The BAFTA awards have been dished out in London to honour the best of British and International film talent. Normally the last awards show before the OSCARs if the writers strike had gone on any longer we could have seen the first year the BAFTAs took centre stage. However, thankfully, the evening which generally sees the British film industry pat itself on the back as many times as possible, has resumed normal service as the awards before the actual awards.
Criticism aside this year the BAFTAs actually stepped aside and allowed a significant amount of American and foreign talent to rightfully take centre-stage as the forerunners of the profession. Atonement took the most godly pat on the back by winning Best Film but BAFTA steered away from the awkward situation of also awarding it Best British Film, instead bestowing the honour on Shane Meadows’ This is England.
Surprisingly, despite its many nominations, Atonement left with only Production Design to shore up its Best Film win. In a lot of ways it reflects the fact that many critics, who have a say in the awards process, had reservations about the film and the performances in it. How refreshing then, that these voters did not simply ignore this in order to ensure that a British film left with a plethora of awards.
La Vie en Rose took many of the awards in the technical categories but also scooped Best Actress for its star Marion Cotillard who must now be counted as a real favourite to win at the OSCARs in two weeks time. The film was however, pipped at the post for Best Film not in the English Language by The Lives of Others which by a curious twist of scheduling qualified for last years OSCARs but this years BAFTAs. If La Vie en Rose can take any solace from this it is that it stands a more than good chance of winning this years OSCAR by virtue of The Lives of Others having technically won it already.
The British public too rejected the chance to reward pure British talent, ignoring the likes of Sam Riley and Sienna Miller in public choice vote of Best Newcomer, the award instead going to the impressive Shia LaBeouf. As expected Daniel Day-Lewis was awarded another Best Actor award while No Country For Old Men’s Javier Bardem and Joel and Ethan Coen deservedly won in their respective categories.
Surprises came in the shape of Tilda Swinton winning Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton, a film largely overlooked until award’s season came around and, in a similar vein to Norbit being nominated for an OSCAR, The Golden Compass can now count itself as one of the worst BAFTA winners in history for inexplicably winning Best Special Effects, a category where the most deserving film (Transformers) wasn’t even nominated.
In all, a successful night for BAFTA, who were rather strangely thanked as if they are some benevolent deity before every single winner’s speech. There was a nice mixture of shocks and deserved winners which made for a genuine entertaining evening all round. Roll on the OSCARs!
Best Film – Atonement
Best British Film – This is England
Best Director – Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men
Best Actress – Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose
Best Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood
Best Supporting Actress – Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton
Best Supporting Actor – Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men
Best Adapted Screenplay – Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and The Butterfly
Best Original Screenplay – Diablo Cody, Juno
Best Film not in the English Language – The Lives of Others
Best Animated Film – Ratatouille
Best Music – La Vie en Rose
Best Cinematography – No Country For Old Men
Best Editing – The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Production Design – Atonement
Best Costume Design – La Vie en Rose
Best Sound – The Bourne Ultimatum
Best Make-up and Hair – La Vie en Rose
Special Visual Effects – The Golden Compass
Best Newcomer – Shia LaBeouf
Special Achievement in First-Time Direction – Matt Greenhalgh, Control
Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema – Barry Wilkinson
The Academy Fellowship – Anthony Hopkins
No comments:
Post a Comment