BAFTA Nominations

The BAFTA nods have arrived offering us a few mild surprises. Or rather, let's be fair, enough mild surprises that their lineups may well end the season feeling slightly unique to them this year which is its own reward in a way given how predictable the winners are this year. Plus, it's nice when a film has been honored everywhere to see the continually snubbed finally get an opportunity to walk the red carpet as a nominee; Congratulations Julianne Moore and Barbara Hershey!

They've also gotten solidly behind 127 Hours which has been struggling buzz-wise and with the American guilds.

BEST FILM
BLACK SWAN - Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
INCEPTION - Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
THE KING’S SPEECH - Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
THE SOCIAL NETWORK - Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin
TRUE GRIT - Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
127 HOURS - Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson
ANOTHER YEAR - Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
FOUR LIONS - Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
THE KING’S SPEECH - Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
MADE IN DAGENHAM - Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley

It'll win something. Since The King's Speech is in both categories, you can assume it's going to win British Film, freeing them up to be Oscar predictive in the other. Has a film ever won both prizes from BAFTA? I'm too busy to check.
Surprise? Maybe you don't think True Grit is a surprise as one of only 5 nominated "best films" but I do. The Western is such an American genre

FULL LIST OF NOMINEES with commentary after the jump

Click to read more ...

10 Days 'til Nominations (127 Hours?)

The countdown is on...

Today's countdown topic: 127 Hours
It's been falling from punditry favor as fast as James Franco's 'Aron Ralston' dropped down that crevice. But he does that twice in the movie. Will he land in the pool of refreshing Oscar waters in 10 days (like the first drop) with nominations for Picture, Actor and a few techs. Or will this be like that second nastier drop where horrors await (Best Actor only)? I'm thinking it's going to hang on by its fingertips to the former on account of #1 votes; those who love it love it. But I've been wrong before.

How many nominations do you see coming?

FYI: I've added a prediction index for ease of use. See? I listen to y'all! That's why you need to keep commenting. Don't make me feel alone in this virtual world.

BFCA Live Blog

8:55 Keith Urban announces that he is "not afraid to cry." Good thing because he's married to Nicole Kidman! Not to imply that she's difficult but she can access the heavy soul-shattering stuff.

8:57 Oh hi! Live Blog. Why am I doing this? Does anyone watch this? Refresh your screens!

8:58 Jeff Bridges is doing his Rooster Cogburn voice for the press guy? Does he feel like a performing seal?

9:04 Arnold Schwarzenegger emerges to open the show. Noooo... I was about to predict that Ahnuld would say "I'm back" or "I'll be back" or some lame Terminator pun that we'd enjoy as a guilty pleasure but no. He's being sincere. [gasp]. That's no adjective with which to open a show.

9:06 Ahnuld...

"I invented not speaking English correctly"

Okay that was funny. Albeit subtle funny which is always a tough sell during awards show.

9:07 Quick show of hands. Who believes that Ahnuld saw Black Swan three times in the theater as he claims?

poll by twiigs.com

9:10 THE FIGHTER wins Best Ensemble. I'm glad they let Jack McGee accept. He was really special in the background, don't you think? He made you believe that he could handle and was even happily married to Melissa Leo's Crazy! That's an achievement in authentic masochism. Go McGee.

9:17 Hailee Steinfeld wins Best Young Actor/Actress. Chloe Moretz is undoubtedly pissed. Hailee thanks "everyone in here. And the Lord." I always think it's funny when celebrities thank God when they beat other celebrities to prizes. If God is that guy cares about who wins movie awards than... ohmygod. I AM GOD!

MORE AFTER THE JUMP including made for tv movie titles, blonde Emma, Natalie skinny/pregnant and armpit licking.

Click to read more ...

Reminder: 11 Days...

Two point of business. Two goodies.

QUESTIONS?
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LIVE-BLOG
Yes, I'll be live blogging the BFCA Critics Choice Awards tonight (we'll start about a quarter to 9:00 PM) and the Globes on Sunday. If you're not hosting your own party, be here for this one.

GOODIES!
Just a reminder that we've got two handy-dandy widgets for you to embed in your own personal webspaces if you'd like. (You can see both on the sidebar if this post should mysteriously vanish of you decide to use them later). Both will take you here should you click on them if you see something of interest or just have a jones to visit. Daily. You come every day, right? [/NEEDINESS]

Countdown
The day after the Oscar nominations, this clock below will shift and beginning counting down to our favorite holiday, Hollywood's High Holy Night... THE OSCARS! And the day after that historic night (provided enough of you download this to make it worth my while) it'll shift to countdown to next year's Oscar nominations. [Translation: We're all crazy!]

The Film Experience
This one lists each new post in real time so you never have to miss a thing.

Husbands and Wives

Michael here from Serious Film. I’ve been posting analysis of all the Oscar categories one at a time so when the Supporting Actress category came up I naturally had to compose variations on the phrase "supportive girlfriend/wife" (Amy Adams and Helena Bonham-Carter) so as not to get repetitive.

Supportive Gals = Oscar Traction

You don't have to break out any such phrase for the guys. Just how lopsided is this situation? Do the fellas ever get nominated for staying home and cheering on the ladies?

I looked up some stats, and long story short, I didn’t think it would be that lopsided. Going back over the last twenty years there was only one, count em one, nomination for the traditional supportive husband/boyfriend role, Jim Broadbent for Iris. (He won.) If you want to stretch you can push it up to three by including John C. Reilly’s doofus husband in Chicago and Christopher Plummer’s Tolstoy in The Last Station, but if you ask me those don’t fit the type. After that…nothing. Just villains and character actor parts as far as the eye can see. Of course a few of the others play husbands but their wives have equal or lesser roles (Think Cuba Gooding Jr. in Jerry Maguire)

As for the ladies I stopped counting in the mid-twenties. The supporting actress category, as should come as zero surprise, is overflowing wives and girlfriends, including the entire 2004 line up, if you count Portman in Closer. They matched the guys’ total of three last year alone with the girlfriend parts played by Gyllenhaal, Farmiga, and Cruz. Throw in mothers and you’ve got the whole category covered.

Supportive Guys ≠ Oscar Traction

I’ll leave it to you to draw conclusions about the diversity of female roles in Hollywood but one conclusion I can say for sure: If you’re a guy looking to win an Oscar avoid playing the husband.

P.S. Remember Nathaniel's Illustrated Chart of Supporting Actor 'Types'? (click to embiggen)