The BAFTA nominations are out and though we've begun to lose interest in precursors -- 7 days until Oscar nominations are announced -- we should list them anyway! Precursors has two meanings for me. There's the calendar meaning which merely includes all awards that precede the Oscars. But there's a second meaning which is the awards that primarily exist to do just that, precede and thus predict the Oscar. We tend to never lose interest in the precursors that have their own personalities and quickly move on from the others.
BAFTA'S BEST PICTURE. Can you imagine how exciting this year would be if there were only five Oscar nominees again. What the hell would be nominated?
BAFTA's final shortlist is different enough than what we expect Oscar's to look like (Drive and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy both have devout fans but haven't captured that much awards heat in Hollywood) that we are forced into being slightly more interested than usual!
BEST FILM
THE ARTIST - Thomas Langmann
THE DESCENDANTS - Jim Burke, Alexander Payne, Jim Taylor
DRIVE - Marc Platt, Adam Siegel
THE HELP - Brunson Green, Chris Columbus, Michael Barnathan
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo
Is Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, which has won some notice from the guilds and a fair amount of interest at the box office gaining ground towards major Oscar nominations next Tuesday or not? It's one of the big question marks right there along with is the abundant Dragon Tattoo guild love a case of perfect timing or 'crossover appeal and you'll see it at Oscar, too!'
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN - Simon Curtis, David Parfitt, Harvey Weinstein, Adrian Hodges
SENNA - Asif Kapadia, James Gay-Rees, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Manish Pandey
SHAME - Steve McQueen, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Abi Morgan
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY - Tomas Alfredson, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Robyn Slovo, Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN - Lynne Ramsay, Luc Roeg, Jennifer Fox, Robert Salerno, Rory Stewart Kinnear
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)
Given that there is no Oscar equivalent of this category and few clues in their nominations as to which of these they loved, we're interested to see who wins this one. I suspect it will be Tyrannosaur but I'll admit I'm personally rooting for Attack the Block. I'm not as crazy for it as Michael is but I do appreciate its energy and no budget invention.
Directors, Actors and everything else after the jump...
DIRECTOR
THE ARTIST - Michel Hazanavicius
DRIVE - Nicolas Winding Refn
HUGO - Martin Scorsese
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY - Tomas Alfredson
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN - Lynne Ramsay
BAFTA. sniffle. Why must you give me hope that Nicolas Winding Refn will surprise on Oscar nomination morning. I've been hoping for it since I first saw the film, a hope which was only reinforced the second and third and fourth times I saw the movie. Please note that Martin Scorsese is their only director nominated without a best film or best british film nomination. It's that lifetime achievement tour we were talking about the other day.
LEADING ACTRESS
BÉRÉNICE 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
The same five women who were vote leaders in the "long list". Bejo campaigned supporting for Oscar
LEADING ACTOR
BRAD PITT - Moneyball
GARY OLDMAN - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
GEORGE CLOONEY - The Descendants
JEAN DUJARDIN - The Artist
MICHAEL FASSBENDER - Shame
These were the same five that were vote leaders in the "long list". Oldman is the only wildcard from the lists we've seen before elsewhere.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
CAREY MULLIGAN - Drive
JESSICA CHASTAIN - The Help
JUDI DENCH - My Week with Marilyn
MELISSA MCCARTHY - Bridesmaids
OCTAVIA SPENCER - The Help
I was reading the other day that Carey Mulligan's part in Drive was originally meant to be a Latina actress? I heard it on twitter and thus who knows. Curious then that they went with Mulligan. I like her a lot as an actress, but my feeling has always been that if a supporting role is a bit of a blank one and could be filled in by any capable actress, go with a hungry unknown who will tear into it, knowing what an opportunity it is.
God the Brits really loved that cable movie My Week With Marilyn... oh, you say it was a theatrical feature... my mistake!
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
One of the long list vote leaders was Eddie Marsan for Tyrannosaur, but they threw him over for Jim Broadbent's twinkly Ghost of Mr Thatcher in The Iron Lady. In the space of one week I heard one man call it "the worst performance Broadbent has ever given" and another say "oh, whatshisname was so delightful in that!". The former was a critic and the latter was an AMPAS member. Just saying.
DOCUMENTARY
GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD - Martin Scorsese
PROJECT NIM - James Marsh, Simon Chinn
SENNA - Asif Kapadia
Why only three nominees?
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
THE ARTIST - Michel Hazanavicius
BRIDESMAIDS - Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
THE GUARD - John Michael McDonagh
THE IRON LADY - Abi Morgan
MIDNIGHT IN PARIS - Woody Allen
As previously discussed the WGA's choices in this category were extremely limited since many high profile contenders weren't eligible. So the only holdovers are Bridesmaids and Midnight. I'm excited to see how well all the pundits do predicting Original Screenplay this year because it's still fairly volatile.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE DESCENDANTS - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
THE HELP - Tate Taylor
THE IDES OF MARCH - George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
MONEYBALL - Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY - Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan
This might well be the Oscar shortlist too. BAFTA skipped Writers Guild favorites Hugo and Dragon Tattoo in favor of Tinker Tailor and Ides of March
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
INCENDIES - Denis Villeneuve, Luc Déry, Kim McGraw
PINA - Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel
POTICHE - François Ozon, Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer
A SEPARATION - Asghar Farhadi
THE SKIN I LIVE IN - Pedro Almodóvar, Agustin Almodóvar
Different films are eligible for this category than in Oscar's own. So the only repeats you MIGHT see on Oscar's list are Iran's A Separation and Germany's Pina.
ANIMATED FILM
THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN - Steven Spielberg
ARTHUR CHRISTMAS - Sarah Smith
RANGO - Gore Verbinski
Only three here and they're all looking good for Oscar nominations. Unless Oscar's animation branch continues to reject the mocap technique in which case Tintin will get the boot.
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
This is nearly the same list as the Globes with Tinker Tailor replacing W.E. Alberto Iglesias really had a marvelous year since his work in The Skin I Live In was also gold worthy.
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
War Horse: It's practically an FYC advertisement for itself.
This is the same as the American guild list but for the inexcusable omission of Emmanuel Lubezki's The Tree of Life. The British Academy preferred War Horse. Nevertheless I don't think Lubezki is any danger of losing an Oscar nomination. He's one of the rare craftsmen in the world who has a healthy nomination tallly without ever having lensed a Best Picture nominee. In other words, he doesn't need his film to have traction for his colleagues to value his work. That is more rare than it should be and thus very very impressive.
EDITING
THE ARTIST - Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
DRIVE - Mat Newman
HUGO - Thelma Schoonmaker
SENNA - Gregers Sall, Chris King
TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY - Dino Jonsater
Only two of these films made the ACE Eddie list (The Artist and Hugo). Can Drive squeeze into Oscar's list I think it can... but I'm having trouble believing it fully.
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
This could well be Oscar's list. War Horse might be the weakest contender since it was skipped by the American guild. If the Horse falls, expect The Help to rise.
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
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
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
This is one and maybe the only area where I prefer BAFTA to Oscar. Their Makeup & Hair category is less about visual effects than about, well, makeup & hair. Oscar's technically has a bit of room for wigs and makeup decisions that don't involve heavy prosthetics but their focus even within their rules is clearly on the transformative "makeup effects"
SHORT ANIMATION
ABUELAS - Afarin Eghbal, Kasia Malipan, Francesca Gardiner
BOBBY YEAH - Robert Morgan
A MORNING STROLL - Grant Orchard, Sue Goffe
SHORT FILM
CHALK - Martina Amati, Gavin Emerson, James Bolton, Ilaria Bernardini
MWANSA THE GREAT - Rungano Nyoni, Gabriel Gauchet
ONLY SOUND REMAINS - Arash Ashtiani, Anshu Poddar
PITCH BLACK HEIST - John Maclean, Gerardine O'Flynn
TWO AND TWO - Babak Anvari, Kit Fraser, Gavin Cullen
ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD
ADAM DEACON
CHRIS HEMSWORTH
TOM HIDDLESTON
CHRIS O’DOWD
EDDIE REDMAYNE