2014 BAFTA Award Winners

Awards ceremony will start in a few minutes. BAFTA will NOT be broadcast live -so NO live stream- but BAFTA twitter account will announce winners live.

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Right now BBC One is broadcasting the awards ceremony so if you wish to enjoy the fantastic British peculiar great humor, suggest you watch it. In a bit the video will be available and will post it here for you to enjoy.

I'm extremely pleased with the top awards winners BUT as always there is an exception as was hoping Steve McQueen to win Best Director as he was superior to all the other nominees but already confessed that I have a hard time with directors of films crowded with special visual effects, sigh.

Think that there are some winners in non-top categories that will duplicate their win in Oscar but as we all know, this year will not be easy to guess what American Academy members will vote for and Bafta did NOT do much to help us guessing!!! Now what follows is an exercise to extrapolate what I like from what Academy members could do, maybe then I can guess right.

Nevertheless in the other categories my biggest disappointment was that the "Public" did not recognized the fantastic work of Léa Seydoux beyond her Cannes Palm award win, but then this was England and perhaps Brits still do not like that much the French (LOL!).

Then we go to the Foreign Language film category and the most difficult decision as most, including BAFTA, prefer The Great Beauty above Kechiche's oeuvre; I understand as Paolo Sorrentino with this movie had to do an homage to one of my most adored directors, Federico Fellini. Yes, La Grande Bellezza is decadent, as decadent as Fellini and that's why I simply loved this film. But Kechiche film is a fantastic incredible simple, told (narration+visuals) very straight-forward, very realistic romance that hits viewers HARD. Anyway my point is that in Oscar THERE SHOULD BE A TIE. (LOL).

Peter Greenway gets an award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema. Dame Helen Mirren wins the Academy Fellowship.

Winners are in *BLUE. If you wish to read the winners at the official site go here.

See you next year!!!

1/8/14
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Today the British Academy announced the nominations for the current edition with no real surprises, except finding that nods look quite similar to what Oscar nominations could be but somehow was expected as most movies with Oscar buzz have something British. Gravity leads the pack with 11 nominations closely followed by 12 Years a Slave and American Hustle with 10 each. Captain Phillips follows with 9 nominations. So indeed by the numbers is a close race.

The EE British Academy Film Awards take place on Sunday 16 February at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, London. The ceremony will be hosted by Stephen Fry and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD, preceded by a red carpet show on BBC Three. The ceremony is also broadcast in all major territories around the world.

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

Film Not In The English Language
The Act of Killing
Blue is the Warmest Color
*The Great Beauty
Metro Manila
Wadja

Documentary
*The Act of Killing
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish
Tim's Vermeer
We Steal Secrets: The Story of Wikileaks

Animated Film
Despicable Me 2
*Frozen
Monster University

Director
Steve McQueen for 12 Years a Slave
David O. Russell for American Hustle
Paul Greengrass for Captain Phillips
*Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
Martin Scorsese for The Wolf of Wall Street

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Colin Carberry (Writer) and Glenn Patterson (Writer) for Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel (Writer) for Saving Mr. Banks
*Kieran Evans (Director/Writer) for Kelly + Victor
Paul Wright (Director/Writer) and Polly Stokes (Producer) for Those in Peril
Scott Graham (Director/Writer) for Shell

Leading Actress
Amy Adams in American Hustle
*Cate Blanchett in Blue Jasmine
Emma Thompson in Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench in Philomena
Sandra Bullock in Gravity

Supporting Actress
*Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle
Julia Roberts in August: Osage County
Lupita Nyong'o in 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey in The Butler
Sally Hawkings in Blue Jasmine

Leading Actor
Bruce Dern in Nebraska
*Chiwetel Ejiofor in 12 Years a Slave
Christian Bale in American Hustle
Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street
Tom Hanks in Captain Phillips

Supporting Actor
*Barkhad Abdi in Captain Phillips
Bradley Cooper in American Hustle
Daniel Bruhl in Rush
Matt Damon in Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave

Original Screenplay
*Eric Warren Singer and David O. Russell for American Hustle
Woody Allen for Blue Jasmine
Alfonso Cuarón and Jonas Cuarón for Gravity
Joel and Ethan Coen for Inside Llewyn Davis
Bob Nelson for Nebraska

Adapted Screenplay
John Ridley for 12 Years a Slave
Richard LaGravenese for Behind The Candelabra
Billy Ray for Captain Phillips
*Steve Coogan and Jeff Pope for Philomena
Terence Winter for The Wolf of Wall Street

Original Music
Hans Zimmer for 12 Years a Slave
John Williams for The Book Thief
Henry Jackman for Captain Phillips
*Steven Price for Gravity
Thomas Newman for Saving Mr. Banks

Cinematography
Sean Bobbitt for 12 Years a Slave
Barry Ackroyd for Captain Phillips
*Emmanuel Lubezki for Gravity
Bruno Delbonnel for Inside Llewyn Davis
Phedon Papamichael for Nebraska

Editing
Joe Walker for 12 Years a Slave
Christopher Rouse for Captain Phillips
Mark Sanger and Alfonso Cuarón for Gravity
*Dan Hanley and Mike Hill for Rush
Thelma Schoonmaker for The Wolf of Wall Street

Production Design
Adam Stockhausen and Alice Baker for 12 Years a Slave
Judy Becker and Heather Loeffler for American Hustle
Howard Cummings for Behind The Candelabra
Andy Nicholson, Rosie Goodwin and Joanne Woodlard for Gravity
*Catherine Martin and Beverly Dunn for The Great Gatsby

Costume Design
Michael Wilkinson for American Hustle
Ellen Mirojnick for Behind the Candelabra
*Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby
Michael O'Connor for The Invisible Woman
Daniel Orlandi for Saving Mr. Banks

Make Up & Hair
*Evelyne Noraz and Lori McCoy-Bell for American Hustle
Kate Biscoe and Marie Larkin for Behind the Candelabra
Mauricio Silvi and Kerry Warn for The Great Gatsby
Debra Deson, Beverly Jo Pryor and Candance Neal for The Butler
Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor and Rick Findlater for The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Sound
Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur for All Is Lost
Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney for Captain Phillips
*Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro for Gravity
Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse for Rush
Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff for Inside Llewyn Davis

Special Visual Effects
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds for The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug
*Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny for Gravity
Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick for Iron Man 3
Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner for Pacific Rim
Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton, Patrick Tubach, Roger Guyett for Star Trek Into Darkness

British Short Film
Island Queen
Keeping Up with the Joneses
Orbit Even After
*Room 8
Sea View

British Short Animation
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody
*Sleeping With The Fishes

Rising Star in 2014
Dane Dehaan
Lupita Nyong’o
George Mackay
*Will Poulter
Léa Seydoux

To see nominees in BAFTA's site go here. Perhaps where these nominations differ from the Oscars is with the inclusion of Philomena in the Best Picture category and more beyond Judi Dench Best Actress nomination plus I'm still not sure if Leonardo DiCaprio will make it to the five Oscar nominees but he did make it to BAFTA as Matthew McConaughey is not in as well as anyone from Dallas Buyers Club, but I'm almost sure Christian Bale will not make it to Oscar.

Notorious is the absence of Meryl Streep which allowed Amy Adams to be included in the five nominees, with this snub now believe that Best Actress Oscar category is locked and winner is highly predictable. In the supporting categories Oprah Winfrey now has good chances of getting an Oscar nod as well as Daniel Bruhl.

Most notable is that BAFTA's five nominees in the Director category are exactly the same as the nominees announced yesterday by the Directors Guild, but still have the feeling that in Oscar one director will be different.

Interesting trivia, Judi Dench becomes BAFTA film awards' most-nominated actress in history and Woody Allen becomes the most-nominated director in BAFTA history.

The Nominations Announcement video