BAFTA Nominations and Predictions

Currently watching the BAFTA red carpet live stream which means we should be getting spoilerific updates for the actual awards in a couple of hours. But first some quick thoughts and predictions!

Best Film

• Arrival
• I, Daniel Blake
• La La Land
• Manchester by the Sea
• Moonlight

Best British Film

• American Honey
• Denial
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• I, Daniel Blake
• Notes on Blindness
• Under the Shadow

Just last year, there was no overlap between these two categories. This year there's one film I, Daniel Blake which hasn't made its way here in the US yet. Of course, awards front-runner La La Land is here and leads with 11 nods followed closely by 9 nods for Arrival.

SHOULD WIN: La La Land for Best Film, American Honey for British Film
WILL WIN: La La Land for Best Film, Daniel Blake for British Film

Best Director

• Denis Villeneuve, Arrival
• Ken Loach, I, Daniel Blake
• Damien Chazelle, La La Land
• Kenneth Lonergan, Manchester by the Sea
• Tom Ford, Nocturnal Animals

Nocturnal Animals also garnered 9 nods, but without a Best Film nomination. It did get Best Director knocking off a possible nomination for Moonlight's Barry Jenkins. Loach could be a surprise win, but everyone's betting on DGA-winner Chazelle.

SHOULD WIN: Damien Chazelle
WILL WIN: Damien Chazelle

Best Actor

• Andrew Garfield, Hacksaw Ridge
• Casey Affleck, Manchester by the Sea
• Jake Gyllenhaal, Nocturnal Animals
• Ryan Gosling, La La Land
• Viggo Mortensen, Captain Fantastic

Best Actress

• Amy Adams, Arrival
• Emily Blunt, The Girl on the Train
• Emma Stone, La La Land
• Meryl Streep, Florence Foster Jenkins
• Natalie Portman, Jackie

Most of these names are Oscar-nominated but the ones that weren't are worth pointing out. The Brits really liked Nocturnal Animals and not so much for Fences so Gyllenhaal replacing Denzel Washington made sense. It's a bit more surprising to see Blunt replace Ruth Negga (both British so that didn't make an impact). The racial optics of both replacement isn't great. FYI, Isabelle Huppert wasn't eligible. Could Garfield surprise as a Brit in the increasingly competitive Actor category?

SHOULD WIN: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone
WILL WIN: Casey Affleck, Emma Stone

Best Supporting Actor

• Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Nocturnal Animals
• Dev Patel, Lion
• Hugh Grant, Florence Foster Jenkins
• Jeff Bridges, Hell or High Water
• Mahershala Ali, Moonlight

Best Supporting Actress

• Hayley Squires, I, Daniel Blake
• Michelle Williams, Manchester by the Sea
• Naomie Harris, Moonlight
• Nicole Kidman, Lion
• Viola Davis, Fences

We all know Viola is winning this award, but her film didn't get much love while the others got a lot of love. Supporting Actor could be interesting as well. Ali is the favorite, but how about Globe-winner Taylor-Johnson or home-town favorite Patel and Grant?

SHOULD WIN: Mahershala Ali, Viola Davis
WILL WIN: Hugh Grant, Nicole Kidman

Best Original Screenplay

• Hell or High Water
• I, Daniel Blake
• La La Land
• Manchester by the Sea
• Moonlight

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Arrival
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Hidden Figures
• Lion
• Nocturnal Animals

Moonlight is in the Adapted category for the Oscars and just won the Scripter Awards last night. But the safe bet would be Manchester by the Sea (unless La La Land sweeps) for Original and one of Amy's films for Adapted.

SHOULD WIN: Moonlight, Lion
WILL WIN: Manchester by the Sea, Nocturnal Animals

Best Film Not in the English Language

• Dheepan
• Julieta
• Mustang
• Son of Saul
• Toni Erdmann

Best Documentary

• 13th
• The Beatles: Eight Days a Week – The Touring Years
• The Eagle Huntress
• Notes on Blindness
• Weiner

Best Animated Film

• Finding Dory
• Kubo and the Two Strings
• Moana
• Zootropolis

Zootropolis should continue its season-long domination. With Documentary, I have no earthly idea while in Foreign it's 2016 favorite vs. 2017 favorite with Son of Saul and Toni Erdmann. I think Erdmann has momentum though.

SHOULD WIN: Toni Erdmann, 13th, Zootropolis
WILL WIN: Toni Erdman, The Beatles, Zootropolis

Best Cinematography

• Arrival
• Hell or High Water
• La La Land
• Lion
• Nocturnal Animals

Best Editing

• Arrival
• Hacksaw Ridge
• La La Land
• Manchester by the Sea
• Nocturnal Animals

Best Production Design

• Doctor Strange
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Hail, Caesar!
• La La Land
• Nocturnal Animals

Best Costume Design

• Allied
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Jackie
• La La Land

Best Make Up & Hair

• Doctor Strange
• Florence Foster Jenkins
• Hacksaw Ridge
• Nocturnal Animals
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

Best Original Music

• Arrival
• Jackie
• La La Land
• Lion
• Nocturnal Animals

Best Sound

• Arrival
• Deepwater Horizon
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• Hacksaw Ridge
• La La Land

Best Special Visual Effects

• Arrival
• Doctor Strange
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them
• The Jungle Book
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story

La La Land could easily sweep but there's some strong competition in a few of the categories. Plus someone else will have to win in Visual Effects and Make-Up/Hair (a weird miss for the musical IMO).

WILL WIN: Arrival for Cinematography, La La Land for Editing, Fantastic Beast for Production Design, Florence Foster for Costume, Nocturnal Animals for Make Up/Hair, La La Land for Music, La La Land for Sound, Jungle Book for Visual Effects.

Best British Debut

• The Girl With All the Gifts – Mike Carey (writer), Camille Gatin (producer)
• The Hard Stop – George Amponsah (writer/director/producer), Dionne Walker (writer/producer)
• Notes on Blindness - Peter Middleton (writer/director/producer), James Spinney (writer/director), Jo-Jo Ellison (producer)
• The Pass – John Donnelly (writer), Ben A Williams (director)
• Under the Shadow – Babak Anvari (writer/director), Emily Leo, Oliver Roskill, Lucan Toh (producers)

Best British Short Animation

• The Alan Dimension
• A Love Story
• Tough

Best British Short Film

• Consumed
• Home
• Mouth of Hell
• The Party
• Standby

EE Rising Star Award

• Anya Taylor-Joy
• Laia Costa
• Lucas Hedges
• Ruth Negga
• Tom Holland

I'm fairly ignorant on these British categories so I'll have to plead the fifth when it comes to commenting on them. As for the Rising Star award, could anyone actually beat Spider-Man Tom Holland?

WILL WIN: Notes on Blindness for Britist Debut, The Alan Dimension for Animation Short, The Party for Short Film, and Tom Holland for Rising Star.

BAFTA loves Revenant, Mad Max, & Titanic Reunion

The British celebrated Valentine's Day by giving out a few awards at the BAFTAs though they showed shockingly little love for homegrown talent. First, the list of winners:

Best Film: The Revenant
Best British Film: Brooklyn
Best Director: Alejandro González Iñarritu, The Revenant
Best Actor: Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
Best Actress: Brie Larson, Room
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies
Best Supporting Actress: Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
Best Original Screenplay: Spotlight
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Big Short
Best Foreign Language Film: Wild Tales
Best Documentary: Amy
Best Animated Film: Inside Out
Best Film Editing: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Production Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Cinematography: The Revenant
Best Costume Design: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Makeup & Hair: Mad Max: Fury Road
Best Original Music: The Hateful Eight
Best Sound: The Revenant
Best Visual Effects: Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Best British Debut: Naji Abu Nowar & Rupert Lloyd, Theeb
Orange Rising Star: John Boyega

As I had predicted, The Revenant and Brooklyn won both Film Awards with the first film coming out on top with 5 wins overall including Directing and Actor. Suffice it to say, it's become the favorite to win those same categories at the Academy Awards and like the movie itself, we just have to bear it until it ends. Brooklyn's lone win along with Winslet (yay!) and Rylance winning supporting trophies were the few wins that went to homegrown talent as the awards took on a highly non-British tilt. It was most evident by the wins for DiCaprio and Larson in spite of strong British opposition in their categories as well as the strong showing of Mad Max: Fury Road with four wins. Screenplay awards, increasingly becoming the consolation prizes of the season, went to the two other Oscar favorites Spotlight and The Big Short. It was a "spread the wealth" kind of night though a few major films went home empty-handed (Carol, The Martian, The Danish Girl).

In terms of what these awards mean for the Oscars, you can probably bet your house on DiCaprio, Larson, Amy for Documentary, Inside Out for Animated Film, the two screenplay awards for Spotlight and The Big Short and for Mad Max: Fury Road to pick up AT LEAST 3 technical awards. The Revenant looks likely to win Picture/Director and Winslet has at least a 50/50 chance to win Supporting against Vikander. In terms of my predictions, I went a low 12/22 since I predicted MORE films picking up hardware and for the British to actually champion British talent, but ALAS.

BAFTA Nominations and Predictions

The BAFTAs are happening in London in just few hours so before that, I wanted to get in my quick thoughts and predictions.

Best Film

• The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Carol
• The Revenant
• Spotlight

Best British film

• 45 Years
• Amy
• Brooklyn
• The Danish Girl
• Ex Machina
• The Lobster

I'm sure it's happened before, but it's quite uncommon to have no film overlap between Best Film and Best British Film. Does that say more to the strength of American films this year or the weakness of British films? I won't get into that conversation, but it IS telling that the top 4 films in nomination tally are non-British--Bridge of Spies, Carol, The Revenant, Mad Max. Speaking of the latter, even with 7 nominations and a non-American director, it shockingly missed a Best Film nomination.

SHOULD WIN: The Big Short for Best Film, Brooklyn for Best British Film
PREDICTION: The Revenant for Best Film, Brooklyn for Best British Film

Best Director

• Adam McKay, The Big Short
• Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies
• Todd Haynes, Carol
• Ridley Scott, The Martian
• Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant

This year seems to have shaped up into an apology tour for deigning to not give Iñárritu the win last year over (IMO more deserving) Richard Linklater's Boyhood despite winning the Oscars, but whatever. Which is to say, he's the most likely front-runner. I would like to think Scott would get not only home votes, but also sympathy votes for missing out on the Oscar nomination. Then again, it's insane to see George Miller miss out here.

SHOULD WIN: Todd Haynes
PREDICTION: Ridley Scott

Best Actor

• Bryan Cranston, Trumbo
• Eddie Redmayne, The Danish Girl
• Leonardo DiCaprio, The Revenant
• Matt Damon, The Martian
• Michael Fassbender, Steve Jobs

Best Actress

• Alicia Vikander, The Danish Girl
• Brie Larson, Room
• Cate Blanchett, Carol
• Maggie Smith, The Lady in the Van
• Saoirse Ronan, Brooklyn

Actor is a 5/5 match with Oscars and had been quite consistent all awards season long while Actress went 3/5 with Oscars nominating Smith instead of Charlotte Rampling (which was a shock) and opting to put Vikander's Danish Girl role here instead of in supporting while Oscar put her in supporting and picked Jennifer Lawrence to fill her spot. In terms of winners, this could actually get interesting if the British voting body decide to support home-spun talent (Fassbender? Redmayne? Ronan? Vikander?) versus the current prevailing American front-runners (DiCaprio, Ronan).

SHOULD WIN: Michael Fassbender for Actor, Brie Larson for Actress
PREDICTION: Leonardo DiCaprio for Actor, Saoirse Ronan for Actress

Best Supporting Actor

• Benicio del Toro, Sicario
• Christian Bale, The Big Short
• Idris Elba, Beasts of No Nation
• Mark Ruffalo, Spotlight
• Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies

Best Supporting Actress

• Alicia Vikander, Ex Machina
• Jennifer Jason Leigh, The Hateful Eight
• Julie Walters, Brooklyn
• Kate Winslet, Steve Jobs
• Rooney Mara, Carol

The miss here for Sylvester Stallone (and Creed in general) is an anomaly, but it's even stranger to see Oscar-nominated Tom Hardy not get a notice. Similarly, I would've thought BAFTA would've nominated Helen Mirren, but delightfully they ended up going for the severely unrewarded Julie Walters. Vikander, of course, gets her second nomination of the year and is the likely front-runner while Elba seems to be the smart pick for the guys.

SHOULD WIN: Idris Elba for Supporting Actor, Kate Winslet for Supporting Actress
PREDICTION: Idris Elba for Supporting Actor, Alicia Vikander for Supporting Actress

Best Original Screenplay

• Bridge of Spies
• Ex Machina
• The Hateful Eight
• Inside Out
• Spotlight

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Big Short
• Brooklyn
• Carol
• Room
• Steve Jobs

The easy picks for both would be Spotlight and The Big Short especially since the first film has had very little competition in its category all season and the latter seems to have coalesced as the late-season favorite. The one mild shock is not seeing The Martian's screenplay nominated for adapted but I supposed they didn't fully embrace that film. I'm hoping we see some surprises, but I fully believe we won't.

SHOULD WIN: Inside Out for Original, Room for Adapted
PREDICTION: Spotlight for Original, The Big Short for Adapted

Best Non-English Film

• The Assassin
• Force Majeure
• Theeb
• Timbuktu
• Wild Tales

Best Documentary

• Amy
• Cartel Land
• He Named Me Malala
• Listen to Me Marlon
• Sherpa

Best Animated Film

• Inside Out
• Minions
• Shaun the Sheep the Movie

Amy and Inside Out are locked to win not only because of their season-long momentum, but also their popularity across the pond. The Foreign Fim category is a bit more interesting as awards favorite Son of Saul was ineligible. Theeb is the only one Oscar-nominated this year (and British-helmed) while The Assassin and Timbuktu got some critic notices. Meanwhile Force Majeure and Wild Tales made more noise the previous year's award season.

PREDICTION: Theeb, Amy, and Inside Out

Best Cinematography

• Bridge of Spies
• Carol
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant
• Sicario

Best Editing

• The Big Short
• Bridge of Spies
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant

Best Production Design

• Bridge of Spies
• Carol
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Costume Design

• Brooklyn
• Carol
• Cinderella
• The Danish Girl
• Mad Max: Fury Road

Best Make-up and Hair

• Brooklyn
• Carol
• The Danish Girl
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Revenant

Best Original Music

• Bridge of Spies
• The Hateful Eight
• The Revenant
• Sicario
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Sound

• Bridge of Spies
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• The Revenant
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

Best Visual Effects

• Ant-Man
• Ex Machina
• Mad Max: Fury Road
• The Martian
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The tech categories is where Mad Max: Fury Road shone getting all of its 7 nominations in these 8 categories (missing just Original Music). If it had gotten more nods above the line, I'd be more confident in predicting a clean sweep but alas I'm predicting a share-the-wealth scenario with no one film getting more than 2.

PREDICTION: The Revenant for Cinematography; Mad Max: Fury Road for Editing, Sound; Bridge of Spies for Production Design; Carol for Costume Design; The Danish Girl for Make-Up and Hair; The Hateful Eight for Original Music; Star Wars: The Force Awakens for Visual Effects

Best Debut by British Writer, Director or Producer

• Alex Garland (director, Ex Machina)
• Debbie Tucker Green (writer/director, Second Coming)
• Naji Abu Nowar (writer/director, Theeb), Rupert Lloyd (producer, Theeb)
• Sean McAllister (director/producer, A Syrian Love Story), Elhum Shakerifar (producer, A Syrian Love Story)
• Stephen Fingleton (writer/director, The Survivalist)

Best British Short Animation

• Edmond
• Manoman
• Prologue

Best British Short Film

• Elephant
• Mining Poems or Odes
• Operator
• Over
• Samuel-613

Rising Star Award

• Bel Powley
• Brie Larson
• Dakota Johnson
• John Boyega
• Taron Egerton

I have no idea about any of the Short categories so my predictions will literally be a blind guess. As for Best Debut, I'm thinking Garland has it in the bag. But the more interesting category is of course the Rising Star Award (which is voted on by the public) as it contains not only a bunch of actors who I know, but also really like. I think it's a likely toss-up between Boyega and Egerton both handsome British young men in populist films.

PREDICTION: Alex Garland for Best Debut, Manoman for Best Animated Short, Samuel-613 for Best Short Film, and John Boyega for Rising Star

BAFTA picks Boyhood, Theory of Everything, & Grand Budapest Hotel

I just posted my thoughts on Oscar nominations after a few weeks late, so it's not a big surprise that I completely forgot to make predictions for the BAFTA Awards which were held earlier today. I'd like to say I would've done well if I proceeded to, but that doesn't matter now. Anyways, the winners:

Best Film: Boyhood
Best British Film: The Theory of Everything
Best Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood
Best Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of the Everything
Best Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice
Best Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash
Best Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
Best Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Adapted Screenplay: The Theory of Everything
Best Foreign Language Film: Ida
Best Documentary: Citizenfour
Best Animated Film: The LEGO Movie
Best Film Editing: Whiplash
Best Production Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Cinematography: Birdman
Best Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Makeup & Hair: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Original Music: The Grand Budapest Hotel
Best Sound: Whiplash
Best Visual Effects: Interstellar
Best British Debut: Stephen Beresford and David Livingstone, Pride
Orange Rising Star: Jack O'Connell

After a slightly disappointing showing with the guilds stateside, Boyhood gained its awards season mojo back picking up 3 wins including Best Film and Best Director. Theory of Everything also received 3 wins including Best Actor and Best British Film and in fact it was the British film of choice as its main competitor and fellow Oscar BP nominee The Imitation Game walked away empty-handed. The Grand Budapest Hotel walked home with the most awards at 5 dominating the techs and winning Adapted Screenplay. Whiplash was the only other film to win more than one award with 3 wins including surprise wins for Editing and Sound. Oscar front-runner Birdman picked up a lone Cinematography award. Meanwhile, the BAFTAs decided to stick with the SAG winners for acting further solidifying Redmayne, Moore, Simmons, and Arquette's front-runner status especially considering that the BAFTAs could've shaken it up if they really wanted to. Finally, I was happy to see one of my favorite films of last year, Pride, get some recognition with its makers winning British Debut.

Posters by Malika Favre

Boyhood's and Redmayne's wins mean that at least three big categories are still in doubt come Oscar time as the winners for Picture, Director, and Actor are still very much in flux. The broad support as well for The Grand Budapest Hotel and Whiplash shows that the below-the-line awards might also be competitive including both Screenplay awards. To finish, I just want to take a final moment to praise this year's interpretive posters for the Best Film nominees annually commissioned by BAFTA. My favorites were for Boyhood and Theory of Everything (above), but all of them were brilliantly executed (see below for the others).

BAFTA Nominations

Yesterday was the BAFTA nominations and in an interesting twist to this awards season neither Birdman nor Boyhood nor the two British biopics came out with the most nods. That honor went to Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel with 11 nominations and this without the benefit of being a British film.

Best Film

• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• The Theory of Everything

Best British Film

• ’71
• The Imitation Game
• Paddington
• Pride
• The Theory of Everything
• Under the Skin

The other usual Oscar front-runners did well here still with Birdman and Theory of Everything garnering 10 nods each and The Imitation Game right behind with 9. The latter two films expectantly got British film nominations alongside refreshing picks such as Pride and Under the Skin. Many thought Mr. Turner would be a shoo-in here, but its low turnout (only four nods and without a Best Actor) is telling especially since the Brits picked Paddington in its place. I wished Pride had showed up more below, but at least its tally was better than Into the Woods (2), Unbroken (0), and Selma (0) combined even with lots of British actors in those aforementioned films.

Best Director

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
• Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• James Marsh, The Theory of Everything
• Damien Chazelle, Whiplash

Marsh inclusion here over Imitation Game's Morten Tyldum gave his film the edge, but regardless the race is most likely between Linklater and Iñárritu. Chazelle sneaking into this category also bodes good support for his film which tied Boyhood with 5 nominations. The upcoming DGA nominations in the next few days will clarify the Oscar picture a bit more.

Best Actor

• Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
• Ralph Fiennes, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Jake Gyllenhaal, Nightcrawler
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress

• Amy Adams, Big Eyes
• Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
• Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Save for Amy Adams, all of the nominees here have also been nominated by the Broadcast Film Critics and at the Golden Globes so these lineup could pretty much be set for the Oscars give or take Jennifer Aniston (film ineligible) and David Oyelowo (film not seen?). The latter, along with Timothy Spall, Emily Blunt, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Jack O'Connell, Tilda Swinton, and Marion Cotillard were expected to have more support here due to their British/European-ness, but alas.

Best Supporting Actor

• Steve Carrell, Foxcatcher
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
• Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
• J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Imelda Staunton, Pride
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Rene Russo, Nightcrawler

A few interesting nominations in the supporting categories. First, the British thought Carrell was supporting even though he's been campaigning in lead this whole season. As for the ladies, Russo and Staunton get their first major citing this awards season and I think I'm okay with them replacing Meryl Streep, Jessica Chastain, and/or Tilda Swinton (even though I was betting on the latter to get in) since they're very unlikely for Oscars. I do wish they had nominated more people from Pride (great ensemble)!

Best Original Screenplay

• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Nightcrawler
• Whiplash

Best Adapted Screenplay

• American Sniper
• Gone Girl
• The Imitation Game
• Paddington
• The Theory of Everything

Apart from Whiplash (which was deemed adapted by the Academy), I fully expect all of the films in original to repeat their nominations at the Oscars. Selma is probably the one to take advantage of Whiplash's re-categorization. As for Adapted, I am bemused by Paddington's inclusion but apparently the Brits really like that film (and it's also good to boot!). I have a sick feeling that American Sniper will be Oscar nominated here (and elsewhere) and I'll be forced to have that film. Too bad they couldn't have just nominated Wild, Inherent Vice, or even Guardians of the Galaxy!

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ida
• Leviathan
• The Lunchbox
• Trash
• Two Days, One Night

Best Documentary

• 20 Feet from Stardom
• 20,000 Days on Earth
• CITIZENFOUR
• Finding Vivian Maier
• Virunga

Best Animated Film

• Big Hero 6
• The Boxtrolls
• The LEGO Movie

Based on precursors, look for Ida, CITIZENFOUR, and The LEGO Movie to win here especially since the first two films' major competition Force Majeure and Life Itself respectively weren't nominated.

Best Cinematography

• Birdman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Ida
• Interstellar
• Mr. Turner

Best Editing

• Birdman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Nightcrawler
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Best Production Design

• Big Eyes
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Interstellar
• Mr. Turner

Best Costume Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Into the Woods
• Mr. Turner
• The Theory of Everything

Best Makeup and Hair

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Into the Woods
• Mr. Turner
• The Theory of Everything

Best Original Music

• Birdman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Interstellar
• The Theory of Everything
• Under the Skin

Best Sound

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Whiplash

Best Visual Effects

• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies
• Interstellar
• X-Men: Days of Future Past

The Grand Budapest Hotel received 7 nods in 8 technical categories clearly coming out on top missing only Visual Effects. A handful of films received four nods including Birdman, Interstellar, Imitation Game, and Theory of Everything. Boyhood surprisingly came up empty more tellingly in Best Editing which even had 6 films in contention.

Best Debut by British Writer, Director or Producer

• Elaine Constantine, Northern Soul
• Gregory Burke and Yann Demange, ’71
• Hong Khaou, Lilting
• Paul Katis and Andrew de Lotbinere, Kajaki: The True Story
• Stephen Beresford and David Livingstone, Pride

Rising Star Award

• Gugu Mbatha-Raw
• Jack O'Connell
• Margot Robbie
• Miles Teller
• Shailene Woodley

Unfortunately, I don't know any of the names in Best Debut, but I do know all of those in contention for the Rising Start Award and have seen a good chunk of their filmographies as well (this year). The public will be voting for this particular award so I think it'll be between Woodley (YA fans) or O'Connell (Skins actor).

12 Years BAFTA Best Film; Gravity Wins Six

Since the BAFTA Awards were tape-delayed, as they always are, I decided to watch them that way as well, recording it last night and fast forwarding through the ceremony this morning. Granted I had already known who was going to win from all the updates yesterday, but I do like to watch award shows. The winners are below:

Best Film: 12 Years a Slave
Best British Film: Gravity
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Best Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Best Original Screenplay: American Hustle
Best Adapted Screenplay: Philomena
Best Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty
Best Documentary: The Act of Killing
Best Animated Film: Frozen
Best Film Editing: Rush
Best Production Design: The Great Gatsby
Best Cinematography: Gravity
Best Costume Design: The Great Gatsby
Best Makeup & Hair: American Hustle
Best Original Music: Gravity
Best Sound: Gravity
Best Visual Effects: Gravity
Best British Debut: Keiran Evans, Kelly + Victor
Orange Rising Star: Will Poulter

My prediction was that it was going to be a big night for either Gravity or 12 Years a Slave or both and that's what pretty much happened with Gravity walking home with the most hardware with 6 wins including Best Director and Best British Film while 12 Years a Slave pulled off the top prizes of Best Film and Best Actor. American Hustle meanwhile picked up 3 wins including the farily competitive categories of Best Supporting Actress and Adapted Screenplay and thereby keeping it in the conversation. The only other film to pick up multiple wins is The Great Gatsby with a couple of technical awards that it might just repeat at the Oscars. With Dallas Buyers Club not in contention, it was refreshing to see Chiwetel Ejiofor and especially Barkhad Abdi pick up their first major prizes of the season. Cate Blanchett, animated film Frozen, and documentary feature The Act of Killing meanwhile continued their winning ways. SAG winner Lupita Nyong'o walked home empty-handed despited also being in contention for a second award the Orange Rising Star which went to Will Poulter.

I completely missed on the supporting categories thinking 12 Years a Slave would be much stronger than it was and a few of the technical awards I missed were obvious in hindsight. All in all, I did an okay 14/22 (63.6%) with my predictions which matched what I did last year. As for what it means for the Academy Awards, it still seems like Gravity vs. 12 Years a Slave with American Hustle as a possible spoiler. What's more interesting is if the Ejiofor/Abdi wins did anything to make a dent in their categories. It's not too long now until we find out.

BAFTA Predictions

This is the first weekend Oscar voters will be able to actually cast their vote so this year's BAFTA Awards, being held tonight, will be that much more influential potentially on awards season. But the big outcome will be whether it's 12 Years a Slave with its British director and largely British cast or Gravity with its double Best Film nominee including Best British Film will come out on top. My thoughts on some of the nominees are here, while my final predictions are below:

Best Film: 12 Years a Slave
Best Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
Best Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
Best Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Best Supporting Actor: Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Best Supporting Actress: Lupita Nyong'o, 12 Years a Slave
Best Original Screenplay: American Hustle
Best Adapted Screenplay: 12 Years a Slave
Best British Film: Gravity
Best Foreign Language Film: The Great Beauty
Best Documentary: The Act of Killing
Best Animated Film: Frozen

Best Film Editing: Gravity
Best Production Design: The Great Gatsby
Best Cinematography: Gravity
Best Costume Design: Behind the Candelabra
Best Makeup & Hair: Behind the Candelabra
Best Original Music: Gravity
Best Sound: Gravity
Best Visual Effects: Gravity
Best British Debut: Kelly Msarcel, Saving Mr. Banks
Orange Rising Star: Lupita Nyong'o

One of my favorite things about the BAFTAs is that every year they commission an artist to create interpretive posters for the Best Film nominees. This year that honor goes to La Boca and I've posted them all above. As for my predictions, I don't feel confident about them at all. I'm hedging my bets by predicting Gravity and 12 Years a Slave to walk away with five wins each, but I'm clearly thinking that the latter film will dominate the big awards. I'm also randomly predicting two awards for Behind the Candelabra. At this point, I think I'm just self-sabotaging.

BAFTA Nominations

The BAFTA announced their nominations yesterday and it seemed like the one question everyone had afterwards was, "Wait, Gravity is British film?" In any case, British or not, it garnered the most nominations including one for Best British Film totaling 11 nods. The rest of nominees are as follows...

Best Film

• American Hustle
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave

Best British Film

• Gravity
• Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom
• Philomena
• Rush
• Saving Mr. Banks
• The Selfish Giant

Second to Gravity are its Oscar rivals, American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave, with 10 nominations each. It's a particularly strong showing for the first film and perhaps just very slightly disappointing for the latter to not have more. One of these three films will win here and at the Oscars, the only question is which one? Philomena expectedly gets a boost here doubling up like Gravity while Saving Mr. Banks surprisingly got into the British shortlist, also like Gravity.

Best Director

• David O. Russell, American Hustle
• Paul Greengrass, Captain Phillips
• Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
• Steve McQueen, 12 Years a Slave
• Martin Scorsese, The Wolf of Wall Street

This lineup matches 100% from the DGA nominations which could mean this is also what we'll see next week during Oscar nomination morning, but I'm hoping there'll be surprises like last year. Scorsese makes it in despite his film not cracking the Best Film category, but at least it received a few nominations which is better than completely snubbed films Dallas Buyers Club and Her, the latter of which saddens me. Now, this will be a battle between Cuaron and McQueen certainly and you'd think the British cred of the latter will give him a leg up, but who knows? Finally, how about Greengrass and his film (9 nominations!), which is having a pretty solid awards season, certainly more than I have it credit for.

Best 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

Best Actress

• Amy Adams, American Hustle
• Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
• Sandra Bullock, Gravity
• Judi Dench, Philomena
• Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks

Yes, he's English and she plays "British," but nominating Bale and Adams here shows great support for the film which managed to get a nomination in each acting category. This meant that a few big names were left out including Meryl Streep, Robert Redford, and Matthew McConaughey among others. My dark-horse wish of a Julie Delpy nomination though didn't come to fruition. In fact, I'm pretty annoyed Before Midnight didn't register at all. Was it ineligible? Meanwhile, Brit Ejiofor and Australian Blanchett should handily win their respective categories.

Best Supporting Actor

• Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
• Daniel Bruhl, Rush
• Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
• Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
• Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave

Best Supporting Actress

• Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine
• Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
• Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
• Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
• Oprah Winfrey, Lee Daniels' The Butler

The biggest shock here is the absence of Leto who has been dominating this category all season and is the frontrunner to win an Oscar. His replacement is Matt Damon whose film had a theatrical release in Britain and thus qualified the film for the awards. Fassbender should then be seen as the front-runner here. Meanwhile, no shocking things for the actresses with the exception of June Squibb's snub. It's probably between Nyong'o and Lawrence. The BAFTA might be tempted to give Lawrence a make-up win after not giving her the award last year for her Oscar-winning role.

Best Original Screenplay

• American Hustle
• Blue Jasmine
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Behind the Candelabra
• Captain Phillips
• Philomena
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

You want to see how much they loved Gravity? Well, they've nominated it for its screenplay. Again, Her and Before Midnight are shockingly left off which I hope won't repeat at the Oscars next week. Good day for Inside Llewyn Davis, 12 Years a Slave, and Philomena who were all passed over for WGA nods for one reason or another. I really hoped though that this group would've picked The World's End, but alas.

Best Foreign Language Film

• The Act of Killing
• Blue is the Warmest Color
• The Great Beauty
• Metro Manila
• Wadjda

Best Documentary

• The Act of Killing
• The Armstrong Lie
• Blackfish
• Tim's Vermeer
• We Steal Secrets: The Story of WikiLeaks

Best Animated Film

• Despicable Me 2
• Frozen
• Monsters University

Should be easy wins for Blue is the Warmest Color, The Act of Killing, and Frozen since they've all dominated their respective categories so far this season. It also helps that their toughest opponents were nominated (or eligible) in this case, The Hunt, Stories We Tell, and The Wind Rises respectively.

Best Cinematography

• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Nebraska
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Production Design

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• Gravity
• The Great Gatsby
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Costume Design

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• The Great Gatsby
• The Invisible Woman
• Saving Mr. Banks

Best Film Editing

• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Rush
• 12 Years a Slave
• The Wolf of Wall Street

Best Makeup and Hair

• American Hustle
• Behind the Candelabra
• The Great Gatsby
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Lee Daniels' The Butler

Best Music

• The Book Thief
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Saving Mr. Banks
• 12 Years a Slave

Best Sound

• All is Lost
• Captain Phillips
• Gravity
• Inside Llewyn Davis
• Rush

Best Visual Effects

• Gravity
• The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug
• Iron Man 3
• Pacific Rim
• Star Trek Into Darkness

Gravity expectedly picked up the most technical nominations with 6 total missing out on two understandable categories (Hair/Makeup and Costumes). Captain Phillips and 12 Years a Slave picked up 4 nominations each with the latter more shockingly missing out on the same two awards Gravity wasn't nominated for.

Best Debut by British Writer, Director or Producer

• Colin Caberry and Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations
• Kelly Msarcel, Saving Mr. Banks
• Kieran Evasns, Kelly + Victor
• Scott Graham, Shell
• Paul Wright and Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril

Rising Star Award

• Dane DeHaan
• George Mackay
• Lupita Nyong'o
• Will Poulter
• Lea Seydoux

Two years ago, I knew almost all of the names in Best Debut, but like last year I'm pretty much flying blind this time around. I do most most of those nominated for the Rising Star Award with the exception of Mackay. Since this category is voted on by the public, it'll be whoever has the biggest fans. So... DeHaan? I mean he is going to be in the new Spider-Man film, but that hasn't come out yet. Any ideas?

Argo Wins BAFTA Awards

Who even watches the BAFTA awards? After all, it's up against the Grammys and more egregiously, the winners are announced hours prior to the tape-delayed show. Well, I do, mostly to indulge my awards season completist freak side, but also to spend a few hours listening to the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry cracking jokes. In any case, the complete list of winners are below:

Best Film: Argo
Best Director: Ben Affleck, Argo
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained
Best Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook
Best British Film: Skyfall
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Animated Film: Brave
Best Film Editing: Argo
Best Production Design: Les Misérables
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi
Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Best Makeup & Hair: Les Misérables
Best Original Music: Skyfall
Best Sound: Les Misérables
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Short Film: Swimmer
Best Short Animation: The Making of Longbird
Best British Debut: Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis, The Imposter
Orange Rising Star: Juno Temple

While Les Misérables walked away as the night's most awarded film with 4 BAFTA awards including one for surely Oscar-bound Anne Hathaway, it was yet again Ben Affleck's Argo which came out on top winning Best Film, Best Director, and Best Editing. The only surprising result really was that it didn't win more, but Affleck expectantly lost out to heavy front-runner and very British Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor while Adapted Screenplay shockingly went to Silver Linings Playbook beating both Argo and presumed winner Lincoln making this category a must-watch at the Oscars. That award surely lessened the sting of SAG winner Jennifer Lawrence losing to surprise, but very well-deserved winner Emmanuelle Riva for Best Actress, which significantly boosts the octogenarian's Oscar chances. Amour also won Best Foreign Film and joins a handful of films with two wins including Django Unchained, Skyfall, and Life of Pi. Those latter two films probably should've have picked up more awards, but it was still a solid showing for both, especially for Skyfall, the most successful British film ever, picking up Best British Film.

Speaking of British Film, I surprised myself by correctly predicting that category as well as Best British Debut and the Orange Rising Star award (Juno Temple). As for the rest of my predictions, I did better than last year, but 14/22 (63.6%) is nothing to write home about. As for what all of this means for the Academy Awards, I think it's pretty much a done deal for Argo, Day-Lewis, Hathaway, and Visual Effects for Life of Pi. Actress, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay are crazy competitive wile the Affleck-less Director field is pretty much up in the air.

BAFTA Predictions

Last year was the first year I tried predicting the winners for the BAFTAs and I pretty much sucked at it. Hopefully I do better this year. We'll know how I did in just a few hours when the BAFTA winners are announced. Above is a couple of posters designed by illustrator Jonathan Burton which were commissioned by the organization for its Best Film nominees. The other designs and my predictions are below:

Best Film: Argo
Best Director: Ben Affleck, Argo
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
Best Supporting Actor: Javier Bardem, Skyfall
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained
Best Adapted Screenplay: Lincoln
Best British Film: Skyfall
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Documentary: The Imposter
Best Animated Film: Brave

Best Film Editing: Argo
Best Production Design: Life of Pi
Best Cinematography: Skyfall
Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Best Makeup & Hair: Anna Karenina
Best Original Music: Skyfall
Best Sound: Skyfall
Best Special Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best British Debut: Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis, The Imposter
Orange Rising Star: Juno Temple

Looking over my predictions and I have a feeling I'm going to do pretty badly yet again. How else do I justify Les Misérables, nominated in both film categories, only winning one award? Perhaps I'm also overestimating their love for Skyfall? Well, it has been a crazy awards season.

BAFTA Nominations

Just a day prior to Oscar nomination morning, the BAFTA announced their picks for their favorite films and actors of the past year. This year, they've adopted a nomination system more similar to the Oscars which may mean their picks today could easily repeat tomorrow morning.

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

Despite being less enthusiastically received than most of its peers the past few weeks, Les Misérables gets the double honor this year of being nominated in both film categories to go along with its hefty haul of 9 nominations tying it with Life of Pi. Both have to settle for second though as Lincoln notches the most nomination with 10 which I find impressive considering just how "American" the film is relatively. I half-expected Britain's biggest film ever Skyfall to also double up in film categories, but had to settle for being in the British film shortlist and for having the third most nominations with 8.

Best Director

• Michael Haneke, Amour
• Ben Affleck, Argo
• Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained
• Ang Lee, Life of Pi
• Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

The biggest shock here has got to be Steven Spielberg's exclusion considering Lincoln led with the most nominations. Tom Hooper was also ignored by his countrymen making this category all the more intriguing considering both DGA-nominated men were replaced by Haneke and Tarantino. And while it has been Affleck vs. Bigelow all season, I'm very happy that Lee has managed to become a solid #3 and I'm personally hoping he pulls off the surprise win.

Best Actor

• Ben Affleck, Argo
• Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook
• Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
• Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
• Hugh Jackman, Les Misérables

Best Actress

• Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty
• Marion Cotillard, Rust and Bone
• Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook
• Helen Mirren, Hitchcock
• Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

The Affleck love continues here as he gets his first major Best Actor nod of the season knocking off perhaps Denzel Washington or John Hawkes from a spot, though I personally was rooting for Ewan McGregor considering the obvious UK support. In that same vein, I'm more surprised that neither Naomi Watts nor Rachel Weisz was able to crack the Actress shortlist. I still think they have enough heat for Oscars (Watts in particular), but the non-nominations here hurts a bit. Both are fighting it out with Riva and Mirren it seems, who unfortunately seems to also be great in their roles so I can't be too upset.

Best Supporting Actor

• Alan Arkin, Argo
• Javier Bardem, Skyfall
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Master
• Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln
• Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress

• Amy Adams, The Master
• Judi Dench, Skyfall
• Sally Field, Lincoln
• Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
• Helen Hunt, The Sessions

My crazy dark horse picks of Eddie Redmayne, Samantha Barks, Jude Law, and Tom Holland to get nominated was a bust, but if they were going to be honored somewhere this awards season, this really was the place. Instead the British contingent decided to make Dench the lone Brit in the list eschewing even BAFTA favorite Maggie Smith. What is up with not supporting more English actors this year? Is everyone over Team GB after the Olympics? Unfortunately/fortunately these nominations will most likely reflect Oscar's picks give or take Robert Deniro, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Nicole Kidman.

Best Original Screenplay

• Amour
• Django Unchained
• The Master
• Moonrise Kingdom
• Zero Dark Thirty

Best Adapted Screenplay

• Argo
• Beasts of the Southern Wild
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Silver Linings Playbook

This is pretty much my nightmare scenario for the Oscars tomorrow with two of my favorite screenplays, for Looper and for Perks of Being a Wallflower, getting ignored for more Oscar-y films. The rest of the frontrunners made it in, but it was a great day for Django Unchained, Amour, and especially Beasts of the Southern Wild to get a major nod for their writing after being ineligible for WGA.

Best Foreign Language Film

• Amour
• Headhunters
• The Hunt
• The Intouchables
• Rust and Bone

Best Documentary

• The Imposter
• Marley
• McCullin
• Searching for Sugar Man
• West of Memphis

Best Animated Film

• Brave
• Frankenweenie
• ParaNorman

Based on how awards season has gone, the Oscar frontrunners for each category seem to be Amour, Searching for Sugar Man, and ParaNorman. Though Amour does have The Intouchables to deal with while ParaNorman will not only have Frankenweenie, but also perhaps audience-favorite Wreck-It Ralph. As I've said already, I'm Team ParaNorman all the way!

Best Cinematography

• Anna Karenina
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Les Misérables
• Skyfall

Best Production Design

• Anna Karenina
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Les Misérables
• Skyfall

Best Costume Design

• Anna Karenina
• Great Expectations
• Les Misérables
• Lincoln
• Snow White and the Huntsman

Best Film Editing

• Argo
• Django Unchained
• Life of Pi
• Skyfall
• Zero Dark Thirty

Best Makeup & Hair

• Anna Karenina
• Hitchcock
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Lincoln
• Les Misérables

Best Original Music

• Anna Karenina
• Argo
• Life of Pi
• Lincoln
• Skyfall

Best Sound

• Django Unchained
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Life of Pi
• Les Misérables
• Skyfall

Best Visual Effects

• The Avengers
• The Dark Knight Rises
• The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
• Life of Pi
• Prometheus

The British film everyone thought would make a bigger impact this awards season Anna Karenina saved some face by picking up five technical nominations. Skyfall, Lincoln, and Les Misérables also received 5 nominations. Only Life of Pi got more with 6 nominations. Box office blockbusters Dark Knight Rises and The Avengers showed up in Visual Effects. Finally, it's worth noting that the Cinematography category matched 100% with the nominations of the ASC which announced today as well. Is that your Oscar line-up as well?

Best Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer

• Thina Garavi, I Am Nasrine
• Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis, The Imposter
• David Morris and Jacqui Morris, McCullin
• James Bobin, The Muppets
• Dexter Fletcher and Danny King, Wild Bill

Rising Star Award

• Elizabeth Olsen
• Andrea Riseborough
• Suraj Sharma
• Juno Temple
• Alicia Vikander

Last year, I knew more names in the Best Debut category, but I'm sure all the nominees this year are equally as worthy! As for the annual Rising Award, which the public will vote on, it seems they tried their best to balance out the gender inequality after last year's very testosterone-heavy slate. This year, Sharma is the lone guy. I was hoping Tom Holland or Samantha Barks would show up here as well (Redmayne was cited last year), but alas nope. Last year the ONLY person I didn't know ended up winning, so I won't even pretend to guess who the British public will vote for. Any British reader care to weigh in?

The Artist Wins Seven BAFTA Awards

As has been the case for a couple of years, the winners of the BAFTA awards were tweeted long before anyone not nominated actually saw the show. It's a mystery to me why this organization keeps tape-delaying their ceremony, not just for international audiences (which makes some sense), but also to their homegrown audience. In any case, the winners are below:

Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Best Actor: Jean Dujardin, The Artist
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Octavia Spencer, The Help
Best Original Screenplay: The Artist
Best Adapted Screenplay: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best British Film: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best Foreign Language Film: The Skin I Live In
Best Documentary: Senna
Best Animated Film: Rango
Best Film Editing: Senna
Best Production Design: Hugo
Best Cinematography: The Artist
Best Costume Design: The Artist
Best Makeup & Hair: The Iron Lady
Best Original Music: The Artist
Best Sound: Hugo
Best Special Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II
Best Short Film: Pitch Black Heist
Best Animated Short: A Morning Stroll
Best British Debut: Paddy Considine, Tyrannosaur
Orange Rising Star: Adam Deacon

The Artist was the night's biggest winner and as predictable as this was to everyone, I still managed to do quite terribly at predicting the winners getting only 12/24 (50%). I did predict The Artist to win Best Picture and Best Director, which it did, but it also nabbed Best Actor for its star Jean Dujardin, Best Original Screenplay (a slight surprise), and three more tech awards. Like The Artist, Christopher Plummer and Octavia Spencer continued their awards season domination by lifting the award here thereby making their road to Oscars that much easier. Meryl Streep, meanwhile, repeated her Golden Glove victory over her close friend Viola Davis for Best Actress, which perhaps was a given since she played such a notorious British figure. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy won Best British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay, which was good, but I expected more love for this film. Hugo, The Iron Lady, and Senna also won two awards each.

After tonight, it's perhaps tempting to just rinse and repeat at the Oscars and that very well could happen give or take a Tinker Tailor or so. It's safe to say The Artist will win Best Picture, but there's something nagging in me that says Martin Scorsese might still win Best Director. And while the supporting categories are locked and loaded, the leading categories have just enough drama. Can Jean Dujardin beat George Clooney? Will it be Meryl Streep vs. Viola Davis and if so, who wins? And if The Artist does make a strong showing, what does it mean for the majority of the tech categories as well as its closest competitor Hugo?

BAFTA Predictions

The British are coming... this weekend to be precise with the BAFTAs taking place this Sunday. One of my favorite things they do every year is to commission an artist to make posters for the Best Film lineup. Above are the designs for the two films I think will walk away with most of the hardware in a couple days. The other designs and a full list of my predictions are below:

Best Film: The Artist
Best Director: Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
Best Actor: Gary Oldman, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best Actress: Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
Best Supporting Actor: Christopher Plummer, Beginners
Best Supporting Actress: Jessica Chastain, The Help
Best Original Screenplay: Midnight in Paris
Best Adapted Screenplay: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best British Film: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best Foreign Language Film: A Separation
Best Documentary: Senna
Best Animated Film: The Adventures of Tintin



Best Film Editing: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best Production Design: Hugo
Best Cinematography: Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Best Costume Design: Jane Eyre
Best Makeup & Hair: The Iron Lady
Best Original Music: The Artist
Best Sound: The Artist
Best Special Visual Effects: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows II
Best Short Film: Only Sound Remains
Best Animated Short: Abuelas
Best British Debut: Paddy Considine, Tyrannosaur
Orange Rising Star: Eddie Redmayne

To be honest, this is the first time I'm actually predicting the winners for this award so I'm bound to get it all wrong most likely. For example, why Chastain over Spencer who has dominated this entire awards season so far? And despite all of its nominations, do I really think Tinker Tailor will get more awards than The Artist? Don't even get me started on the tech categories which were more or less shots in the dark.

BAFTA Nominations

At this point last year, The Social Network was on its way to Oscar glory after sweeping the critics and winning big at the Golden Globes. Then... it only mustered 6 BAFTA nominations compared to the 14 nominations eventual Oscar Best Picture champ The King's Speech received. This year, however, it looks like nothing can stop the frontrunner. The Artist led the nomination tally with 12 followed closely by Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy with 11 nods. The latter film got the boost everyone predicted today, but The Artist looks to continue its dominant run. And now the nominations...

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

Tinker Tailor predictably doubles up and should be the favorite to win at least one of these awards, probably Best British Film with The Artist taking Best Film. This is a great result for The Descendants and The Help since they're so "American" that you'd think they would be left off (like Moneyball) was for something like Tree of Life or Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Instead those two were largely ignored.

Best Director

• Michel Hazanavicius, The Artist
• Nicolas Winding Refn, Drive
• Martin Scorsese, Hugo
• Tomas Alfredson, Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy
• Lynne Ramsay, We Need to Talk About Kevin

Hugo got nine nominations including this one for its director, so it's a bit weird it missed out on a Best Film citation over the more lukewarm-received The Descendants. Drive surprises with Film and Direction nominations giving the film new life this awards season. I'm still quietly hoping that film makes some kind of splash at the Oscars.

Best Actor

• George Clooney, The Descendants
• Jean Dujardin, The Artist
• Michael Fassbender, Shame
• Gary Oldman. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• Brad Pitt, Moneyball

Best Actress

• Bérénice Bejo, The Artist
• Viola Davis, The Help
• Meryl Streep, The Iron Lady
• Tilda Swinton, We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Michelle Williams, My Week With Marilyn

The leading categories seem pretty expected except for Bérénice Bejo promotion to lead as she's being campaigned supporting for Oscars. So give or take Leonardo DiCaprio, Glenn Close, or Rooney Mara, these BAFTA nominations could very well be the Oscar ones.

Best Supporting Actor

• Kenneth Branagh, My Week With Marilyn
• Jim Broadbent, The Iron Lady
• Jonah Hill, Moneyball
• Philip Seymour Hoffman, The Ides of March
• Christopher Plummer, Beginners

Best Supporting Actress

• Jessica Chastain, The Help
• Judi Dench, My Week With Marilyn
• Melissa McCarthy, Bridesmaids
• Carey Mulligan, Drive
• Octavia Spencer, The Help

The supporting ones are a bit more all over the place. With all the love for Drive, it's very telling that Albert Brooks, also snubbed by SAG, was left off the list which saw room for really out-of-the-blue picks such as Jim Broadbent (then again he's British). Another automatic Anglophilic pick was Judi Dench, but that's not as weird as the BAFTAs honoring Carey Mulligan for her work in Drive over her work in Shame. Melissa McCarthy's nod here BTW means VERY good things for her.

Best Original Screenplay

• The Artist
• Bridesmaids
• The Guard
• The Iron Lady
• Midnight in Paris

Best Adapted Screenplay

• The Descendants
• The Help
• The Ides of March
• Moneyball
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

The Iron Lady making it in should be surprising, but I guess it's not especially as the three front-runners (The Artist, Midnight in Paris, and Bridesmaids) still made it in. For Adapted, it's worth noting that this group awarded the Swedish version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (and also nomimated Noomi Rapace for Best Actress). This time they decided to honor another adaptation of the Larsson classic. No nod for Hugo is... curious.

Best Foreign Language Film

• Incendies
• Pina
• Potiche
• A Separation
• The Skin I Live In

Best Documentary

• George Harrison: Living in the Material World
• Project Nim
• Senna

Best Animated Feature

• The Adventures of Tintin
• Arthur Christmas
• Rango

A Separation continues its award season sweep while all of the documentaries are decidedly British. I thought that out of the James McAvoy-voiced animated films this year, Gnomeo & Juliet would eke it out over Arthur Christmas, but I was wrong.

Best Art Direction

• The Artist
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• War Horse

Best Cinematography

• The Artist
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• War Horse

Best Costume Design

• The Artist
• Hugo
• Jane Eyre
• My Week With Marilyn
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Film Editing

• The Artist
• Drive
• Hugo
• Senna
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Makeup & Hair

• The Artist
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• The Iron Lady
• My Week With Marilyn

Best Music

• The Artist
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Hugo
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• War Horse

Best Sound

• The Artist
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
• War Horse

Best Visual Effects

• The Adventures of Tintin
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
• Hugo
• Rise of the Planet of the Apes
• War Horse

Only four nominations for the final Harry Potter flick, all of them technical awards. The Artist nearly swept the techs, but for some reason they didn't didn't its Visual Effects were worthy. Tinker Tailor also missed the sweep by missing out of Best Makeup & Hair and Visual Effects. Hugo, in the meantime, did sweep. Again, how did it not get a Best Film nomination? Finally, no Tree of Life cinematography nomination is... weird.

Best Debut by a British Director, Writer or Producer

• Joe Cornish, Attack the Block
• Will Sharpe, Tom Kingsley and Sarah Brocklehurst, Black Pond
• Ralph Fiennes, Coriolanus
• Richard Ayoade, Submarine
• Paddy Considine, Tyrannosaur

Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award

• Adam Deacon
• Chris Hemsworth
• Tom Hiddleston
• Chris O'Down
• Eddie Redmayne

The lack of Weekend for these two final awards is a bit sad, but I can't really fault those Best Debut nominations. The Rising Star award though is noticeably... manly. Felicity Jones, Jennifer Lawrence, and Jessica Chastain were all in the running and the latter should have at least been an automatic entry after the year she has had. But you know... pretty boys for the public to vote on.

Hugo Awards & BAFTA TV Nominations

Didn't awards season end when James Franco and Anne Hathaway sang "Over the Rainbow" with a bunch of kids a couple of months ago? Of course that's never the case since there's always awards for this thing and that. Just this week, nominations for the Hugo Awards and the BAFTA TV Awards were released and since I watch tons of sci-fi/fantasy and British TV shows, let's take a quick look!

Started in 1953 the Hugo Awards, according to their website, are given out annually to honor "excellence in the field of science fiction and fantasy." The categories (click here to see the complete list) range from best novels to best editor to best short story and to best fanzine, but I just want to highlight their picks on movies and TV episodes:

Best Dramatic Presentation, Long Form

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• How to Train Your Dragon
• Inception
• Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
• Toy Story 3

A damn good list if I do say so. Three of the five films made my own personal top 10 list (including my favorite film of the year) and the other two were also favorites of mine. I guess if I had to pick another film for them to consider I'd say Never Let Me Go. Also is Toy Story 3 really a "sci-fi/fantasy" film?

Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form

• Doctor Who: “A Christmas Carol”
• Doctor Who: “The Pandorica Opens/The Big Bang”
• Doctor Who: “Vincent and the Doctor”
• Fuck Me, Ray Bradbury
• The Lost Thing

Now as much as I love Doctor Who (and its episodes that have nominated), this is ridiculous. There really should be a rule of one nomination per show especially in a year that has given us Misfits, Being Human, and Fringe. With this said, I'm rooting for "Vincent and the Doctor." A beautiful piece of writing that episode was.

And speaking of Doctor Who, let's segue to the BAFTA TV Awards which is just like the normal BAFTAs except for TV. That was pretty straightforward wasn't it?

Drama Series

• Being Human
• Downton Abbey
• Misfits
• Sherlock

It's astonishing that I have seen every single show nominated in this category and truthfully I love them all. If I had to absolutely pick a favorite, it'd be Being Human for an excruciatingly heart-wrenching and mind-blowing season. But the rest? Highly recommended. I am shocked that Doctor Who wasn't nominated, but then again...

Leading Actor

• Jim Broadbent, Any Human Heart
• Benedict Cumberbatch, Sherlock
• Daniel Rigby, Eric and Ernie
• Matt Smith, Doctor Who

Matt Smith becomes the first actor to play the Doctor to be nominated for a BAFTA TV Award! When I heard this, I was shocked seeing as how the show is SUCH a cultural institution in Britain. Still, huge honor for Matt who is winning people left and right. Only other performance I've seen is that of Benedict Cumberbatch and he, too, is brilliant. Both actors, BTW, playing characters written by Steven Moffat.

Female Performance in a Comedy Role

• Jo Brand, Getting On
• Dawn French, Roger and Val Have Just Got In
• Miranda Hart, Miranda
• Katherine Parkinson, The IT Crowd

I recognized most of these names, but really it's all about Miranda Hart who is a hoot in her show that I, along with everyone it seems like, discovered this year.

Supporting Actor

• Brendan Coyle, Downton Abbey
• Martin Freeman, Sherlock
• Johnny Harris, This Is England ’86
• Robert Sheehan, Misfits

Other that Johnny Harris, I've seen all of the other performances and no complaints from me. Sheehan IS the show-stealer in his show, but my vote would've gone to castmate Iwan Rheon especially playing his dual role this season. Freeman was perfect as Watson and his chemistry with Cumberbatch was brilliant. Finally, Coyle played one of my favorite characters. I'm just shocked he managed to get picked out from such a huge ensemble.

Supporting Actress

• Gillian Anderson, Any Human Heart
• Lynda Baron, The Road to Coronation Street
• Lauren Socha, Misfits
• Jessie Wallace, The Road to Coronation Street

Nothing to say except to congratulate Lauren, because she's awesome. But no Karen Gillan or Lenora Crichlow? Or would they go to lead? Even then, they weren't nominated there either!

International

• Boardwalk Empire
• Glee
• The Killing
• Mad Men

Don't really have much to add except to say "oh okay." I'd probably have more to contribute if I actually knew what shows were in the running.

As you can tell, I didn't include every category, since as much British TV I do watch, I don't watch them all and most categories I'm actually clueless about. But if you want to see the complete list of nominations, click here.