With our America-centric media industrial complex, it’s easy to forget that in addition to all the regular movie awards – the Oscars, the Golden Globes, the SAGs, the People’s Choice (the Rolls Royce of movie awards) – our cousins across the pond also hold their own little awards show, called the BAFTAs. The Bartleby Applewick Foxhunt of Thropwichshire Aristocrats, so named for a family of 15th century English lords who would honor the peasant with the finest turnips by naming him “fox” for the day and hunting him. These days, the BAFTAs choose a “barristre of ceremonies,” – past BCs have included Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, and Peter Postlethwaite – who then dons the ceremonial wig and does an elaborate drag number before presenting the best films and actors of that year with a yorkshire pudding. It’s all very traditional.
This year’s nominees include:
BEST FILM
ARGO Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
LES MISÉRABLES Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
LIFE OF PI Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark
LINCOLN Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
ZERO DARK THIRTY Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan EllisonOUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
ANNA KARENINA Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Tom Stoppard
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL John Madden, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Ol Parker
LES MISÉRABLES Tom Hooper, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh, William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
SKYFALL Sam Mendes, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John LoganOUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
BART LAYTON (Director), DIMITRI DOGANIS (Producer) The Imposter
DAVID MORRIS (Director), JACQUI MORRIS (Director/Producer) McCullin
DEXTER FLETCHER (Director/Writer), DANNY KING (Writer) Wild Bill
JAMES BOBIN (Director) The Muppets
TINA GHARAVI (Director/Writer) I Am Nasrine
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AMOUR Michael Haneke, Margaret Ménégoz
HEADHUNTERS Morten Tyldum, Marianne Gray, Asle Vatn
THE HUNT Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Morten Kaufmann
RUST AND BONE Jacques Audiard, Pascal Caucheteux
UNTOUCHABLE Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent ZeitounDOCUMENTARY
THE IMPOSTER Bart Layton, Dimitri Doganis
MARLEY Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel
McCULLIN David Morris, Jacqui Morris
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
WEST OF MEMPHIS Amy BergANIMATED FILM
BRAVE Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
FRANKENWEENIE Tim Burton
PARANORMAN Sam Fell, Chris ButlerDIRECTOR
AMOUR Michael Haneke
ARGO Ben Affleck
DJANGO UNCHAINED Quentin Tarantino
LIFE OF PI Ang Lee
ZERO DARK THIRTY Kathryn BigelowORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
AMOUR Michael Haneke
DJANGO UNCHAINED Quentin Tarantino
THE MASTER Paul Thomas Anderson
MOONRISE KINGDOM Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola
ZERO DARK THIRTY Mark BoalADAPTED SCREENPLAY
ARGO Chris Terrio
BEASTS OF THE SOUTHERN WILD Lucy Alibar, Benh Zeitlin
LIFE OF PI David Magee
LINCOLN Tony Kushner
SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK David O. RussellLEADING ACTOR
BEN AFFLECK Argo
BRADLEY COOPER Silver Linings Playbook
DANIEL DAY-LEWIS Lincoln
HUGH JACKMAN Les Misérables
JOAQUIN PHOENIX The MasterLEADING ACTRESS
EMMANUELLE RIVA Amour
HELEN MIRREN Hitchcock
JENNIFER LAWRENCE Silver Linings Playbook
JESSICA CHASTAIN Zero Dark Thirty
MARION COTILLARD Rust and BoneSUPPORTING ACTOR
ALAN ARKIN Argo
CHRISTOPH WALTZ Django Unchained
JAVIER BARDEM Skyfall
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Master
TOMMY LEE JONES LincolnSUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS The Master
ANNE HATHAWAY Les Misérables
HELEN HUNT The Sessions
JUDI DENCH Skyfall
SALLY FIELD LincolnORIGINAL MUSIC
ANNA KARENINA Dario Marianelli
ARGO Alexandre Desplat
LIFE OF PI Mychael Danna
LINCOLN John Williams
SKYFALL Thomas NewmanCINEMATOGRAPHY
ANNA KARENINA Seamus McGarvey
LES MISÉRABLES Danny Cohen
LIFE OF PI Claudio Miranda
LINCOLN Janusz Kaminski
SKYFALL Roger DeakinsEDITING
ARGO William Goldenberg
DJANGO UNCHAINED Fred Raskin
LIFE OF PI Tim Squyres
SKYFALL Stuart Baird
ZERO DARK THIRTY Dylan Tichenor, William GoldenbergPRODUCTION DESIGN
ANNA KARENINA Sarah Greenwood, Katie Spencer
LES MISÉRABLES Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson
LIFE OF PI David Gropman, Anna Pinnock
LINCOLN Rick Carter, Jim Erickson
SKYFALL Dennis Gassner, Anna PinnockCOSTUME DESIGN
ANNA KARENINA Jacqueline Durran
GREAT EXPECTATIONS Beatrix Aruna Pasztor
LES MISÉRABLES Paco Delgado
LINCOLN Joanna Johnston
SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN Colleen AtwoodMAKE UP & HAIR
ANNA KARENINA Ivana Primorac
HITCHCOCK Julie Hewett, Martin Samuel, Howard Berger
THE HOBBIT: AN UNEXPECTED JOURNEY Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater
LES MISÉRABLES Lisa Westcott
LINCOLN Lois Burwell, Kay Georgiou
It’s nice to see some love for Quentin Tarantino after his SAG and DGA snubs, and to see Helen Hunt get a nomination for The Sessions, even though she wasn’t even the one playing the disabled person. Still, Sally Field for Lincoln? Nothing against her as an actress, but that was one of the most painful performances of the year. And Les Misérables might as well have been a two-hour song-and-dance number entitled “please give me an award.”
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I think a lot of the buzz about Les Misérables is people who can’t believe Tom Hooper is the same guy who directed the original Texas Chainsaw Massacre. What directorial range! What a career comeback!
What? Oh…never mind.
…and once again, the Lifetime Achievement Award for Best Orthodontia goes unclaimed.
I didn’t hate Les Mis while I was watching it, but all of this fawning is going to make me hate it now.
IT’S NOT THAT GREAT OF A MUSICAL, Y’ALL.
Amen, sister.
Honour, not honor. Don’t belittle the grand old turnip & peasant traditions of the U.K.
Damn straight!
Did you know you can get potato and leek soup over there as easy as you can get chicken noodle in the US? It’s like not even a thing.
Mmm… vichysoisse…
Headhunters is Norwegian and it sucks! Try to copy spy thrillers from USA. epicfail.avi
Les Misérables might as well have been a two-hour song-and-dance number entitled “please give me an award.”
The same thing happened when He was in junior high, except it was “Theater kids walking around and casually dropping “Les Mis” as a passive aggressive campaign to try to be validated by others as a “true study of thespia”.
Les Mis is lightweight Broadway. It’s less “stuff real theater people love” and more “stuff your old aunt in the cat sweatshirt loves.”
Well, I meant like 20 years ago, though.
I also got a lot of “CATS!”…Iowa truly is a cultural wasteland, isn’t it?
“OY! Wew, wew. No nomination fo my towah de foce pefomance in ‘Safe’ last yea. What a fahkin SHOKAH! Don’t expect ta gittinta moy restawont Saints and Sinnas anytoym soon. Ya daft cunts.”
- Da Stafe
Every year I try to get hired on as a monocle valet for this damned awards show and every year my application goes unacknowledged. WE HAVE YOUR STUPID QUEEN ON OUR MONEY, JERKS! A REFUSAL LETTER WOULD AT LEAST BE APPRECIATED!
Did you remember to fill in the section explaining the differences between Yorkshire pudding and Borsetshire pudding? They’re quite brutal on that one.
James Bobin gets a nom, but once again Miss Piggy gets snubbed for best actress. She’s the Susan Lucci of urethane foam.
It’s such a vicious, destructive cycle. These movies keep getting awards and thus they keep being made, they are made and so they get awards.
I just have to wonder, don’t these people eventually die off? And shouldn’t that mean that eventually they are replaced by people who grew up with different tastes? Or, and I am scared to ask, do your tastes automatically gravitate towards those kinds of movies the older you get?
Please God, tell me I won’t be caught dead at Best Exotic Marigold Hotel or some sh*t like that when I am 50!!!
I don’t get all the Skyfall love. Do the British really think that’s one of the better Bond films?
It had Judi Dench in it. Come over here and say something bad about Judi Dench, or any film she has ever been in. I’ll help you pick up your teeth afterwards.
If Dame Judi Dench asked for my teeth, I’d gladly let you punch them out and hand them over to her with a bloody smile. I just thought the story was so so.
Also, did you know Javier Bardem is only like 5’8″? I thought that guy was 6’5″ easy. Suddenly he ain’t so scary.
So they must have a different set of rules for original score than the Oscars, given that a Bond film can never get nominated for music, since the foundation of the score is necessarily the Bond Theme which was written in 1962 by Monty Norman and (more importantly) arranged by John Barry. This would run contrary to the term “Original”, despite the fact that most of the score was written specifically for said film. This kind of goofy rule is what rendered Nino Rota’s score for The Godfather ineligible for Oscar consideration, since he had originally written the Love Theme for an earlier film. Could this also be the reason that the best score written this year, Jonny Greenwood’s score for The Master (John William’s cloying Lincoln score nearly ruined that film), has not even been considered since some of it was originally created for “48 Responses to Polymorphia”?
Damn, that’s a shitty rule. I mean, I knew the Oscars were as stupid and irrelevant as any awards show, but I didn’t know they went out of their way to be stupid and irrelevant.
Well I guess forget what I said there. The rules must have changed for the best score category at the Oscars, since it looks like Skyfall has gotten a nomination after all. Still, kind of a pisser that John Barry (who, in all fairness did gather up a few Oscars for other films) never got the due he deserved for actually creating the James Bond sound, and by turn actually sort of inventing an entire genre of music.
Where in the motherfucking fuck of fuck is Sam Jackson for his amazing role in Django Unchained? EASILY One of the best performances in years.
Uh huh, yes sah, sho was.
“Les Misérables might as well have been a two-hour song-and-dance number entitled “please give me an award.”
Hmmm… That… uh, that might work. You wouldn’t happen to have lyrics, would you? It’s that I’ve got this big thing coming up, and… ah, nevermind.
I’m confused, didn’t The Muppets come out in 2011? And, let’s be honest here, kind of suck?