I feel I’ve been talking about The Oscar’s for ages, but after reading stories about potential nominees for next year’s Oscars (off the back of the recent Sundance Film Festival) I’ve realised that obsessing for a couple of months about this year’s Oscars seems reasonable.
The 86th Academy Awards are still several weeks away, and while we’ve already got through the Screen Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers Guild Awards, as well as the NY Film Critics Circle Awards, the Golden Globes, The Critics Awards and National Board of Review Awards (all in January and early February), there are still two important award ceremonies to come on the long, long road to the Oscars.
First up are the 67th BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday 16 February, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, hosted by Stephen Fry - for the ninth time.
I feel I’ve been talking about The Oscar’s for ages, but after reading stories about potential nominees for next year’s Oscars (off the back of the recent Sundance Film Festival) I’ve realised that obsessing for a couple of months about this year’s Oscars seems reasonable.
The 86th Academy Awards are still several weeks away, and while we’ve already got through the Screen Actors, Directors, Producers and Writers Guild Awards, as well as the NY Film Critics Circle Awards, the Golden Globes, The Critics Awards and National Board of Review Awards (all in January and early February), there are still two important award ceremonies to come on the long, long road to the Oscars.
First up are the 67th BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday 16 February, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, hosted by Stephen Fry - for the ninth time.
Not surprisingly, the British produced Gravity leads the nominations with 11 nods, with American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave are not far behind with 10. The next most nominated film is Captain Phillipswith nine nominations, which is a little unexpected. Staring Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips is making a quiet, last minute dash for the Oscars after winning Best Adapted Screenplay at the Writers Guild Awards on February 1st.
There are few surprises in the list of BAFTA nominations (you will find the full list below) but there are a couple of nominees who have been overlooked by other award ceremonies that feature.
I’m not a huge fan of the Oprah brand, but I was pleased to see she has received recognition for her role in The Butler, with a Best Supporting Actress nod. It’s pretty hard to see through ‘Oprah’ to the character she’s playing, but you have to be impressed by the way she handled a complex and conflicted character.
Matt Damon, described as a garbage man by Tina Fey and Amy Poehler at the Golden Globes, has watched his fellow cast-mate Michael Douglas scoop up numerous awards for his performance in Behind the Candelabra, and now it’s his turn to be recognised with a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category.
Whoever selected the three nominees for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling category at The Oscars could learn a thing or two from the BAFTA’s selections. The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug is a worthy BAFTA nominee, unlike at the Oscars where it was ignored while Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa got a nod. Unbelievable. The Hobbit also has a BAFTA nomination for Special Visual Effects.
So, why do we care about the BAFTA’s? It’s a good indicator of how events may unfold at the Oscars because British voters make up a good portion of the Academy giving us a clear indication of the mood of the film industry, and the voting works in much the same way as the Academy Awards.
The BAFTA’s have approximately 6,500 members, while the Academy has around 6000. The entire membership votes for the nominations of the best film and acting categories, with the nominations for more specialized awards (cinematography, costume design, sound etc.) being voted for by members with specific expertise in those areas.
Once the nominees have been selected, members then rank the nominees (in case there is a tie), and then in the final round of voting, each member casts one vote per category. The film/performance with the most votes in each category is the winner.
Lets hope, they throw in a few surprises this Sunday.
Here’s a full list of the nominees for the 67th BAFTA Film Awards
BEST FILM
12 Years a Slave, Anthony Katagas, Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Steve McQueen
American Hustle, Charles Roven, Richard Suckle, Megan Ellison, Jonathan Gordon
Captain Phillips, Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca
Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman
Philomena, Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Gravity, Alfonso Cuarón, David Heyman, Jonás Cuarón
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, Justin Chadwick, Anant Singh, David M. Thompson, William Nicholson
Philomena, Stephen Frears, Gabrielle Tana, Steve Coogan, Tracey Seaward, Jeff Pope
Rush, Ron Howard, Andrew Eaton, Peter Morgan
Saving Mr Banks, John Lee Hancock, Alison Owen, Ian Collie, Philip Steuer, Kelly Marcel, Sue Smith
The Selfish Giant, Clio Barnard, Tracy O’Riordan
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Colin Carberry (Writer), Glenn Patterson (Writer) for Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel (Writer) for Saving Mr Banks
Kieran Evans (Director/Writer) for Kelly + Victor
Paul Wright (Director/Writer), Polly Stokes (Producer) for For Those in Peril
Scott Graham (Director/Writer) for Shell
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Blue is the Warmest Colour, Abdellatif Kechiche, Brahim Chioua, Vincent Maraval
The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino, Nicola Giuliano, Francesca Cima Metro Manila Sean Ellis, Mathilde Charpentier Wadjda Haifaa Al-Mansour, Gerhard Meixner, Roman Paul
DOCUMENTARY
The Act of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer
The Armstrong Lie, Alex Gibney
Blackfish, Gabriela Cowperthwaite
Tim’s Vermeer, Teller, Penn Jillette, Farley Ziegler
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks, Alex Gibney
ANIMATED FILM
Despicable Me 2, Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
Frozen, Chris Buck, Jennifer Lee
Monsters University, Dan Scanlon
DIRECTOR
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
David O Russell for American Hustle
Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips
Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Eric Warren Singer, David O. Russell for American Hustle
Woody Allen for Blue Jasmine
Alfonso Cuarón, Jonás Cuarón for Gravity
Joel Coen, Ethan Coen for Inside Llewyn Davis
Bob Nelson for Nebraska
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave
Richard LaGravenese for Behind the Candelabra
Billy Ray for Captain Phillips
Steve Coogan for Jeff Pope, Philomena
Terence Winter for The Wolf of Wall Street
LEADING ACTOR
Bruce Dern for Nebraska
Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a Slave
Christian Bale for American Hust
Leonardo DiCaprio for The Wolf of Wall Street
Tom Hanks for Captain Phillips
LEADING ACTRESS
Amy Adams for American Hustle
Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine
Emma Thompson for Saving Mr Banks
Judi Dench for Philomena
Sandra Bullock for Gravity
SUPPORTING ACTOR
Barkhad Abdi for Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper for American Hustle
Daniel Brühl for Rush
Matt Damon for Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender for 12 Years a Slave
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Lawrence for American Hustle
Julia Roberts for August: Osage County
Lupita Nyong’o for 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey for The Butler
Sally Hawkins for Blue Jasmine
ORIGINAL MUSIC
Hans Zimmer for 12 Years a Slave
John Williams for The Book Thief
Henry Jackman for Captain Phillips
Steven Price for Gravity
Thomas Newman for Saving Mr Banks
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Sean Bobbitt for 12 Years A Slave
Barry Ackroyd for Captain Phillips
Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity
Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis
Phedon Papamichael for Nebraska
EDITING
Joe Walker for 12 Years a Slave
Christopher Rouse for Captain Phillips
Alfonso Cuarón, Mark Sanger for Gravity
Mike Hill, Dan Hanley for Rush
Thelma Schoonmaker for The Wolf of Wall Street
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Adam Stockhausen, Alice Baker for 12 Years a Slave
Judy Becker, Heather Loeffle for American Hustle
Howard Cummings for Behind the Candelabra
Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin, Joanne Woodlard for Gravity
Catherine Martin, Beverley Dunn for The Great Gatsby
COSTUME DESIGN
Michael Wilkinson for American Hustle
Ellen Mirojnick for Behind the Candelabra
Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby
Michael o’Connor for The Invisible Woman
Daniel Orlandi for Saving Mr Banks
MAKE UP & HAIR
Evelyne Noraz, Lori Mccoy-Bell for American Hustle
Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin for Behind the Candelabra
Debra Denson, Beverly Jo Pryor, Candace Neal for The Butler
Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn for The Great Gatsby
Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug,
SOUND
Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur for All is Lost
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney for Captain Phillips
Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro for Gravity
Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff for Inside Llewyn Davis
Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse for Rush
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny for Gravity
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick for Iron Man 3
Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner for Pacific Rim
Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett for Star Trek Into Darkness
BRITISH SHORT ANIMATION
Everything I Can See From Here, Bjorn-Erik Aschim, Friederike Nicolaus, Sam Taylor
I Am Tom Moody, Ainslie Henderson
Sleeping With The Fishes, James Walker, Sarah Woolner, Yousif Al-Khalifa
BRITISH SHORT FILM
Island Queen, Ben Mallaby, Nat Luurtsema
Keeping Up With The Joneses, Megan Rubens, Michael Pearce, Selina Lim
Orbit Ever After, Chee-Lan Chan, Jamie Stone, Len Rowles
Room 8, James W. Griffiths, Sophie Venner
Sea View, Anna Duffield, Jane Linfoot
THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)
Dane Dehaan
George Mackay
Lupita Nyong’o
Will PoulterLéa Seydoux