2018 BAFTA Awards Winners

A few days back BAFTA had their awards ceremony and followed the awards winners via twitter to later watch the TV broadcast with a ceremony that was a succession of awards presented by cinema personalities and was kind of boring with exception of the outstanding beginning with the Cirque du Soleil doing The Shape of Water inspired presentation.

Truth is that got interested in finding via twitter which film was winning what; but when became obvious that the big winner of the night was going to be 3B's completely lost me and my interest as do not particularly enjoyed that film.  Sigh.

Yes, the big winner of the night was Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri as collected five statues and most were top awards as Best Film, Best British Film, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Screenplay.  The Shape of Water had the most nominations but collected only three with only one top award, Best Director to Guillermo del Toro who becomes frontrunner/favorite to win same category Oscar.

Somehow due to BAFTA's results have lost interest in Oscars as even do this season it is not easy to predict winners, the problem becomes that what I really like most likely will not be honored and what I disliked will prevail.  Not the first year this happens but previously happened because it was so-easy to guess that became boring.

Winners are in *BLUE.  To check winners go official site here.

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1/10/18
Yesterday the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has announced the nominations for their current edition that honors films released during 2017 and while many say there are not much surprises, my spontaneous reaction was that there are some surprises.  Perhaps more noticeable is the inclusion of Stars Don't Die in Liverpool which until now, gathered almost no buzz or honors in the running awards season and no doubt The Post snub is also very noticeable.

Every year there are some differences between BAFTA and Oscar nominations as even when both honor English-language films, British Academy members tend to favor British films above American films, well, perhaps more clearly, American independent films.  This year is no exception as Get Out and Lady Bird were snubbed from film top categories and got nominations only for actors; believe this could and should be different when Oscar nominations are known by the end of this month.

Was reading a comment left in the blog about this year not being "wow" by any of the films with awards buzz.  One of the things I've learned from doing this every year is that when every time films are adequate/well-done nominations and awards are spread among several films.  It's only in those years where there is one, and more exceptional, two truly outstanding films when races become interesting and cinephiles become interested in following what's going on with awards.  Haven't seen yet all this awards season films, but from those I've seen some were impossible/not-pleasant to watch, some were acceptable, others where nice or made me recall other films because of style (like Lady Bird and Juno) and up-to-this-moment only one film made me feel I was watching something special, above all others, The Shape of Water.  But agree with comment, The Shape of Water didn't "wow" me.  Nevertheless, I have been "wow" by some foreign-language films, so will not complain as already had my necessary dosages of Great Cinema.

The Shape of Water leads the pack with twelve (12) nominations followed by Darkest Hour and Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri with nine (9) each; with eight (8) each Blade Runner 2049 and Dunkirk.

Best Film
Call Me by Your Name
Darkest Hour
Dunkirk
The Shape of Water
*Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Outstanding British Film
Darkest Hour
The Death of Stalin
God's Own Country
Lady Macbeth
Paddington 2
*Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Film Not In The English Language
Elle, Paul Verhoeven
First They Killed My Father, Angelina Jolie
*The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook
Loveless, Andrey Zvyagintsev
The Salesman, Asghar Farhadi

Documentary
City of Ghosts, Matthew Heineman
*I Am Not Your Negro, Raoul Peck
Icarus, Bryan Fogel
An Incovenient Sequel, Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk
Jane, Brett Morgen

Animated Film 
*Coco
Loving Vincent
My Life as a Courgette

Director
Denis Villeneuve for Blade Runner 2049
Luca Guadagnino for Call Me by Your Name
Christopher Nolan for Dunkirk
*Guillermo del Toro for The Shape of Water
Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Gareth Tunley (writer/director/producer), Jack Healy Guttman and Tom Meeten (producers) for The Ghoul
*Rungano Nyoni (writer/director) and Emily Morgan (producer) for I Am Not A Witch
Johnny Harris (writer/producer) and Thomas Napper (director) for Jawbone
Lucy Cohen (director) for Kingdom of Us
Alice Birch (writer), William Oldroyd (director) and Fodhla Cronin O'Reilly (producer) for Lady Macbeth

Leading Actress
Annette Bening in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
*Frances McDormand in Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri
Margot Robbie in I, Tonya
Sally Hawkins in The Shape of Water
Saoirse Ronan in Lady Bird

Supporting Actress
*Allison Janney in I, Tonya
Kristin Scott Thomas in Darkest Hour
Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird
Lesley Manville in Phantom Thread
Octavia Spencer in The Shape of Water

Leading Actor
Daniel Day-Lewis in Phantom Thread
Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out
*Gary Oldman in Darkest Hour
Jamie Bell in Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
Timothee Chalamet in Call Me by Your Name

Supporting Actor
Christopher Plummer in All the Money in the World
Hugh Grant in Paddington 2
*Sam Rockwell in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
William Dafoe in The Florida Project
Woody Harrelson in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Rising Star in 2017
*Daniel Kaluuya
Florence Pugh
Josh O'Connor
Tessa Thompson
Timothee Chalamet

Original Screenplay
Jordan Peele for Get Out
Steven Rogers for I, Tonya
Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird
Guillermo del Toro and Vanessa Taylor for The Shape of Water
*Martin McDonagh for Three Billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri

Adapted Screenplay
*James Ivory for Call Me by Your Name
Armando Iannucci, Ian Martin and David Schneider for The Death of Stalin
Matt Greenhalgh for Film Stars Don't Die in Liverpool
Aaron Sorkin for Molly's Game
Simon Farnaby and Paul King for Paddington 2

Original Music
Benjamin Wallfisch and Hans Zimmer for Blade Runner 2049
Dario Marianelli for Darkest Hour
Hans Zimmer for Dunkirk
Jonny Greenwood for Phantom Thread
*Alexandre Desplat for The Shape of Water

Cinematography
*Roger Deakins for Blade Runner 2049
Bruno Delbonnel for Darkest Hour
Hoyte van Hoytema for Dunkirk
Dan Lautsen for The Shape of Water
Ben Davis for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Editing
*Jonathan Amos and Paul Machliss for Baby Driver
Joe Walker for Blade Runner 2049
Lee Smith for Dunkirk
Sidney Wolinsky for The Shape of Water
Jon Gregory for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri

Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for Beauty and the Beast
Dennis Gassner and Alessandra Querzola for Blade Runner 2049
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for Darkest Hour
Nathan Crowley and Gary Fettis for Dunkirk
*Paul Austerberry, Jeff Melvin and Shane Vieau for The Shape of Water

Costume Design
Jacqueline Durran for Beauty and the Beast
Jacqueline Durran for Darkest Hour
Jennifer Johnson for I, Tonya
*Mark Bridges for Phantom Thread
Luis Sequeira for The Shape of Water

Make Up & Hair
Donald Mowat and Kerry Warn for Blade Runner 2049
*David Malinowski, Ivana Primorac, Lucy Sibbick and Kazuhiro Tsuji for Darkest Hour
Deborah La Mia Deaver and Adruitha Lee for I, Tonya
Daniel Phillips for Victoria & Abdul
Naomi Bakstad, Robert A, Pandini and Arjen Tuiten for Wonder

Sound
Tim Cavaganin, Mary H. Ellis and Julian Slater for Baby Driver
Ron Barlett, Doug Hemphill, Mark Mangini, and Mac Ruth for Blade Runner 2049
*Richard King, Gregg Landaker, Gary A. Rizzo and Mark Weingarten for Dunkirk
Christian Cooke, Glen Gauthier, Nathan Robitaille, Brad Zoern for The Shape of Water
Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick, Stuart Wilson and Matthew Wood for Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Special Visual Effects
*Gerd Nefzer and John Nelson for Blade Runner 2049
Scott Fisher and Andrew Jackson for Dunkirk
Dennis Berardi, Trey Harrel and Kevin Scott for The Shape of Water
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
War for the Planet of the Apes

British Short Film
Aamir, Vika Evdokimenko, Emma Stone and Oliver Shuster
*Cowboy Dave, Colin O'Toole and Jonas Mortensen
A Drowning Man, Mahdi Fleifel, Signe Burge Sorensen and Patrick Campbell
Work, Aneil Karia and Scott O'Donnell
Wren Boys, Harry Lighton, Sorcha Bacon and John Fitzpatrick

British Short Animation
Have Heart, Will Anderson
Mamoon, Ben Steer
*Poles Apart, Paloma Baeza and Ser En Low

To check nominations at official site go here.  Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday February 18 at the Royal Albert Hall, London.  The ceremony will be hosted for the first time by Joanna Lumley and will be be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD.  As every year we expect no real time broadcast (tv show starts one hour after real awards ceremony) and the only way to follow live is to check twitter (sigh!).  Organizers should start to think about making awards ceremony more accessible to the world as live-streaming becomes so easy-to-do and those interested (like me) will highly appreciate the opportunity of watching live.