Awards Season 2014: BAFTA Winners

Tonight (Sunday 16 February), at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, the 67th British Academy Film Awards were given out in a star-studded ceremony hosted for the ninth time by Stephen Fry. In attendance were stars like Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, Tom Hanks, Emma Thompson, Brad Pitt, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amy Adams and Cate Blanchett to honour the best in film. 

Here's a full list of BAFTA winners:

Best Film: 12 Years A Slave

Outstanding British Film: Gravity

Leading Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)

Leading Actress: Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Director: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Original Screenplay: Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Adapted Screenplay: Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope (Philomena)

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer: Kieran Evans (writer-director, Kelly + Victor)

Animated Film: Frozen

Documentary: The Act Of Killing

Film Not In The English Language: The Great Beauty

Cinematography: Gravity

Costume Design: The Great Gatsby

Editing: Rush

Make Up And Hair: American Hustle

Original Music: Gravity

Production Design:  The Great Gatsby

Sound: Gravity

Special Visual Effects: Gravity

Short Animation: Sleeping With The Fishes

Short Film: Room 8

Rising Star: Will Poulter

Outstanding British Contribution To Cinema: Peter Greenaway

BAFTA Fellowship: Dame Helen Mirren

As usual, the ceremony was broadcast on time delay on BBC1 and Stephen Fry was, as expected, a wonderful host. Gravity proved to be the big winner with six BAFTAs, taking a lot of the technical awards as well as Best Director (no surprises there) with three awards for American Hustle (including a surprise win for Jennifer Lawrence as Best Supporting Actress) and two each for 12 Years A Slave and The Great Gatsby. Cate Blanchett paid tribute to the late Philip Seymour Hoffman in a moving and well-received acceptance speech for Best Actress and Helen Mirren's Fellowship acceptance speech was just lovely- I particularly loved the quote from The Tempest at the end. 

Awards season comes to a close on the first weekend of March, with the Razzies and the Independent Spirit Awards on 1 March and the 86th Annual Academy Awards on 2 March.

Awards Season 2014: DGA and WGA Awards

We are over halfway through the awards season this year- four major ceremonies still to take place (BAFTA Film Awards, Independent Spirit Awards, the Razzies, and the Academy Awards)- but there have recently been more Guild awards handed out. 

DIRECTORS GUILD AWARDS (DGA)

The DGAs were handed out on 25th January. The film winners are:

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Motion Pictures: Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary: Jehane Noujaim (The Square)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television: Steven Soderbergh (Behind The Candelabra)

With the DGA win, it would be a big surprise if anyone other than Cuaron gets named Best Director at the Oscars. He's consistently won the Director prizes throughout the awards season and, for the technical achievements in the film, he would be a worthy winner.

The Square is nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the Oscars so this bodes well for a win there.

WRITERS GUILD AWARDS (WGA)

The WGA were given out yesterday (1st February). The film winners are:

Original Screenplay: Her

Adapted Screenplay: Captain Phillips

Documentary Screenplay: Stories We Tell

Both Her and Captain Phillips are nominated in their respective categories for the Oscars but there are strong alternatives in both categories (American Hustle, Blue Jasmine, Dallas Buyers Club and Nebraska in Original Screenplay and Before Midnight, 12 Years A Slave, The Wolf Of Wall Street and Philomena in Adapted Screenplay). However, this does give them both a boost.

There is no category for Documentary screenwriting in the Oscars, but Stories We Tell was not nominated for Best Documentary Feature (neither was We Steal Secrets: The Story Of WikiLeaks, which won the Producers Guild Award). Just goes to show that documentary film-making is a broad and vibrant field, which is a good thing.

The next major awards to be handed out are the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday February 10th.

PS. I sadly missed it on Wednesday 29th January, but just a quick note to say Happy 2nd Birthday to The Watchers Film Show Blog! 

We've had over 26,000 pageviews in the two years we've been going, with an audience that spans the globe- from Russia to Brazil, China to Australia- so a great big thank you to everyone who reads and watches our reviews and features!

Awards Season 2014: Tez's Official Academy Award Nomination Predictions

On Thursday 16th January, at 5:38am PST, in the Samuel Goldwyn Theatre in Beverly Hills, Cheryl Boone Isaacs (president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences) and Chris Hemsworth (Thor, Rush, The Cabin In The Woods) will announce the nominations for the 86th Academy Awards, due to be held on Sunday 2nd March. 

As has been my practice for the last few years, I like to try and predict who will be nominated (this is done for Best Picture, Best Director and the four acting awards). Below is my list of who I think will be named on Thursday.

NB. Just like the last few years, the Academy rules state that there could be anywhere between five and ten Best Picture nominees. I have selected ten films. If the total number of films nominated is less than ten, but one of the movies selected is named in my list of ten, I will count it as a successful prediction.

BEST PICTURE

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Dallas Buyers Club

Gravity

Her

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Saving Mr. Banks

The Wolf Of Wall Street

BEST DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)

Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)

David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Martin Scorsese (The Wolf Of Wall Street)

BEST ACTOR

Christian Bale (American Hustle)

Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)

Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

Matthew McConaughey (Dallas Buyers Club)

BEST ACTRESS

Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Judi Dench (Philomena)

Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Daniel Bruhl (Rush)

Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)

Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave)

Jared Leto (Dallas Buyers Club)

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)

Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)

June Squibb (Nebraska)

Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

As usual, I think there are some definites, a few maybes and perhaps a couple of WTFs in my predictions.

Her is probably an outside shot for a Best Picture nomination, but stranger things have happened. With Best Director, I've gone for the five nominated for the BAFTA and for the DGA - however, that doesn't mean that it's set. Alexander Payne may well sneak a nomination for Nebraska (possibly in place of Scorsese). 

In the Best Actor category, there's always a chance that Robert Redford (All Is Lost) or Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street) could be named. Of the five names up there, I'd say Christian Bale is the one in most risk of being replaced. With Best Actress, Meryl Streep could well be named for August: Osage County or- if the Academy are in the mood to throw a curve-ball (which they often are)- Adele Exarchopoulos for Blue Is The Warmest Color. 

With Best Supporting Actor, there are a couple of additional choices that the Academy could go for - the one that springs to mind is the late James Gandolfini for Enough Said (his final role). It was touch-and-go whether I put Sally Hawkins down for Best Supporting Actress (for Blue Jasmine) but in the end I opted for Oprah Winfrey instead.

Usually a score of 15 is adequate, but given the fact that there could be anywhere between 5 and 10 Best Picture awards, I'ill be happy with a prediction of 18 or higher. I'll add the official nominations once they're announced on Thursday afternoon.

Tez

Awards Season 2014: BAFTA Nominations

For those who may have been wondering (not very many of you, I expect), the slight delay in putting up this post comes from a move of house. But fear not, trusty award season aficionados (all 3 of you), I am now well and truly internet-ted up and can post away. Joy unbounded, eh?

Anyway, Awards Season is well and truly in full swing: it's Golden Globes weekend, and the nominations have been announced for the Producers Guild Awards, the Directors Guild Awards, and the Writers Guild Awards. Next week will see the announcement of the Razzies (on Wednesday 15th) before the Oscar nominations are announced on Thursday 16th. I will, as last year, put my official Oscar nomination predictions up the day before the announcement.

My main reason for posting, though, is that earlier this week- Wednesday 8th January, to be precise- the nominations were announced for this years BAFTA Film Awards. Here's a selection of the nominations:

BEST FILM

12 Years A Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Philomena

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Gravity

Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom

Philomena

Rush

Saving Mr. Banks

The Selfish Giant

LEADING ACTOR

Christian Bale (American Hustle)

Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf Of Wall Street)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years A Slave)

Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

LEADING ACTRESS

Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Judi Dench (Philomena)

Emma Thompson (Saving Mr. Banks)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Barkhad Abdi (Captain Phillips)

Daniel Bruhl (Rush)

Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)

Matt Damon (Behind The Candelabra)

Michael Fassbender (12 Years A Slave)

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)

Lupita Nyong'o (12 Years A Slave)

Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

DIRECTOR

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)

Steve McQueen (12 Years A Slave)

David O. Russell (American Hustle)

Martin Scorsese (The Wolf Of Wall Street)

A full list can be found here.

There's a few interesting additions and omissions here, mostly Matt Damon's nomination for Behind The Candelabra. Both he and Michael Douglas gave great performances but, as it didn't get a cinema release in the US, it's ineligible for a lot of the major awards. However, it was released in the cinema here. A lot of the usual names have been mentioned, but in some categories- mostly Leading Actor and Supporting Actress- there are a few lesser mentioned names which could make for an interesting curve-ball or two come the Oscar nominations. I'd absolutely love to see Sally Hawkins get an Oscar nod for Blue Jasmine.

Interestingly, the five nominations for Best Director tally directly with the Directors Guild Awards so I would expect to see all five names mentioned on Thursday. 

Next up for Awards Season will be Golden Globe results on Monday.

Enjoy your weekend.

Tez

Review: Captain Phillips (UK Cert 12A)

In 2009, the US cargo ship Maersk Alabama became the first US cargo ship in two hundred years to be hijacked when it was boarded by Somali pirates off the Horn of Africa. The captain, Richard Phillips, was kidnapped but survived his ordeal- and even returned to sea the following year. He wrote a book about his experiences which has now been filmed with Tom Hanks in the lead role. Part base under siege movie, part chase thriller, part psychological drama, Captain Phillips certainly isn't a cheery film but it is a very fine one.

I've never really had much time for Tom Hanks as an actor. I don't dislike him, but he's never exactly got my pulse racing in any of his parts (even the big award-winners, like Philadelphia or Forrest Gump). It's not the most flattering description, but the word that always comes to my mind for Tom Hanks is dependable. He's a safe pair of hands, a reliable actor always giving solid, decent performances. And that's what you get here: a solid, decent performance. Hanks' Phillips is a cautious, principled man, prepared to put himself in the line of fire to save his crew. 

The other standout performance is by Barkhad Abdi as Muse, the captain of the Somali pirates. The script does not simply portray the pirates as pantomime, one-dimensional villains to be smote by the forces of good. There is a judicious use of backstory- as is traditional, there's always someone higher up the chain- and there is a real tension between Muse and the other members of the crew which threatens to spill out at any moment. The scenes in the lifeboat are at times unbearably tense as the pirates argue and bicker.

Paul Greengrass brings the same taut, claustrophobic and tense style to Captain Phillips than he showed in the brilliant but harrowing United 93 (2006). The scenes as the pirates search the Maersk Alabama, whilst the crew wait in darkness, is a real nerve-shredder. There are moments of violence but few and far between and not incredibly graphic.  

It's shot well and the performances are exceptionally good throughout. It's not exactly a feelgood movie but it is a gripping take on a truly remarkable story.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Tez