British Academy of Film and Television

[CMJ]

They released their nominations today. Since their film years don't quite match up with ours Halle Berry got nomiated. Who knows what this will do to their race. :)

Some things seem to be getting narrowed down, others seem to be wide open. The Screen Actors Guild will narrow further when their nominations come out. It's down to the nitty gritty for Oscar.

FILM

Chicago - Martin Richards
Gangs of New York - Alberto Grimaldi/Harvey Weinstein
The Hours - Scott Rudin/Robert Fox
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Barrie M Osborne/Fran Walsh/Peter Jackson
The Pianist - Roman Polanski/Robert Benmussa/Alain Sarde

THE ALEXANDER KORDA AWARD for the outstanding British Film of the year

Bend it Like Beckham - Deepak Nayar/Gurinder Chadha
Dirty Pretty Things - Tracey Seaward/Robert Jones/Stephen Frears
The Hours - Scott Rudin/Robert Fox/Stephen Daldry
The Magdalene Sisters - Frances Higson/Peter Mullan
The Warrior - Bertrand Faivre/Asif Kapadia

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for special Achievement by a Director,
Screenwriter or Producer in their first feature film

SIMON BENT (Writer) - Christie Malry’s Own Double Entry
LUCY DARWIN (Producer) - Lost in La Mancha
ASIF KAPADIA (Director/Co-Writer) - The Warrior
DUNCAN ROY (Director/Writer) - AKA

THE DAVID LEAN AWARD for achievement in Direction

Chicago - Rob Marshall
Gangs of New York - Martin Scorsese
The Hours - Stephen Daldry
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Peter Jackson
The Pianist - Roman Polanski

SCREENPLAY (Original)

And Your Mother Too (Y Tu Mama Tambien) - Carlos Cuarón/Alfonso Cuarón
dirty pretty things - Steven Knight
Gangs of New York - Jay Cocks/Steven Zaillian/Kenneth Lonergan
The Magdalene Sisters - Peter Mullan
Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) - Pedro Almodóvar

SCREENPLAY (Adapted)

About a Boy - Peter Hedges/Chris Weitz/Paul Weitz
Adaptation - Charlie Kaufman/Donald Kaufman
Catch Me If You Can - Jeff Nathanson
The Hours - David Hare
The Pianist - Ronald Harwood

PERFORMANCE by an ACTRESS in a LEADING role

Halle Berry - Monster’s Ball
Salma Hayek - Frida
Nicole Kidman - The Hours
Meryl Streep - The Hours
Renée Zellweger - Chicago

PEFORMANCE by an ACTOR in a LEADING role

Adrien Brody - The Pianist
Nicolas Cage - Adaptation
Michael Caine - The Quiet American
Daniel Day-Lewis - Gangs of New York
Jack Nicholson - About Schmidt

PERFORMANCE by an ACTRESS in a SUPPORTING role

Toni Collette - About a Boy
Queen Latifah - Chicago
Julianne Moore - The Hours
Meryl Streep - Adaptation
Catherine Zeta-Jones - Chicago

PERFORMANCE by an ACTOR in a SUPPORTING role

Chris Cooper - Adaptation
Ed Harris - The Hours
Alfred Molina - Frida
Paul Newman - Road to Perdition
Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can

THE ANTHONY ASQUITH AWARD for the achievement in Film Music

Catch Me If You Can - John Williams
Chicago - Danny Elfman/John Kander/Fred Ebb
Gangs of New York - Howard Shore
The Hours - Philip Glass
The Pianist - Wojciech Kilar

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

And Your Mother Too (Y Tu Mama Tambien) - Jorge Vergara/Alfonso Cuarón
City of God (Cidade Deus) - Andrea Barata Ribeiro/Mauricio Andrade Ramos/Fernando Meirelles
Devdas - Bharat Shah/Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Talk to Her (Hable con Ella) - Agustín Almodóvar/Pedro Almodóvar
The Warrior - Bertrand Faivre/Asif Kapadia

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Chicago - Dion Beebe
Gangs of New York - Michael Ballhaus
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Andrew Lesnie
The Pianist - Pawel Edelman
Road to Perdition - Conrad L Hall

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Chicago - John Myhre
Gangs of New York - Dante Ferretti
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - Stuart Craig
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Grant Major
Road to Perdition - Dennis Gassner

COSTUME DESIGN

Catch Me If You Can - Mary Zophres
Chicago - Colleen Atwood
Frida - Julie Weiss
Gangs of New York - Sandy Powell
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Ngila Dickson/Richard Taylor

EDITING

Chicago - Martin Walsh
City of God (Cidade Deus) - Daniel Rezende
Gangs of New York - Thelma Schoonmaker
The Hours - Peter Boyle
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Michael Horton/Jabez Olssen

SOUND

Chicago
Gangs of New York
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Pianist

ACHIEVEMENT IN SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

Gangs of New York
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
Minority Report
Spider-Man

MAKE UP & HAIR

Chicago - Jordan Samuel/Judi Cooper Sealy
Frida - Judy Chin/Beatrice D’Alba
Gangs of New York - Manlio Rocchetti
The Hours - Ivana Primorac/Conor O’Sullivan/Jo Allen
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - Peter Owen/Peter King

SHORT FILM

BOUNCER - Natasha Carlish/Sophie Morgan/Michael Baig-Clifford/Geoff Thompson
CANDY BAR KID - Benjamin John/Shah Khan
GOOD NIGHT - Yoav Factor/Chun Sun-Young
THE MOST BEAUTIFUL MAN IN THE WORLD - Hugh Welchman/Alicia Duffy
MY WRONGS 8245-8249 AND 117 - Mark Herbert/Chris Morris
RANK - Andrew O’Connell/David Yates/Robbie McCallum

SHORT ANIMATION

THE CHUB CHUBS - Jacquie Barnbrook/Eric Armstrong/Jeff Wolverton
THE DOG WHO WAS A CAT INSIDE - Andrew Ruhemann/Siân Rees/Siri Melchoir
FISH NEVER SLEEP - Gaëlle Denis
SAP - Lucie Wenigerová/Kim Hyun-Joo
WEDDING ESPRESSO - Jonathan Bairstow/Sandra Ensby/Lesley Glaister

[Hart]

Looks like Gangs of New York, Chicago, and the Hours did well with the nominations

[ReaperFett]

I dont take much intrest. British talent always seems to do well in the Oscars, but it's nothing on this :)

[CMJ]

Actually the British films didn't dominate like they sometimes do.

[JonathanLB]

God they didn't even nominate AOTC when it had the best special effects ever created for a motion picture. Incredible.

That tells me all I need to know about their awards.

Not to mention Monster's Ball?! HELLO IDIOTS?!?! Earth to people, that is a 2001 release, i.e. 2 years ago now. Jesus. Every other film there is 2002, so you can't just say, "Oh well it came to Britain later," yeah so did a lot of other films that are not nominated, or are nominated (in the case of 2002 movies that may have come out there in 2003).

Wow that's inept. Monster's Ball sucked hard anyway.

I like that David Lean award, that is a cool title for an award. I don't think any director has made three better films in a row than The Bridge on the River Kwai, Lawrence of Arabia, and Doctor Zhivago.

[CMJ]

Jonathan, I think a film needs to be released before February 14th to be considered for the BAFTA's. 'Monster's ball' came out in March of 2002 in GBR.

Their has always been overlap, actually it's not as bad as a few years ago. They'd literally have half the nominee's from one year versus the other half from the previous year, because they used to consider January - December. They pushed back the deadline because so many US films get released slightly later their.

[ReaperFett]

Hello idiot who doesnt check BAFTA deadlines and UK release dates ;)

[JonathanLB]

A film should be considered in its year of release, and there is only ONE YEAR of release for any film. Not two. Not three. That year is the year that it came to the first theater for public exhibition.

That same thing goes for the U.S. I am sick of seeing 2001 movies considered for 2002 nominations and awards just because they opened in 2002 here. No. Not good enough. We should consider them for awards nominations in the year they were released in their native countries.

For the record, Talk to Her sucks hard. I hate modern European cinema. Asian cinema is dominating the globe and influencing our film. European cinema has almost no impact whatsoever anymore. They did in the past and there were great movements and great directors from all over Europe that I am studying or have studied and appreciate. But right now, all we get is a bunch of STUPID European sexually perverse films that are the bane of the film world. They truly are unworthy of being seen by anyone ever. Absolute trash.

Look no further than Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat, Jet Li, John Woo, and all of the Matrix-like action and Hong Kong fight choreography to see that Asian cinema makes a difference. Even in France, it made a difference (see: Brotherhood of the Wolf). All of this critically acclaimed European nonsense is not changing anything and not influencing anyone because nobody outside of 50 STUPID critics actually likes any of it. It's trash.

What happened to the time when you had all of those great German Expressionist films, or when you had a director like Eistenstein making The Battleship Potemkin and making a world impact, or Fellini or whoever else. Now, you have Japanese and Hong Kong cinema, those are the countries with real film industries that are making a difference.

Talk to Her. Crap. Y Tu Mama Tambien (Mexico). Crap. The Piano Teacher. Crap. Amelie. Crap. And that is the best they can offer?

Someone help European cinema because outside of Britain (where there are a few good movies and a lot of talented actors), their film industry SUCKS.

[ReaperFett]

If you consider them in the year they were released, how could people have seen them.

[CMJ]

A good question Reaper, something I was thinking. More for films oversea's that don't get released until later in the USA though.

Best foreign film for example. Say a great flick comes out in November in Croatia. There's no way it'd be seen over here until the following year...no way. Foreign films usually take many months before they trek this way. Should it be penalized?

[Marcus Telcontar]

God they didn't even nominate AOTC when it had the best special effects ever created for a motion picture. Incredible

Better than Helm's Deep and Gollum? No way. Gollum's argument with himself is the most stunning special effect seen. If there is one BAFTA TTT will win, it's this one. I doubt it will win anythign else.

[CMJ]

FOTR won Best Picture last year...don't write off TTT.

[Marcus Telcontar]

No, I cant see it happening. I'm glad TTT was nominated, but I just cant see TTT doing it. Now, there IS a popularity poll in the BAFTA's that TTT will clean up, that's pretty sure. Much as TTT is a great movie, I cant see TTT winning big awards.

I really dont like the idea of The Hours or Chicago winning, so I hope Gangs cleans up, if TTT doesnt.

[CMJ]

Last year the Academy and the BAFTA's disagreed on nearly everything it seemed(Picture, Director, Actor, etc...). Do I think TTT will win everything? No.

Is it possible? Yes.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Who won Director last year?

[CMJ]

Peter Jackson won the BAFTA.

[Jedi Master Carr]

SW should have been nominated there it had at least the second best effects I think the work is close between that and TTT, I would give the edge but only slight to AOTC but that might be my bias there. Still it had easily better effects that Spiderman of the nominees that had the worst effects. HP's effects were very good but not as good as AOTC. Gangs of Ny well I they must have a very strange classification of visual effects. Not sure what this means for the Oscars, I was thinking it would be TTT, AOTC and Spiderman (because it made 400) the first HP movie didn't get a Visual effect award so COS won't Minority Report could still beat out AOTC though.

[JediBoricua]

I have to agree with JMC and Jon. Even though Gollum is the best CGI to date and it would probably win the awards (which would make me as happy as if SW wins them), I believe in general terms AOTC has better effects. It's a lot tougher to make an army of human clones that wear white armor in a desert scenario than to make humanoid black monsters that do not move exactly like humans in the night while it rains.

I know of a lot of people that could not believe that the clones were all CGI all the time. At least a nomination was given. And Spiderman's effects were really bad some time.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Well.... I dunno. I cant see JAckson repeating a win either.

As for effects, yes I agree AOTC has better effects than say Spiderman. I would say it deserves the nomination and it is disappointing to see a clear snub like that

[CMJ]

Well, the British Academy may not feel compelled to award ROTK, like I'm sure the Academy will next year. Unless something on the order of 'Schindler's List' comes along, I'm willing to bet ROTK wins Picture and Director next year.

[Marcus Telcontar]

You think ROTK winning next year is on as well? Personally, I would perfer that. It seems strange that Oscar watches I have read have stated the exact same thing - presuming Jackson will get the statue in 2004 and that he will get nominated this year to help justify 2004.

That's why I am hesitatant to say TTT will win anything. While TTT is one of the best movies of the year, I just think ROTK will get the big ones and next year is when New Line will truly put the push on. Not this year.

[Loki Ahmrah]

Not like it needs much of a push, The Two Towers could have been carried on the reputation of the first film and I would love to see ROTK take the oscars for director and best picture next year.

I am suprised to see that although he was nominated for a BAFTA for film music, Howard Shore should've recieved the nomination for his work on The Two Towers.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Well, FOTR's reputation grew after the Oscars last year, esp with the DVD releases. Now with TTT the equal or even better of FOTR, that would mean ROTK only really needs to only be close to the other two to have Jackson basically get given the Oscar for Director by default.

Tho, you realy have to think the push will be on next year - consider that Jackson is not attendign awards ceremonies if he can avoid it, New Line have handed him the mandate to deliver ROTK however long he wants, it really seems to me New Line just wants Jackson to produce the absolute best he can. I have every confidence now ROTK will be at least as good as the former two.

I would also think New Line will have so much money for a campain, it will spend big and I daresay do it's best to buy all the votes it can.

Background question - has a New Line movie ever won a Best Picture or DIrector Oscar?

[JonathanLB]

Gollum is a bit overrated considering that Jar Jar 3 years ago looked just as good, if not better, and Watto did look better. Not to mention that one single CG character cannot compare to the number in TPM, which still has better effects than any other film spare AOTC. Even between TPM and AOTC, it's hard to say for sure that AOTC has the better effects, though I would be inclined to say so only because the order of magnitude of creating the entire clone army and having every single clone be CG, which I still didn't know until I saw the movie about 10 times and read about it. I could not believe that.

I will say one thing in TTT's defense, though. Its effects are a lot better than FOTR, which had a number of... well, not entirely great special effects shots. I personally thought FOTR's effects were very good, but there were a few awkward only slightly fake looking shots, whereas you'd not see that in a SW film.

Also, making an army of creatures in the dark in the rain is the biggest copout, LOL, I'm not saying TTT should have changed the plot to make it a beautiful day, but just that you cannot say, "Oh wow look at those amazing effects!" No. Everyone knows that rain is a really cheap way to cover up less-than-compelling digital effects, i.e. Godzilla (1998). With both dark and rain, you have ample opportunity to screw up a bit and have it be almost impossible to see, but when you show clones on a desert backdrop like that with the sun beating down, it better look real or else.

Also, how many effects shots did TTT have? To my understanding FOTR only bad about 750, which I don't believe was exceeded by much in TTT. TPM had 1,900, AOTC had 2,200. The Matrix had 500, another demonstration of just how pathetic its effects were compared to TPM, but that's another matter. It's a lot easier to make effects that call attention to themselves than to make effects that simply look real, which is why ILM is still and will be for many years to come the best special effects house.

If I wrote, "WHAT THE F*** IS THE MATTER WITH THE WORLD?!?!?!?!!!!!" then that is going to stand out a lot more than, "What problems does the world face?" Of course, the first one, in addition to being emphasized with a swear word, caps, and numerous punctuation marks, is simply obnoxious in the way that it calls attention to itself. The better sentence is the second one. The same goes with The Matrix vs. TPM. Obviously The Matrix's effects are more likely to make (frankly) stupid moviegoers exclaim in awe, "OH MY GOD THOSE ARE THE BEST EFFECTS EVER!" whereas more educated filmgoers are going to look at a film like TPM, having read about the effects and knowing the difficulty in creating them, and say, "Wow this is incredible how most of the effects blend so seamlessly into the film that one cannot even tell they are there in many cases. These effects serve the narrative very well." The effects in The Matrix do not serve the narrative many times, but just call attention to themselves for the sake of being "cool." Don't get me wrong, The Matrix is one of the coolest movies ever made and remains one of my favorite sci-fi films, but I think anyone who believes those effects are better than the ones in the Star Wars prequels has very unrefined, uneducated film tastes and probably has not read much about special effects or their creation.

When you stop a scene and show angles from every degree, using the bullet-time camera work, you are not advancing the story in any way whatsoever. You are calling attention to a really cool effect that is a wonderful camera trick (that I very much like!), but that an artistic film like The Phantom Menace or Attack of the Clones would not use because they use a more documentary style of filmmaking (Lucas is famous for that). The effects in the Star Wars films consist of showing things that simply do not exist and must be added through special effects, i.e. all of the effects serve the narrative. Lucas always says that a story driven by effects is "a very boring thing." He is right. He is the model and example showing how you make great movies where effects serve the story, yet are still incredibly impressive. Shame that some people are too blind or stupid to see this, but oh well. You can't expect everyone to appreciate fine art when they see it. Some people would rather go watch the next Kangaroo Jack.

[CMJ]

Marcus, yes..everything I've read leads me to believe ROTK will win Best Picture next year, unless it runs into a Academy buzz saw(like 'Schindler's List').

We shall see.

As far as your New Line question...no, at least not that I recall.

[CMJ]

The Awards were handed out today. It was a shocker at the top. Also of note, how much the awards were spread around. Nothing won more than 3. Heck only TTT won three if the public vote is counted.


******************

Best Film
The Pianist

Best British film
(Alexander Korda award for the outstanding British film of the year)
The Warrior

Best Director
(David Lean award for achievement in direction)
Roman Polanski - The Pianist

Best Actor in a Leading role
Daniel Day-Lewis- Gangs of New York

Best Actress in a Leading role
Nicole Kidman - The Hours

Best Actor in a Supporting role
Christopher Walken - Catch Me If You Can

Best Actress in a Supporting role
Catherine Zeta Jones - Chicago

Make-up and hair
Frida

Best Visual Effects
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Best Sound
Chicago

Editing
City of God

Costume Design
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

Production Design
Road to Perdition

Cinematography
Road To Perdition

Best Music(Score)
(Antony Asquith award for achievement in film music)
The Hours

Best Film not in the English language
Hable con ella (Talk To Her)

Original Screenplay
Hable con ella (Talk To Her)

Adapted Screenplay
Adaptation

Carl Foreman award for special achievement in first feature film
Asif Kapadia - The Warrior (writer and director)

Best Short film
My Wrongs 8245-8249 And 117

Short Animation
Fish Never Sleep

Film of the Year (public vote)
The Lord of The Rings: The Two Towers

[JMK]

What????? AotC didn't get anything? I'm shocked!:lol

[CMJ]

It would've been hard since it had zero nominations. ;)

[JMK]

Even more shocking!:p

[Marcus Telcontar]

Talk about everyone wins a prize

[CMJ]

I know...in sense it's very cool. Nearly everything won SOMETHING.

[Jedi Master Carr]

AOTC did get nomindated for the Orange award right? I thought that was the public one, unless that is something different.

[Oriadin]

Does anyone know if a sequal has ever won one of the major awards at the oscars? Like best film, actor, actress or director?

[Marcus Telcontar]

GodFather II won best movie I believe

[Oriadin]

I think you may be right. I get the impression though, that generally sequals are barely even thought about. I'll be very suprised if LOTR wins any major awards this time around, or next year.

[CMJ]

Marcus is right about 'The Godfather II'. In a way 'Silence of the Lambs' was a sequel though, since 'Manhunter' had been released a few years earlier(with a different cast of course).