Wealth-Spreading BAFTA Keeps Season Interesting...

The Brits have been known to throw a monkey wrench into awards season every now and then, even when ultimately bowing to the status quo. Such is the case today as they handed the unquestionable Oscar frontrunner La La Land their Best Film prize, but it was far from the clean sweep which many pundits believe the Academy will bestow upon it. While its five-category haul is impressive, it ultimately lost more prizes than it won, putting thoughts of it matching the Oscar record (11 wins) into serious doubt. I'm especially skeptical of the design categories and Original Screenplay.

Other notable successes include Lion and Manchester by the Sea, each taking a pair. Lion feels like something that could surprise anywhere on Oscar night, especially in Adapted Screenplay. Manchester, on the other hand, feels like a surprise shutout just waiting to happen, with Denzel taking Best Actor from Affleck, and Chazelle Best Original Screenplay from Lonergan, but we shall see.

List of winners and some commentary to follow:

BEST FILM
La La Land - Fred Berger, Jordan Horowitz, Marc Platt

On to Oscar...

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
I, Daniel Blake - Ken Loach, Rebecca O’Brien, Paul Laverty

Hardly a surprise, given its nomination in Best Film.

BAFTA Noms: Another Day of Sun for 'La La Land'

The British Academy have kicked off what is scheduled to be a bustling day of precursor announcements bright and early this morning. Damien Chazelle's recent record-setting Globes victor La La Land was rewarded with another impressive nomination haul of eleven.

Check out the full list below. I'll hopefully be back with some commentary later in the day.

'The Revenant' and other BAFTA winners; How closely will Oscar follow?

Last year, the winners of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts were particularly noteworthy because they foretold a number eventual Oscar outcomes in categories that had pundits scratching their heads. This year, I may end up taking their cues in a few such races, especially the design and sound categories.

So what's the big takeaway from this year: The Revenant is the real deal. The Big Short may have the PGA's recent track record in its favour, but it looks like Inarritu's epic is a done deal in Best Actor, Director, Cinematography, and could possibly win both Sound prizes (or more) on top of that. Do we really think a movie with that kind of haul is going to lose to a film that may only win a single other category?

I'm going to be tossing and turning on this one folks, and in no small part because I happen to think either movie would we the worst Best Picture winner in decades.

But some of BAFTAs decisions have given me real hope -- albeit very cautious hope -- for Oscar night in their embrace of Mad Max's craft elements. Sweeping all three design categories plus Best Editing is a fine showing for George Miller's astonishing actioner, and should the Academy follow suit two weeks from now, well that'd be just fine by me.

Check out the list of winners after the jump, with a few remarks on what they may (or may not) mean in terms of the tightly contested Oscar race:

BAFTA nominations

So the last major industry group to sound off before the Oscar ballot deadline has done so. Good news for Bridge of Spies and Carol, who lead nominations with nine apiece.

BEST FILM
“The Big Short” -- Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, Brad Pitt
“Bridge of Spies” -- Kristie Macosko Krieger, Marc Platt, Steven Spielberg
“Carol” -- Elizabeth Karlsen, Christine Vachon, Stephen Woolley
“The Revenant” -- Steve Golin, Alejandro G. Inarritu, Arnon Milchan, Mary Parent, Keith Redmon
“Spotlight” -- Steve Golin, Blye Pagon Faust, Nicole Rocklin, Michael Sugar
Good day to be producer Steve Golin, but the absence of American blockbusters Mad Max and The Martian probably indicates that they're chances at actually winning the Oscar for Best Picture are limited.

BAFTA Clarifies Some Races, Obscures Others

So the EE British Academy of Film and Television Awards just wrapped up not long ago, but you won't get to watch the ceremony until later tonight because for all their fine cinematic tastes, the organization still hasn't evolved past their daft custom of broadcasting the show after all the winners are all public knowledge. Get with the times, BAFTA!

Anyway, I'm not really interested in the program so much as the results. Boyhood shrugged off last night's possibly crippling DGA loss to keep its Oscar hopes afloat. Also winning for the film were Patty Arquette (lock) and director Richard Linklater (not so much a lock).

Other big winners include The Grand Budapest Hotel with five, and The Theory of Everything and Whiplash with three. Oscar frontrunner Birdman took home only a single honour for Emmanuel Lubezki's virtuoso cinematography.

But what I was hoping this last major precursor of the season could really do is help illuminate some of the Academy's more unpredictable races. The British Academy is, after all, similar in membership size to AMPAS, and can therefore offer some clues on what sort of films will appeal to a large group in certain categories.

Will DGA-BAFTA Weekend Clafiry Some Tight Races?

Final Oscar balloting started today, right on the cusp of a weekend that will unveil the winners of the Directors Guild of America and the British Academy of Film and Television. A number of the Oscar categories still feel maddeningly close a full three weeks after they were announced, so the pending results of this weekend's kudos could be the litmus test we need.

Or they could just be a bunch of red herrings.

Take the Best Actor race, for instance:

'Selma' Stumbles Again With BAFTA Miss

The British Academy of Film and Television announced their annual list of nominees early this morning (or late last night), and as always there are a few interesting things to sift through.

The biggest takeaway is the complete snubbing of presumed Oscar heavyweight Selma in every category. Screeners were only sent to Academy members, of which there is some overlap with BAFTA, but obviously not enough to make a difference. Or perhaps the geographically specific story of Dr. King's political battles in the Jim Crow South doesn't resonate as strongly with the Brits as it would Stateside. Or perhaps it didn't open yet overseas and would not qualify anyway.

At any rate, the film has been virtually absent from industry nominations thus far, save for a couple of nods from the Costume and Hair/Makeup guilds. It makes it tremendously difficult to anticipate just how big or small its Oscar showing is going to be.

Films that we know will have a big showing with the Academy have also done so with BAFTA (10 nods for Birdman, 9 for The Imitation Game), but the official nomination leader is a bit of a surprise: The Grand Budapest Hotel with a field-leading 11(!) nominations! Do its European influences sing louder to the British demographic than they will with AMPAS? We'll know in less than a week, but I think it may be safe to assume that it will become Wes Anderson's first Best Picture nominee (and, I've been pondering lately, maybe even bring him a win in Best Original Screenplay).

Read up on all the nominees with some additional commentaries from me:

Best Film
Birdman - Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
Boyhood - Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
The Grand Budapest Hotel - Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
The Imitation Game - Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
The Theory of Everything - Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Grand Budapest is the real deal. I wonder if the love felt for this film might actually lead it to win something else in addition to production design... original screenplay perhaps?

Outstanding British Film
’71 - Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
The Imitation Game - Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
Paddington - Paul King, David Heyman
Pride - Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
The Theory of Everything - James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
Under the Skin - Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell
Easy win for The Imitation Game?

BAFTA winners do little to clarify Oscar race

With the Winter Olympics pushing the Oscar voting window back a couple of weeks, all eyes this were on the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs) to indicate any late-breaking momentum for this contender or that during this crucial final phase of the season. However, it seems that the Brits are about as indecisive as American awards groups have been this year, as they too ended up splitting their decision between the leading runners in the race.

In eerily similar fashion to the way the Golden Globes went down, Steve McQueen's 12 Years a Slave managed to claim the Best Film prize at the BAFTAs, but only after it had been nearly shut out all night long. Losing categories in which it is believed to be the Oscar favourite (Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay) must have been cause for excruciating nervousness, but then it reared its head at the last minute with a victory for lead actor Chiwetel Ejiofor (in the absence of Oscar frontrunner Matthew McConaughey) and ultimately Best Picture.

But Alfonso Cuaron's Gravity led the total trophy haul with six, including Best British Film. Ironically, many would argue that the actual Best Film winner 12 Years a Slave is more British than the Mexican director's U.S.-financed space adventure. Keeping its own Oscar fires stoked with three wins was David O. Russell's American Hustle.

Check out the winners below for more commentary on individual categories, and how the winners here might affect the Oscar outcome.

BAFTA kicks off busy day of precursor announcements

The British Academy of Film and Television have unveiled their full slate of nominees for this year's BAFTAs, and the main takeaway: They really like Gravity. Alfonso Cuaron's space adventure lead the pack with eleven nominations, including ones for Best Original Screenplay and Best British film which not a lot of people saw coming. It would seem to be the odds-on favourite to win with this group, and that could go a long way in bolstering its chances with winning the Oscar as well. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Gravity's fellow Best Picture frontrunners American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave are right behind it with ten nominations a head. Your likely fourth place finisher in the Best Picture race, Captain Phillips, has nine.

Full list of nominees (plus brief commentaries) after the cut.

Sifting through the Brits' tea leaves...

The British love their tea, wot? And the British Academy of Film and Television Arts have left all sorts of tea leaves for awards pundits to analyze from today's BAFTA Movie Awards. Even though BAFTA never matches up exactly with AMPAS, we might do well to heed their winners more closely this year, as they could bear more significance in the Oscar race than ever before.

Why is BAFTA significant? It's not so much the membership overlap between them and AMPAS (although that factor is appreciable), but a procedural change the organization made to mirror the Academy's voting practices. In the past, the entire BAFTA membership was invited to determine all the nominees, while only the specific chapters (or branches) could determine the final winners in their associated categories. This often lead to some baffling snubs (Tree of Life's Cinematography snub, anyone?) and peculiar winners (remember In Bruges winning Original Screenplay?).

Argo wins top prize at BAFTAs

A separate piece with my commentary on today's winners will come later tonight. For now, all the winners:

BAFTA nominations

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts have revealed their nominees on the eve of the Oscars' announcement. The top nominee is Lincoln, nailing down 10 nods. Life of Pi and Les Mis follow with nine apiece.

Are there any clues to be heeded in these British tea leaves, or has the date shift rendered these nominations moot? I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

Best Film
"Argo"
"Life of Pi"
"Lincoln"
"Les Misérables"
"Zero Dark Thirty"

Best British Film
"Anna Karenina"
"The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel"
"Les Misérables"
"Seven Psychopaths"
"Skyfall"

The Artist cleans up with seven BAFTAs

The BAFTAs marked the one last pit stop for The Artist before its upcoming big night at the Oscars. The film won seven awards from the Brits: Best Picture, Director, Actor, Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, and Original Score.

While no one can say that The Artist winning was unexpected, I have to say that its dominance at the BFTAs was a bit more pronounced than I might have thought. I mean, seven? I have doubts that it can translate that many of its Oscar nods into wins, but you never know. Even though I'm currently predicting different films to come out on top in Screenplay, Cinematography, and Costume Design, those are all still reasonable gets for The Artist.

The Oscar-snubbed doc Senna enjoyed a pair of wins for Best Documentary and Film Editing (I'm very pleased for editor Chris King, who should have been in the Oscar discussion last year for Exit Through the Gift Shop). Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy also took home a deuce for Best British Film and Adapted Screenplay, a bittersweet moment for Peter Straughan, whose wife and writing partner Bridget O'Connor's win came posthumously. Hugo also won for Best Production Design (unsurprising) and Sound. I do feel that those sound awards at the Oscars are ripe for the taking, but I'm sticking to my guns on War Horse.

All winners after the cut.

BAFTA nominations

Nice shot in the arm for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but is it too little too late?

Full list after the cut, plus my rationale for why Emmanuel Lubezki won't win the Oscar for Best Cinematography.

Best Film
"The Artist"
"The Descendants"
"Drive"
"The Help"
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"

Best British Film
"My Week With Marilyn"
"Senna"
"Shame"
"Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy"
"We Need to Talk About Kevin"

King's Speech woos BAFTA

Surprise, surprise. Seven BAFTAs seems just about what I would have thought for The King's Speech, although I wasn't quite expecting it to take three of the four acting prizes. Helena Bonham Carter winning Best Supporting Actress is only semi-surprising, given frontrunner Melissa Leo's lack of a nomination, but Geoffrey Rush upsetting Christian Bale... let's just hope this doesn't materialize with the Academy.

What most surprises me is that it only took home one craft award (for Original Score). Most people are preparing themselves for an Oscar sweep of sorts, but BAFTA has done a nice job spreading the wealth around. Some choices are dubious, like two awards for Alice in Wonderland (including Costume Design, its biggest Oscar opportunity), but others are inspired, like the Film Editing win for The Social Network. And despite all odds, Inception keeps picking up those richly deserved but hardly expected citations for its year-best Production Design. Might there be hope for Oscar after all?

Black Swan's impressive nomination tally of 12 yielded only a single win for Natalie Portman, but that should hopefully be enough to help her fend off a late surge from Annette Bening.

And what of David Fincher's win? Is he strong enough to overcome Tom Hooper?

Obviously The King's Speech is still going to win Best Picture, but The King's Sweep is looking a bit vulnerable.

Best Film – The King’s Speech
Best Director – The Social Network – David Fincher
Best Leading Actress – Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Best Leading Actor – Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress – Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor – Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay – The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin
Best Original Screenplay – The King’s Speech – David Seidler
Outstanding British Film – The King’s Speech
Outstanding British Debut – Four Lions – Chris Morris
Best Cinematography – True Grit – Roger Deakins
Best Editing – The Social Network – Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
Best Original Music – The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
Best Production Design – Inception – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
Best Sound – Inception – Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
Best Special Visual Effects – Inception – Corbould, Franklin, Lockley, Bebb
Best Make Up & Hair – Alice in Wonderland – Valli O’Reilly, Paul Gooch
Best Short Film – Until the River Runs Red – Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis
Best Short Animation – The Eagleman Stag – Michael Please
Best Film Not in the English Language – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Best Animated Film – Toy Story 3
Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award – Tom Hardy

BAFTA and ASC today.

Today we learn the winners of the British Academy of Film and Television Awards. I think most people are anticipating a sweep of sorts for hometown favourite The King's Speech, and so am I.

We will also learn which film the American Society of Cinematographers have decided has the best photography of the year. I'm firmly in Roger Deakins' cheering section (even if I feel Black Swan's Matthew Lebatique deserves it above all comers), yet I've got that horrible feeling it'll go to Danny Cohen for The King's Speech, possibly ruining Deakins' chances at that long overdue Oscar. Step up ASC. Do the right thing.

BAFTA nominations

With Oscar ballots already handed in I don't think these will have any affect on next Tuesday's nominations, but BAFTA always has some intriguing predictive qualities. For instance, the absence of supposed Supporting Actress frontrunner Melissa Leo in lieu of Miranda Richardson and Barbra Hershey (yay!) is of note. The strong showing for The King's Speech, which I imagine shall triumph here, may also indicate the The Social Network isn't out of the woods yet as far as Oscar goes.

Best Film
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”

Best British Film
“Another Year”
“Four Lions”
“The King’s Speech”
“Made In Dagenham”
“127 Hours”