Last night (Sunday 21st February 2010) London was descended upon by anyone who is anyone in the film industry in order to celebrate the 'greatest cinematic achievements' of the past year. For the third time, the award show was held at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, which has been home to a working theatre since 1732.
Presented by Jonathan Ross for the fourth year in a row, the gala opened with a video montage showing clips from films released over the past year (2009-2010). Films featured included; 'The Hangover', 'Public Enemies', 'Harry Potter & the Half-Blood Prince', 'Invictus' 'Twilight: New Moon', 'Where the Wild Things Are', 'Julie & Julia', 'An Education', 'Coco Avant Chanel', 'Sherlock Holmes', 'Inglorious Basterds', '2012', 'Avatar', 'Nine', 'Watchmen', 'It's Complicated', 'Up', 'Precious' and more, which was met with rapturous applause from the audience.
Ross' opening speech, laced with second-rate gags met with a considerably less favourable reaction from the audience; Dustin Hoffman and James Pattinson both looked none-too happy when they were singled out, and some one-liners were met with audible groans. The inevitable Tiger Woods joke was met with a particularly stony silence, and rightly so! The BAFTAs ceremony is a classy event, quite above joking about the misfortunes of the sporting A-Lister.
On to the first award, and it's for the 'Outstanding Début by a British Writer, Director or Producer'. This was a no-brainer. Duncan Jones (director of 'Moon') was the obvious choice for this award. 'Moon' has received critical acclaim and won the BIFA (British Independent Film Awards) for Best British Independent Film in 2009. Jones was also awarded the BIFA Douglas Hickox Award at the ceremony, an award given to the best British director for their début film. The Sci-Fi psychological thriller deserves to be introduced to a wider audience and hopefully the BAFTA win will do this.
Next up was the BAFTA for 'Special Visual Effects'. I'll give you three guesses as to the film that won this, but you'll only need one. Yep, James Cameron's 'Avatar' took this one, but honestly, this award was never going to go to anything but 'Avatar' this year. The film is the highest grossing blockbuster of all time (taking the crown from Cameron's very own 'Titanic', 1997) and is a favourite with fans and critics alike, particularly for its ground-breaking visual effects. Hats off to Cameron, but a very predictable winner.
Following on from the 'Special Visual Effects' award was the BAFTA for 'Best Supporting Actor'. In my opinion, this was nearly as much of a no-brainer as the first two awards. Austrian-born Christoph Waltz walked away with the prize, and deservedly so, for his portrayal of SS Colonel Hans Landa in Quentin Tarantino's World War II epic 'Inglorious Basterds'. Waltz is the linchpin of the film and Tarantino has even gone so far as to say "It's true that if I couldn't have found someone as good as Christoph I might not have made 'Inglorious Basterds'". In the film, Waltz plays the somewhat eccentric SS Colonel in a role that demanded him to speak four languages (English, German, French and Italian, of which he is only not fluent in Italian). I think for that feat alone he deserves the BAFTA accolade, but his excellent performance is simply superb for many more reasons. If you haven't seen 'Inglorious Basterds' yet, I really would recommend it, if for no other reason that to see Waltz's amazing performance.
The BAFTAs for 'Costume Design' and 'Make-up & Hair' both went to the team behind 'The Young Victoria', beating the visually stunning 'Coco Avant Chanel' and 'An Education' for the honour. I was practically surprised with 'Coco Avant Chanel' not receiving the 'Costume Design' award, but then again, this is BAFTA and one gets the sneaking suspicion that British films are favoured above their international counterparts.
The 'Supporting Actress' BAFTA went to the American talk-show host and comedienne Mo'Nique for her performance as the mother-from-hell in the gritty drama 'Precious'. It was a good night for the gritty drama, with the 'Outstanding British Film' award going to 'Fish Tank', an (incredibly) gritty drama filmed on location and set in Essex. The film has also won the Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. Again, I hope the BAFTAs is a springboard for raising the profile of a British film that deserves to be better known.
'Avatar' was also awarded the 'Production Design' BAFTA, another award that was clearly destined for the fantasy epic. The two screenplay awards ('Original Screenplay' and 'Adapted Screenplay') went to 'The Hurt Locker' and 'Up in the Air' respectively. For me, the surprise loser was Nick Hornby, with his beautiful adaptation of 'An Education', from Lynn Barber's autobiography of the same name (published in 2009). Both the book and the film are well worth a look.
The Orange 'Rising Star' award is the only BAFTA to be voted for by the British public. Four very deserving nominees (Nicholas Hoult, Tahar Rahim, Jesse Eisenberg, and Carey Mulligan) lost out to Kristen Stewart; best known for her role as 'Bella Swan' in the 'Twilight' series of films. It's not much of a surprise that Stewart took home the award, especially knowing how obsessive the 'Twilight' fans are. They're the type to vote until their fingers bleed. Stewart acknowledged their dedication in her acceptance speech. Whilst her performance in 'Twilight' is so-so, Stewart's upcoming release (the biopic 'The Runaways') promises to show us the versatility of the young actress. Early reviews hint of good things to come from her role as punk-rocker Joan Jett. I, for one, will wait until the film gets its UK release (the film gets its American release on the 19th of March 2010) to pass comment on whether she is a deserving winner of the prestigious 'Rising Star' award.
The BAFTA for 'Animated Film' went to Disney Pixar's 'Up', whilst the 'Film Not in the English Language' award crossed the Channel thanks to 'Un Prophete' ('A Prophet'), a French crime-drama following an Arabic man as he enters the French prison system.
The award for 'Leading Actor' was a fiercely fought-out contest between Jeff Bridges ('Crazy Heart'), Jeremy Renner ('The Hurt Locker'), Colin Firth ('A Single Man'), George Clooney ('Up in the Air') and Andy Serkis ('Sex & Drugs & Rock n' Roll'). The BAFTA went to Colin Firth. With nominations for the SAG (Screen Actors Guild) Award for 'Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role' and the Academy Award for 'Best Actor', it's not too surprising that he left with the award. Whilst fellow nominee, George Clooney, has also been nominated extensively for this award season, I think it comes back to BAFTA favouring the Brits when it comes to top honours.
The 'Leading Actress' catagory was also a fierce competition with some truly outstanding performances honoured with nominations this year. Eventual winner Carey Mulligan ('An Education') was up against Audrey Tautou ('Coco Avant Chanel'), Saoirse Ronan ('The Lovely Bones'), Meryl Streep ('Julie & Julia') and Gabourey Sidibe ('Precious') for the BAFTA. Whilst Mulligan was honoured at the BAFTA ceremony, it's unlikely she'll triumph at the Academy Awards, as Sandra Bullock ('The Blind Side') and Meryl Streep are both the hot favourites, especially as Bullock has already taken the People's Choice Award for 'Favourite Movie Actress' and also the Critic's Choice Award, which was jointly awarded to Streep.
The big winner of the night was 'The Hurt Locker', which took away the David Lean Award for 'Best Director' and (the ultimate prize) the BAFTA for 'Best Film', along with the previously mentioned 'Original Screenplay' award. Director Kathryn Bigelow was clearly moved when she accepted her award, and talked with an emotion-choked voice about the importance of supporting our troops in the Middle East. The film is now a firm favourite to win big at the Academy Awards which will be held on March 7th, 2010.
You can see the BBC coverage of the BAFTAs on the BBC iPlayer at;
A red-carpet feature is also available on the iPlayer.
For all-things red-carpet, you'd be hard pushed to beat the E! 'Live from the Red Carpet' programme, which is being re-run everyday for the next week on Sky channel 151 and Virgin Media channel 156.
The official BAFTA website has a plethora of videos from the evening, including some exclusive interviews. These can be found at;
Finally, all nominees and winners that are available on DVD (and Blu Ray, if that's your thing) are available with up to 70% off and with free postage from play.com;
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