2012 BAFTA Awards

With just a couple of days to go until BAFTA Awards here are my thoughts on who I think will win and who I would choose.

• Best Film
• Who I think will win: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• My Choice: The Artist
• Other nominees: The Descendants, Drive, The Help

• Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year
• Who I think will win: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• My Choice: We Need to Talk About Kevin
• Other nominees: My Week with Marilyn, Senna, Shame

• Best Actor
• Who I think will win: Gary Oldman for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• My Choice: George Clooney for The Descendants
• Other nominees: Jean Dujardin for The Artist, Michael Fassbender for Shame, Brad Pitt for Moneyball

• Best Actress
• Who I think will win: Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady (2011)
• My Choice: Tilda Swinton for We Need to Talk About Kevin (2011)
• Other nominees: Bérénice Bejo for The Artist, Viola Davis for The Help, Michelle Williams for My Week with Marilyn

• Best Supporting Actor
• Who I think will win: Kenneth Branagh for My Week with Marilyn
• My Choice: Christopher Plummer for Beginners
• Other nominees: Jim Broadbent for The Iron Lady, Jonah Hill for Moneyball, Philip Seymour Hoffman for The Ides of March

• Best Supporting Actress
• Who I think will win: Octavia Spencer for The Help
• My Choice: Jessica Chastain for The Help
• Other nominees: Judi Dench for My Week with Marilyn, Melissa McCarthy for Bridesmaids, Carey Mulligan for Drive

• David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction
• Who I think will win: Tomas Alfredson for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
• My Choice:Lynne Ramsay for We Need to Talk
• Other nominees: Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist, About Kevin, Nicolas Winding Refn for Drive, Martin Scorsese for Hugo

• Best Screenplay (Original)
• Who I think will win: The Artist (2011): Michel Hazanavicius
• My Choice: The Guard: John Michael McDonagh
• Other nominees: Bridesmaids: Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig, The Iron Lady: Abi Morgan, Midnight in Paris: Woody Allen

• Best Screenplay (Adapted)
• Who I think will win: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
• My Choice: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan
• Other nominees: The Descendants: Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash – The Help: Tate Taylor – The Ides of March: George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon – Moneyball: Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin

• Best Cinematography
• Who I think will win: War Horse: Janusz Kaminski
• My Choice: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Jeff Cronenweth
• Other nominees: The Artist: Guillaume Schiffman – Hugo: Robert Richardson – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Hoyte Van Hoytema

• Best Editing
• Who I think will win: Senna: Gregers Sall, Chris King
• My Choice: Senna: Gregers Sall, Chris King
• Other nominees: The Artist: Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius – Drive: Matthew Newman – Hugo: Thelma Schoonmaker – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Dino Jonsäter

• Best Production Design
• Who I think will win: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana Macdonald
• My Choice: The Artist: Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould
• Other nominees: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2: Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan – Hugo: Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo – War Horse: Rick Carter, Lee Sandales

• Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music
• Who I think will win: The Artist: Ludovic Bource
• My Choice: The Artist: Ludovic Bource
• Other nominees: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo: Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross – Hugo: Howard Shore – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy: Alberto Iglesias – War Horse: John Williams

• Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
• Who I think will win: Tyrannosaur: Paddy Considine, Diarmid Scrimshaw
• My Choice: Tyrannosaur: Paddy Considine, Diarmid Scrimshaw
• Other nominees: Attack the Block: Joe Cornish – Black Pond: Will Sharpe, Tom Kingsley, Sarah Brocklehurst – Coriolanus: Ralph Fiennes – Submarine: Richard Ayoade

A note on my selection. I have seen all the nominations mentioned above. The categories I haven’t mentioned are either because I haven’t seen the enough of the nominated movies or else I’m not that bother red about who wins. A could of categories I would like to mention are Best Film not in the English Language and Best Documentary, I have only seen one movie in each (The Skin I Live In and Senna) but as they both made it to my top ten movies list of last year, I would love to see them win.

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2011 Films

All the films I saw at the cinema in 2011 ranked in order of preference:

1. Hugo
2. Drive
3. The Guard
4. Black Swan
5. Senna
6. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
7. True Grit
8. We Need to Talk About Kevin
9. Midnight In Paris
10. The Skin I live in
11. The King’s Speech
12. Moneyball
13. Stake Land
14. Kill List
15. The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
16. Another Earth
17. Melancholia
18. Warrior
19. 127 Hours
20. The Way
21. Julia’s Eyes
22. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
23. Troll Hunter
24. 50/50
25. Source Code
26. Submarine
27. Super 8
28. 13 Assassins
29. A Lonely Place To Die
30. The Extraordinary Adventures of Adèle Blanc-Sec
31. The Adjustment Bureau
32. X-Men: First Class
33. Thor
34. Captain America: The First Avenger
35. Limitless
36. My Week With Marilyn
37. The Inbetweeners Movie
38. Take Shelter
39. The Rum Diary
40. Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows: Part 2
41. The Ides Of March
42. Real Steel
43. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
44. Fair Game
45. Never Let Me Go
46. Blue Valentine
47. Tree Of Life
48. The Lincoln Lawyer
49. The Help
50. In Time
51. The Awakening
52. Sucker Punch
53. Fast Five
54. Hanna
55. Don’t Be Afraid Of The Dark
56. Wuthering Heights
57. Contagion
58. The Fighter
59. Paul
60. Animal Kingdom
61. NEDS
62. Rabbit Hole
63. One Day
64. John Carpenter’s The Ward
65. Drive Angry
66. The Beaver
67. Beginners
68. Bridesmaids
69. Red State
70. Cowboys and Aliens
71. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
72. The Conspirator
73. The Art of Getting By
74. I am Number Four
75. Fright Night
76. Henry’s Crime
77. Blitz
78. Priest
79. Red Riding Hood
80. Oranges and Sunshine
81. Faster
82. 1920 The Battle of Warsaw
83. Win Win
84. Colombiana
85. Water for Elephants
86. Immortals
87. Battle: Los Angeles
88. 30 Minutes or Less
89. Hereafter
90. Biutiful
91. The Mechanic
92. The Thing
93. The Three Musketeers
94. Anonymous
95. Tomorrow, When The War Began
96. The Debt
97. Green Lantern
98. The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn – Part 1
99. Footlose
100. Justice
101. Attack the Block
102. Apollo 18
103. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
104. Unkown
105. Scream 4
106. The Silent House
107. The Eagle
108. The Resident
109. Season of the Witch
110. Transformers: Dark of the Moon
111. The Hangover: Part II
112. Sanctum

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Movie of the Month: July 2011

As reported last month the summer blockbuster season plays havoc with the release (or screening to be more precise) of other movies, therefore I have only seen five in the past month. All five films are very good but flawed in some way that prevents them form being great.

The Conspirator: Part of the agenda of Robert Redford’s civil war drama is to tell an historically accurate story, it certainly does this, however it is all wrapped up with a subplot involving a modern and surprisingly overt political message.

Tree Of Life: I still can’t make my mind up about Terrence Malick’s latest offering. Is it a profound, existential, allegorical movie or an esoteric rant? Its probably a bit of both but it is also supremely well made and fantastically acted.

Bridesmaids: After The Hangover Part II left a bad taste I wasn’t keen to see the comedy billed as “The Female Hangover”. Following good word of mouth and the amazing Kristen Wiig present as both star and writer I decided to give it a go and was impressed. Far funnier and very different than the trailer led me to expect.

Beginners: Writers/director Mike Mills’ semi autobiographical movie is well written and extremely well acted if a little slight. It has been described as self indulgent, and in a way it is however this does somewhat go with the territory of a movie of this type.

Captain America: The First Avenger: The name says it all, the origin of the first Avenger in preparation for next years Avengers movie. Perfectly cast, well structured and the period setting is spot on. The balance between action and narrative is about right, all in all it as good a film as it could have been allowing for its role as a setup for The Avengers, this is also the reason for the movies only real problem, the modern day sections are conspicuous and could have been handled better or even omitted.

In a close run battle the movie of the month is:

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