BAFTA 2012 Winners. It's Our Final Pre Oscar Pit Stop

For reasons unbeknownst to  our puny mind American television doesn't believe in watching the BAFTAs live and instead makes us wait until we already know the winners and have possibly lost interest (especially on nights when they air hours after we know the winners opposite the Grammy Awards). I freely admit I've skipped them in busier years. I haven't been able to find a live stream of the actual show but this link promises a highlights reel and the video embedded at the bottom of this post covers arrivals so you can see a few of the gowns and a few interviews with the stars. 

I've given up the notion of live blogging as it'll be anti-climactic tonight at 8 pm but Xan Brooks at the Guardian was updating the event today.

I'm guessing: The Artist, Scorsese, Streep, Dujardin, Spencer and Plummer) UPDATE: Well, I got five of the six. Scorsese lost to Hazanavicius.

Quick Question before the winners: Why is everyone from Downton Abbey in mourning? So many black gowns. Or maybe they're just predicting that we'll all be in mourning when the second season ends and we have to wait another year. Nooooo

Downton Abbey Forevah!

WINNERS
Best Film: THE ARTIST
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin in THE ARTIST
Best Actress: Meryl Streep in THE IRON LADY
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius for THE ARTIST

Animated Film: RANGO
Adapted Screenplay: TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Documentary: SENNA
Rising Star (voted on by the public): ADAM DEACON
Original Screenplay: Michel Hazanavicius for THE ARTIST
Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema (tribute/noncompetitive): JOHN HURT
Outstanding British Film: TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY
Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer in THE HELP
Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer in BEGINNERS

Production Design: HUGO
Outstanding Debut: Paddy Considine for TYRANNOSAUR
Foreign Language Film: THE SKIN I LIVE IN
Makeup and Hair: THE IRON LADY
Costume Design: THE ARTIST
Cinematography: THE ARTIST
Editing: SENNA
Score: THE ARTIST
Live Action Short: PITCH BLACK HEIST (starring Michael Fassbender. Why have I not heard of this?)
Animated Short: A MORNING STROLL
Visual Effects: HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2
Sound: HUGO

The Beautiful People... The Beautiful People... ♫ BAFTA PHOTOS AND RED CARPET ARRIVAL VIDEO AFTER THE JUMP

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"Dream Big, Dream Fierce" This Oscar Season

The SAG Awards are receding in the review mirror, but the afterglow remains. How much power can emotional narratives have within our seasonal awards journey? Viola Davis has been a major actress for a long time within the showbiz community -- this very website first handed her two gold medals way back in early 2003 for her gobsmackingly great single scene in Antwone Fisher and her breakthrough year of smart character work in Far From Heaven and Solaris -- but it's only in the past few years that the mainstream has begun to learn her name and key in to her potent gift.  There's nothing like a 'who's that?' Oscar nomination (Doubt), A List friendship (Streep) and a big fat juicy hit (The Help) to boost your profile.

So I wasn't surprised but was definitely delighted to see her receive a standing ovation when she walked up to accept Best Actress for The Help.

Perhaps the standing ovation is an annual occurence and I've merely forgotten.

In some ways our relationship with the awards circus is a long one with deep pockets of memories, held grudges and fond crushes. In other ways it's as if we're goldfish swimming round the bowl and we're surprised by that little plastic castle every time.

But I think the true indicator that Viola Davis is the likely winner of the Best Actress Oscar is not the win itself with SAG, which has a much wider more diverse voting body than Oscar, but the crowd response. Reducing co-stars to tears is probably no great achievement. They were in the trenches with you so naturally Jessica Chastain, Octavia Spencer and Cicely Tyson were crying their eyes out. But making Zoe Saldana and Angelina Jolie all misty? Boosting Dick Van Dyke's mood when he was already high on life? 

What is going on here? (More after the jump)

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Say What Shai'?

Last night when The SAG Award for Ensemble cast was announced ("And the actor goes to... The Help")  Shailene Woodley turned to a shrugging George Clooney and held up two fingers. 

What was that conversation? 
Amuse us by transcribing it in the comments.

DGA to Oscar? Hazanavicius Nears Finish Line

This weekend everyone is a winner! So many awards. And SAG continues the trend tonight (we'll be live blogging right here). Can clapping for 30 days straight give you carpal tunnel?

Let's start with the biggie, the DGA Awards. Last year's winner Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) passed the baton, in the shape of that golden eagle plaque, to this year's winner Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist). Tom Hooper got ambitious post awards flurry as is busy on Les Miserable. Hazanavicius will chase The Artist with another film inspired by Old Hollywood. He's going to remake The Search (1948) which The Film Experience readers will know as Montgomery Clift's debut. (All we can say is good luck finding another Monty. That's an irreplaceable star in Hollywood's firmament.) Given that The Search is a post World War II drama about an American soldier and a child who survived Auschwitz, maybe Hazanavicius won't be a one hit wonder with AMPAS. Time will tell.

One of the best things about the more specific awards night like the DGA is that there is time to honor the nomineees as well, so even if you don't win, the night is still about you. Each director takes the stage to receive their plaque. Kathy Bates accepted in person for Woody Allen who never shows up at this sort of thing although he did speak via satellite this time. 

Michelle Williams with James Marsh's prizeDGA PRIZES

• Director, Feature Film: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Director, Documentary: James Marsh, Project Nim (which was recently shut out of the Oscar nominations in its category)
• Director, MiniSeries: John Cassar, The Kennedys
• Director, Drama Series: Patty Jenkins, The Killing "Pilot"
• Director, Comedy Series: Robert B Weide, Curb Your Enthusiasm "Palestinian Chicken" (wow. people are still excited about this show? Who knew?)
• Director, Variety: Glenn Weiss, the 64th Annual Tony Awards
• Director, Reality Show: Neil P Degroot, Biggest Loser
• Director, Commercial: Noam Murro (Biscuit Filmworks)
• Director, Daytime Television: William Luel, General Hospital "Intervention"
• Director, Children's Television:  Amy Schatz, A Child's Garden of Poetry

Does this mean Hazanavicius has the Oscar sewn up?
Not necessarily...  More after the jump including stats and photos. 

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SAG Predix: Will They Really Give "The Help" 3 Prizes?

Only two more awards shows to go before we reach Oscar night. One of them is tonight. SAG sometimes surprises (remember 2002 and 2003?) and sometimes goes total consensus. Let's take a stab at this... which is easier to do with statues with sharp corners. LIVE BLOGGING HAS BEGUN!

Best Actress
Nominees: Close, Davis, Williams, Streep, Swinton
Will Win: Viola Davis because the most voters have seen her film and because she's great in it.
Will Win: Meryl Streep because she's Meryl Streep and it's a biopic and actors are crazy about those and because it's a virtuosic impersonation.
Will Win: Michelle Williams because she's the new "Best of Her Generation" actress everyone is excited about and because it's a biopic and...

Okay. Yikes. I suspect it's a tight three woman race. I'd like to believe that Viola's box office and general narrative will differentiate her just barely enough. On the other hand actors rightfully worship Streep and she might win this with ease and she's definitely the most likely winner for voters who haven't seen all their screeners. I mean if I was voting blindly I'd always vote Streep (not that I'd vote blindly). On the other otherhand (we've grown a third arm) perhaps the vast voting body of the guild will have a heatwave for Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe.

Best Actress has the odd and slightly unpleasant distinction of being filled with performances that are mostly significantly better than the film housing them (though this is not to say that all of the films are terrible). Given that rather specific sandbox, I'd argue that Davis does the most successful job of working against her film's limitations. As technically great as Meryl Streep's work is, it just can't vault the hurdle of "why was this film even made other than to win Best Actress awards?" None of the other films, not even My Week With Marilyn leave quite the same "why does this exist?" aftertaste. But then again, films made solely to win awards no matter how shamelessly obvious about that they are,  have never been exactly shunned by awards bodies so that might not matter at all. Plus after taste is hard to notice while you're still eating which is why some distributors wait till the last possible second for voters to see movies they want votes for.

Okay, okay: Streep.

Best Actor
Nominees: Bichir, Clooney, DiCaprio, Dujardin, Pitt 
Will Win: George Clooney for his movie star charisma. He seems to be just sailing through this awards season with ease as if his performance towers over the competition. Strange.
Should Win: Brad Pitt for his movie star charisma and how it completely suits his character and his film and for the simple matter that he gave two incredible performances in the same year, one of which is this one right here. It's always a pity when career peaks happen and awards bodies are only vaguely paying attention, temporarily blinded by other flashy objects in the same room. 

Best Supporting Actor
Nominees: Branagh, Hammer, Hill, Nolte, Plummer
Will / Should Win: Christopher Plummer. Like Clooney he has no competition for the win in his category. The main difference being that his performance easily reveals why that is.

Best Supporting Actress & Best Ensemble
Nominees: Bejo, Chastain, McCarthy, McTeer and Spencer 
Nominees: The Artist, Bridesmaids, The Descendants, The Help, Midnight in Paris 

Octavia Spencer and Melissa McCarthy are, like Brad & George, friends and competitors both. But more importantly they're also both in awesome female ensembles. Voters have shown in the past that they don't mind giving acting prizes AND the ensemble to the same film but won't they want to throw Bridesmaids something instead of possibly giving The Help three of their five prizes?

I'd love to predict a Bridesmaids win in ensemble and I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility especially if voters do the old "vote for the film you'd most like to have been in" (in which case this is Help vs. Bridesmaids vs. The Artist) but as SAG has settled into its [ahem] 'precursor duties' they've strayed further and further from thinking about ensemble and moved right into thinking about Oscar so a win for a movie that's not up for Best Picture might be beyond their imagination now (in which case this is The Help vs. Descendants vs. Midnight vs. The Artist)
Will Win: Melissa McCarthy (repeating the Emmy surprise?) and The Help... though maybe i have it in reverse and wouldn't that be fun.
Should Win: These categories are killers, so many good performances. But If I was voting I'd throw Ensemble to Bridesmaids and Supporting to... god, who knows. This is why I still haven't finalized my own awards.

ON TO THE SAG LIVE BLOGGING