True to their nature, the British Academy of Film and Television Awards, issued their decidedly stuffy list of nominees today, and Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (Paramount) led the way with 11 nominations apiece. No surprise there, The BAFTAs, as they are called in shorthand, generally lean to films with a UK lineage and to movies that are deadly serious about the craft of filmmaking. The Brits also seem turned off by movies that feel too indie or to distinct to the US.
In the past five years, British voters have snubbed American indies hits (Juno, Sideways), distinctly American stories (Michael Clayton, Crash, Ray, Sea Biscuit) and they have positively ignored American icon Clint Eastwood, failing to nominate his directorial efforts Letters From Iwo Jima, Million Dollar Baby and Mystic River, which were all at least nominated for Oscar Best Picture (Million Dollar Baby was the Academy Award winner).
2008 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs
Atonement, No Country For Old Men, There Will Be Blood
Oscar winner – No Country for Old Men
BAFTA winner – Atonement
Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Juno, Michael Clayton
2007 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs
Babel, The Departed, Little Miss Sunshine, The Queen
Oscar winner – The Departed
BAFTA winner – The Queen
Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Letters From Iwo Jima
2006 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs
Brokeback Mountain, Capote, Good Night and Good Luck
Oscar winner – Crash
BAFTA winner – Brokeback Mountain
Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Munich, Crash
2005 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs
The Aviator, Finding Neverland
Oscar winner – Million Dollar Baby
BAFTA winner – The Aviator
Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Sideways, Ray, Million Dollar Baby
2004 – Nominated for both Best Picture at both Oscars and BAFTAs
Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, Master & Commander: The Far Side of the World, Lost in Translation
Oscar winner – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
BAFTA winner – Lord of the Rings: Return of the King
Oscar nominees not nominated at BAFTAs – Mystic River, Sea Biscuit
Make no mistake about it. The UK-produced Slumdog Millionaire was no longshot to dominate BAFTA nominations, and the Mumbai-set spectacle will clean up at the ceremony, but these nominations have generated some fodder for Oscar speculation.
First and foremost, the BAFTA voters have found a way to give The Dark Knight (Warner Bros) a total of 9 nominations, and still snub it for Best Picture. It’s not a shock that the stodgy Brits would disrespect a blockbuster comic book movie, but does this portend that Christopher Nolan’s modern masterpiece will be overlooked in the Best Picture category when next Thursday’s Oscar nominations are announced?
I, for one, hope not. It is time for the Academy Awards to include and embrace comic book movies as real art. There was a time when a serial killer movie wasn’t taken seriously, and then along came Jonathan Demme’s Silence of the Lambs, which is only the third movie in history to win Best Picture, Best Actor (Anthony Hopkins), Best Actress (Jodie Foster) and Best Director. (The only other two movies to accomplish the feat were It Happened One Night and One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). The conventional wisdom was that there was too much violence and too many f-bombs for an R-rated action pic like The Departed to win Hollywood’s biggest prize, but the Martin Scorsese classic won four Academy Awards including Best Picture. The Dark Knight absolutely deserves to make that sort of breakthrough.
The Reader (Weinstein) is exactly the sort of numbingly ponderous picture that serves as catnip for BAFTA voters. Five nominations, including Best Picture, for this adaptation of Bernard Schlink’ Holocaust-era novel, but there will likely be only two or three Oscar nominations for The Reader next Thursday. David Hare, for his adapted screenplay of Schlink’s challenging novel, and Kate Winslet, for her fascinating portrayal of Hannah Schmitz, will both likely be Oscar nominees. Also, Chris Menges and Roger Deakins could be nominated for Best Cinematography for their tag-team work.
The interesting wrinkle for Winslet is that that the British Academy has nominated her for Best Actress for both The Reader and Revolutionary Road (Dreamorks/Paramount). Even though she won for Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Globes for The Reader, it is clearly a lead role. I think I speak for more than a few fans when I say, “A little Kate goes a long way.” Her double-win at the Globes turned her from the brilliant actress who had never won a Golden Globe or an Oscar to obnoxious high maintenance actress. At one point she was told by the broadcast director, to wrap up and responded, “You have no idea how much I’m not wrapping up.”
I still think Winslet is the likely winner of Best Actress for Rev Road, and although she will be nominated for Best Supporting Actress for The Reader, she is unlikely to repeat the double-win, which may limit the number of times she tells herself to “Gather,” as she did during her second acceptance speech at the Globes. It would also allow Penelope Cruz the opportunity to win her richly-deserved supporting Oscar for Vicky Cristina Barcelona.
Changeling (Universal) is a very over-rated movie, and one of my least favorite of the year. Its 8 nominations is 8 too many for my taste, despite the fact that I am a huge Clint Eastwood fan. I just don’t think it is his best work (and Angelina Jolie’s one-note performance is ridiculously overwrought. It may be that BAFTA voters trying to make up for snubbing Eastwood for Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby and Letters From Iwo Jima.
Certain acting performances that are definite Oscar contenders were completely overlooked by the British Academy. Anne Hathaway for Rachel Getting Married and Richard Jenkins for The Visitor are both too indie for the snooty Brits, Josh Brolin for Milk and Viola David for Doubt are both probably too specifically American. And, if they didn’t give him an acting nod for Million Dollar Baby, the British Academy definitely wasn’t going to give Eastwood an acting nomination for Gran Torino (Warner Bros).
As for BAFTA impact, I still like Slumdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk and The Dark Knight to be the five Best Picture nominees announced next Thursday. Best Actor nominations are likely to go to Mickey Rourke – The Wrestler, Sean Penn – Milk, Frank Langella – Frost/Nixon, Clint Eastwood – Gran Torino and either Brad Pitt – Benjamin Button, The Visitor‘s Jenkins or Leonardo DiCaprio for Rev Road. And, the likely Best Actress nominees are Winslet – Revolutionary Road, Meryl Streep – Doubt, Hathaway – Rachel Getting Married, Sally Hawkins – Happy-Go-Lucky and either Jolie – Changeling, Melissa Leo – Frozen River and Kristin Scott Thomas – I’ve Loved You So Long.
Here is the full list of the BAFTA nominees.
2009 BAFTA NOMINEES
BEST FILM
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire
BEST DIRECTOR
Clint Eastwood, Changeling
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Joe and Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading
J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling
Philippe Claudel, I’ve Loved You So Long
Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black, Milk
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
David Hare, The Reader
Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM
The Baader Meinhof Complex
Gomorrah
I’ve Loved You So Long
Persepolis
Waltz With Bashir
BEST ANIMATED FILM
Persepolis
Wall-E
Waltz With Bashir
BEST ACTOR
Frank Langella, Frost/Nixon
Dev Patel, Slumdog Millionaire
Sean Penn, Milk
Brad Pitt, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Mickey Rourke, The Wrestler
BEST ACTRESS
Angelina Jolie, Changeling
Kristin Scott Thomas, I’ve Loved You So Long
Meryl Streep, Doubt
Kate Winslet, The Reader
Kate Winslet, Revolutionary Road
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Robert Downey Jr., Tropic Thunder
Brendan Gleeson, In Bruges
Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Doubt
Heath Ledger, The Dark Knight
Brad Pitt, Burn After Reading
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Amy Adams, Doubt
Penelope Cruz, Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Freida Pinto, Slumdog Millionaire
Tilda Swinton, Burn After Reading
Marisa Tomei, The Wrestler
BEST SCORE
Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hans Zimmer / James Newton Howard, The Dark Knight
Benny Andersson / Björn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia!
A. R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Thomas Newman, Wall-E
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
Tom Stern, Changeling
Claudio Miranda, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Wally Pfister, The Dark Knight
Chris Menges / Roger Deakins, The Reader
Anthony Dod Mantle, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST EDITING
Joel Cox / Gary D. Roach, Changeling
Kirk Baxter / Angus Wall, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Lee Smith, The Dark Knight
Mike Hill / Dan Hanley, Frost/Nixon
Jon Gregory, In Bruges
Chris Dickens, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
James J. Murakami / Gary Fettis, Changeling
Donald Graham Burt / Victor J. Zolfo, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Nathan Crowley / Peter Lando, The Dark Knight
Kristi Zea / Debra Schutt, Revolutionary Road
Mark Digby / Michelle Day, Slumdog Millionaire
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Deborah Hopper, Changeling
Jacqueline West, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Lindy Hemming, The Dark Knight
Michael O’Connor, The Duchess
Albert Wolsky, Revolutionary Road
BEST SOUND DESIGN
Walt Martin / Alan Robert Murray / John Reitz / Gregg Rudloff, Changeling
Lora Hirschberg / Richard King / Ed Novick / Gary Rizzo, The Dark Knight
Eddy Joseph / Chris Munro / Mike Prestwood Smith / Mark Taylor, Quantum of Solace
Glenn Freemantle / Resul Pookutty / Richard Pryke / Tom Sayers / Ian Tapp, Slumdog Millionaire
Ben Burtt / Tom Myers / Michael Semanick / Matthew Wood, Wall-E
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
Eric Barba / Craig Barron / Nathan McGuinness / Edson Williams, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Chris Corbould / Nick Davis / Paul Franklin / Tim Webber, The Dark Knight
Pablo Helman, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Shane Patrick Mahan / John Nelson / Ben Snow, Iron Man
Chris Corbould / Kevin Tod Haug, Quantum of Solace
BEST MAKE UP & HAIR
Jean Black / Colleen Callaghan, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Peter Robb-King, The Dark Knight
Daniel Phillips / Jan Archibald, The Duchess
Edouard Henriques / Kim Santantonio, Frost/Nixon
Steven E. Anderson / Michael White, Milk
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
Hunger
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Man on Wire
Slumdog Millionaire
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