BAFTA awards snub AVATAR, earn my respect

Ah, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts: Britain’s answer to the Academy Awards. I don’t think I know any people who speak of the BAFTAs (or the Golden Globes, for that matter) when comparing the calibre and critical worth of films; it’s always the Oscars that everyone talks about ten years after the fact. But the Oscars are weird and unpredictable, especially when it comes to Best Picture and Best Director, where the Academy feels obliged to honour a director because he “deserves it after all these years,” not necessarily because his latest movie is the best of the year (see Scorsese’s 2006 win for The Departed). I don’t know how the BAFTAs are decided, but the results make sense to me, so I’m starting to warm up to these weird little golden faces.

The fact that Avatar was even nominated for Best Picture and Best Director for the BAFTAs made me roll my eyes; it’s like these awards are obliged to recognise James Cameron regardless of what he’s putting out, since the mammoth awards haul he pulled in for Titanic back in the day. Sure it’s nice that dull period dramas and depressing character studies aren’t dominating the awards this year, but it makes you wonder if academies like BAFTA aren’t just bowing to public demand rather than recognising genuine critical worth.

But what’s this? The results of the BAFTAs rolled around on my birthday, and Britain’s gift to me was to snub Cameron’s juggernaut jungle-smurf epic in favour of the taut and brutal war flick The Hurt Locker. Thanks, mate, this definitely beats the socks you sent me last year! I don’t know how the BAFTA awards are decided, but it seems like there are seem free-thinking people on the panel, that’s for sure.

The Hurt Locker snatched Best Picture from Avatar and Up In The Air (thank god), while Best Director was given to Kathryn Bigelow over James Cameron and Quentin Tarantino (for his Inglorious Basterds). I hope Bigelow’s sex wasn’t an important criterion to the panel of judges — it would be condescending to give it to her just because she made a good movie despite being a woman (like that’s some kind of artistic handicap). Sure the industry is dominated by men, and it’s great to see a lady show the blokes how it’s done, but I’d prefer the woman to be honoured for her work, not for the fact that she’s “up there” with the men.

The winning streak didn’t end there, though. The Hurt Locker also waltzed away with Best Cinematography, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound, going against Avatar and District 9 in all three categories. Inglourious Basterds was also in the running for Cinematography and Editing, but Quentin Tarantino’s latest love-it-or-hate-it love letter to film didn’t go home empty handed: Christoph Waltz nabbed Best Supporting Actor for his charming / chilling portrayal of Nazi nutjob Hans Landa, a role for which he truly deserves such recognition.

A little focus was put on the British industry, too. A movie called “Fish Tank” won Outsanding British Film, but I’d never heard of the flick till I read the BAFTAs results. An Education was all over the nominations, and won Best Lead Actress for Carey Mulligan’s performance in the film. Duncan Jones won Outsanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer for his brilliant Moon. I reckon Moon should have been up there in the Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and at the very least Best Lead Actor categories, especially as Avatar and District 9 got noms in these directions. Sam Rockwell’s performance(s) in Moon is brilliant and integral to the film as a whole, indicative of the genius involved at all levels — script, direction and production. But I guess the movie was too indie, too “genre” to be recognised in such a way.

Avatar didn’t leave without its candy: Best Production Design and Best Special Visual Effects are probably the two awards Avatar most deserves. The fact that Avatar was even in the running for Best Cinematography bugs me a little, though. Sure the tech is new and boundaries were pushed, but the movie’s 90% cartoon; you may as well nominate Up and The Fantastic Mr Fox if you’re going to play that game. Up In The Air got the Best Adapted Screenplay gong, which is a shame, because the writers will now be encouraged to rest on their laurels and continue to put out flabby, faux-sophisticated scripts, rather than pushing themselves in new, challenging directions.

So anyway, those are my rambling thoughts on the BAFTAs. I think, by and large, the awards have been delivered to the right doorsteps. I wish Moon and District 9 had gotten some wins, but I’m glad something serious but fun won the big gongs. This also gets my hopes up for the Oscars. I really hope Avatar doesn’t sweep them like it did the Globes, and if the yanks’ Academy is anything like the poms’, we might actually see some justice come March 7.

What are your thoughts? Reckon Avatar should’ve got the gongs over The Hurt Locker? Has anyone even seen An Education or Precious? Can you vouch for their quality? We’d love to hear what you think!

Full list of categories, with winners in orange:

BEST FILM

• Avatar
• An Education
• The Hurt Locker
• Precious
• Up in the Air

LEADING ACTOR

• Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart)
• George Clooney (Up in the Air)
• Colin Firth (A Single Man)
• Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker)
• Andy Serkis (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll)

LEADING ACTRESS

• Carey Mulligan (An Education)
• Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones)
• Gabourey Sidibe (Precious)
• Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia)
• Audrey Tautou (Coco Before Chanel)

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• Alec Baldwin (It’s Complicated)
• Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles)
• Alfred Molina (An Education)
• Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones)
• Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds)

 SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy)
• Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air)
• Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air)
• Mo’Nique (Precious)
• Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy)

OUTSANDING BRITISH FILM

• An Education
• Fish Tank
• In the Loop
• Moon
• Nowhere Boy

OUTSANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

• Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, David Pearson (directors, producers – Mugabe And The White African)
• Eran Creevy (writer/director – Shifty)
• Stuart Hazeldine (writer/director – Exam)
• Duncan Jones (director – Moon)
• Sam Taylor-Wood (director – Nowhere Boy)

DIRECTOR

• James Cameron (Avatar)
• Neill Blomkamp (District 9)
• Lone Scherfig (An Education)
• Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker)
• Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• The Hangover (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore)
• The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal)
• Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino)
• A Serious Man (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)
• Up (Bob Peterson, Pete Docter)

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell)
• An Education (Nick Hornby)
• In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche)
• Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher)
• Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner)

 FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• Broken Embraces
• Coco Before Chanel
• Let the Right One In
• A Prophet
• The White Ribbon

ANIMATED FILM

• Coraline
• Fantastic Mr Fox
• Up

 MUSIC

• Avatar (James Horner)
• Crazy Heart (T-Bone Burnett, Stephen Bruton)
• Fantastic Mr Fox (Alexandre Desplat)
• Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll (Chaz Jankel)
• Up (Michael Giacchino)

 CINEMATOGRAPHY

• Avatar
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• The Road

EDITING

• Avatar
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Inglourious Basterds
• Up in the Air

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• Avatar
• District 9
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Inglourious Basterds

COSTUME DESIGN

• Bright Star
• Coco Before Chanel
• An Education
• A Single Man
• The Young Victoria

 SOUND

• Avatar
• District 9
• The Hurt Locker
• Star Trek
• Up

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

• Avatar
• District 9
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
• The Hurt Locker
• Star Trek

MAKEUP & HAIR

• Coco Before Chanel
• An Education
• The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
• Nine
• The Young Victoria

 SHORT ANIMATION

• The Gruffalo
• The Happy Duckling
• Mother of Many

 SHORT FILM

• 14
• I Do Air
• Jade
• Mixtape
• Off Season

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

• Jesse Eisenberg
• Nicholas Hoult
• Carey Mulligan
• Tahar Rahim
• Kristen Stewart