: The BAFTA's


(Scroll over any film title for the full Black Sheep review.)

THE KING'S SPEECH may have lost the Golden Globe this weekend to THE SOCIAL NETWORK but thanks to its strong showing across the pond at the BAFTA's, the British Academy Award if you will, it is now back on track for a big splash at the Oscars. THE KING'S SPEECH leads the BAFTA nominations with 14 nods, 2 more than the second nomination leader, BLACK SWAN. Both films are nominated for Best Picture, alongside INCEPTION, THE SOCIAL NETWORK and TRUE GRIT. The BAFTA's threw a few wrenches into the awards season mix, primarily in its Best Actress category. Both Julianne Moore and Noomi Rapace are considered long shots for Oscar nods but both appear here for their films, THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT and THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO, respectively. The latter actually earned two other nominations, including Foreign Language Film and Adapted Screenplay. Meanwhile, the BAFTA's cleared up a couple of confusions by placing Hailee Steinfeld in the lead category for her turn in TRUE GRIT and Lesley Manville in the supporting category for her role in ANOTHER YEAR. The BAFTA's are not tripping over THE FIGHTER like they are stateside either. The David O. Russell film only managed three nods, one for supporting actors, Christian Bale and Amy Adams, and one for the screenplay. Even Golden Globe winner, Melissa Leo, an Oscar favorite, was left off the ballot.

The BAFTA's will celebrate their 14th year by handing out the awards on February 13, at the Royal Opera House in London.

Here is the list of BAFTA nominees in the major categories ...

BEST FILM


OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

FOUR LIONS

DIRECTOR

Danny Boyle
Darren Aronofsky
Christopher Nolan
Tom Hooper
David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin
Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
Christopher Nolan
Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
David Seidler

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
Aaron Sorkin
Michael Arndt
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

BIUTIFUL
I AM LOVE
OF GODS AND MEN
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES

ANIMATED FILM

HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON

LEADING ACTOR

Javier Bardem
BIUTIFUL

Jeff Bridges

Jesse Eisenberg

Colin Firth

James Franco

LEADING ACTRESS

Annette Bening

Julianne Moore

Natalie Portman

Noomi Rapace

Hailee Steinfeld

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Chritian Bale

Andrew Garfield

Pete Postlethwaite

Mark Ruffalo

Geoffrey Rush

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams

Helena Bonham Carter

Barbara Hershey

Lesley Manville

Miranda Richardson


For more information on the BAFTA's and a full list of nominees, visit the BAFTA site.