‘Black Swan’ Does Well, ‘The Social Network’ Less So
So, the British Academy Of Film and Television Award nominations were announced in the wee hours of this morning by Dominic Cooper and Talulah Riley, and while it hasn’t changed the shape of the awards race by any means, there’s certainly a few eyebrows raised as a result. The nominations are now nestled neatly in a slot between the Golden Globe ceremony and the Oscar nominations, and so have some degree of value, at least as a precursor, in the Oscar prediction game.
At the same time, it’s important to remember that there’s always a certain degree of home-crowd loyalty among the British members of BAFTA, and as such, it’s no surprise to see “The King’s Speech,” a film made to sweep the awards if ever there was one, pick up an impressive fourteen nominations — we suspect it’ll win a substantial number of them. Otherwise, we were pleased to see “Black Swan” hot on the stuttering king’s heels, with twelve nods, including one for Barbara Hershey for Best Supporting Actress — a pleasant surprise, as Hershey’s been mostly ignored in the awards race otherwise.
“Inception” picked up nine nominations, with “127 Hours” and “True Grit” close behind. Surprisingly, or perhaps not, “The Social Network,” which has swept virtually every awards ceremony to date, is behind the pack with six nods — while it picked up nominations for Picture, Screenplay, Director, Actor and Supporting Actor, it’s mostly been shut of the technical awards, including a snub for Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross‘s sublime score — perhaps a sign that, despite the heaps of critical love, it won’t be able to convert its success so far to the Oscars? (We think it’ll be fine — “The King’s Speech,” while still a threat, is still lagging behind, Oscar-wise).
Other films that did well include “The Kids Are All Right” and, more depressingly, both “Alice In Wonderland,” which picked up five nominations, and “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo,” which saw Noomi Rapace nominated for Best Actress, as well as nods for Best Adapted Screenplay (???) and Best Foreign Language Film. A more pleasant surprise was the nomination for Best Supporting Actor for the late Pete Postlethwaite, for his role in “The Town.” While there’s obviously a degree to which this is a career nod, it’s a fine performance, and we wouldn’t be totally surprised to see it repeated come Oscar time, even if it’s something of a longshot.
Of course, with every winner, there must be a loser, and there are some notable ones here: David O Russell‘s “The Fighter,” which some were at one stage pushing as an Oscar dark horse, is virtually shut out, with only Christian Bale and Amy Adams nominated, the latter winning out over her co-star, and presumed Oscar favorite, Melissa Leo.
Mike Leigh‘s “Another Year” has mostly been overlooked, outside a nomination for Outstanding British Film (along with “Four Lions,” “The King’s Speech,” “Made in Dagenham” and “127 Hours”), while the fantastic “Blue Valentine” and “Winter’s Bone” didn’t receive a single nod between them. Is it again a sign that the more indie-inflected films may lose with Academy voters at the end?
We suspect not: the BAFTA membership is still a little older, and a little more conservative, than the Academy, who have improved in recent years (there’s no way “The Hurt Locker” would have won ten years ago, for instance), and we’re sure Jennifer Lawrence shouldn’t cancel her limo yet. The ceremony will be held on February 13th, and we’ll be back then to report the results. Check out the full list of nominees below.
Film
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“The Social Network”
“True Grit”
Outstanding British Film
“Another Year”
“Four Lions”
“The King’s Speech”
“Made In Dagenham”
“127 Hours”
Carl Foreman Award (Best British Debut)
Clio Barnard, “The Arbor”
Banksy and Jaime D’Cruz, “Exit Through the Gift Shop”
Chris Morris, “Four Lions”
Gareth Edwards, “Monsters”
Nick Whitfield, “Skeletons”
Director
Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”
Christopher Nolan, “Inception”
Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”
Danny Boyle, “127 Hours”
David Fincher, “The Social Network”
Original Screenplay
“Black Swan”
“The Fighter”
“Inception”
“The Kids Are All Right”
“The King’s Speech”
Adapted Screenplay
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“127 Hours”
“The Social Network”
“Toy Story 3″
“True Grit”
Film Not In The English Language
“Biutiful”
“The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
“I Am Love”
“Of Gods and Men”
“The Secret In Their Eyes”
Animated Film
“Despicable Me”
“How To Train Your Dragon”
“Toy Story 3″
Leading Actor
Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”
Jeff Bridges, “True Grit”
Jesse Eisenberg, “The Social Network”
Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
James Franco, “127 Hours”
Leading Actress
Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right”
Julianne Moore, “The Kids Are All Right”
Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
Noomi Rapace, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”
Supporting Actor
Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network”
Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
Pete Postlethwaite, “The Town”
Geoffrey Rush, “The King’s Speech”
Mark Ruffalo, “The Kids Are All Right”
Supporting Actress
Amy Adams, “The Fighter”
Barbara Hershey, “Black Swan”
Helena Bonham Carter, “The King’s Speech”
Lesley Manville, “Another Year”
Miranda Richardson, “Made In Dagenham”
Original Music
“Alice In Wonderland”
“How To Train Your Dragon”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
Cinematography
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“True Grit”
Editing
“127 Hours”
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“The Social Network”
Production Design
“Alice In Wonderland”
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“True Grit”
Costume Design
“Alice In Wonderland”
“Black Swan”
“The King’s Speech”
“Made In Dagenham”
“True Grit”
Sound
“Black Swan”
“Inception”
“The King’s Speech”
“127 Hours”
“True Grit”
Special Visual Effects
“Alice In Wonderland”
“Black Swan”
“Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1″
“Inception”
“Toy Story 3″
Make Up & Hair
“Alice In Wonderland”
“Black Swan”
“Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1″
“The King’s Speech”
“Made In Dagenham”
Short Animation
“The Eagleman Stag”
“Matter Fisher”
“Thursday”
Short Film
“Connect”
“Lin”
“Rite”
“Turning”
“Until The River Runs Red”
Rising Star Award (public vote, previously announced)
Gemma Arterton
Andrew Garfield
Tom Hardy
Aaron Johnson
Emma Stone
