BAFTA Winners - 2008During the BAFTA organizing, the Golden Globes had already been reduced to a news conference by the WGA strike in America, and the likelihood of a proper Academy Awards wasn't certain. So BAFTA could sail to the rescue as the only film awards ceremony unaffected by a writers' strike...
Unfortunately for BAFTA, the WGA dispute is practically over and the Oscars will likely go ahead as planned, but Sunday night was still a chance for BAFTA to shine -- if only because it's actually been rare to see a decent red carpet shindig. So did it? Let's review...
9:03 pm – Oooh, exciting warlike music and lots of buff men with washboard stomachs wearing red capes. Yes, it's an opening homage to the 2007 film that screamed quality in high-brow filmmaking... ahem, 300. Jonathan Ross takes the stage; surely a man who can present awards ceremonies in his sleep now? Which is what he proceeds to do, really – although I had difficult hearing him, because the sound was coming through my front-right speaker only! The first of many sound cockups from BAFTA...
9.10 – Sylvester Stallone, face like a bag of conkers these days, presents the award for "Best British Film", which is deservedly won by This Is England. Writer-director Shane Meadows accepts, clearly amazed and excited. He even gets in a funny joke about his man-boobs. Top bloke.
9:16 – Eva Green, quite attractive but with a sneering smile, presents the award for "Orange Rising Star". Oh God, this one is voted for by the public. Ellen Page should win, but nobody's seen Hard Candy and Juno only came out on Friday in the UK. Yeah, Shia LaBeouf wins – which I'm okay with, because he's charismatic and entertaining to watch.
9:22 – Thandie Newton arrives to present "Best Film Not In The English Language". German movie The Lives Of Others wins. It actually looked pretty good and I've been meaning to watch it. I'll add it to my LoveFilm queue.
9:27 – Alfonso Cuaron, director of Children Of Men and Harry Potter 3, arrives with a thick accent to present the award for "Adapted Screenplay". The winner is The Diving Bell And The Butterfly. Well done!
9:34 – A French actress called Marion Cottilard presents the award for "Supporting Actor". Javier Bardem wins for his villainous role in No Country For Old Men. Good result!
9:39 – Orlando Bloom overemphasizes his words to present the "Carl Foreman Award" to Mathew Greenhalgh, for writing Control. Another film I'll have to watch.
9:47 – Cheryl Marshall wins the "Orange 60 Second Movie" prize, but amusingly hasn’t turned up to accept it. Hahaha! I'm not sure what her film was anyway – something about Santa's? The audience didn't seem impressed.
9:48 – Emily Blunt (oooh, I've worked with her!) sweeps onto the stage to present the award for "Best Visual Effects". The Golden Compass wins. Not because it had the best effects, but because it's the most British of the nominees, clearly. Talking polar bears were more impressive than the sumptuous visuals of Pirates 3? No way.
9:52 – Cuba Gooding Jr, still clinging on to his Jerry Maguire Oscar despite starring in nothing but crap ever since, presents the award for "Supporting Actress". Tilda Swinton wins for Michael Clayton. She scares me. Too ginger and pale, with a tendency to say "dude", and she thinks George Clooney is still Batman!
9:57 – END OF PART ONE. Time for the News. Bloody hell.
10:20 pm – PART TWO. Eddie Izzard arrives to make everyone laugh by not being particularly funny, just a bit mad-sounding. He presents "Best Animation" to Ratatouille. Inevitable, but deserved.
10:26 – Hugh Laurie proves he can still talk with his natural English accent after years in America playing a cranky doctor. He presents "Original Screenplay" to Juno stripper-turned-writer Diablo Cody. She deserves a writing award just for dreaming up that stage name. Great to see someone with their own unique style in such a stuffy environment – although I wouldn't be surprised if Jonathan Ross started sniffing around her, given her likeness to his wife Jane Goldman!
10:31 – The obituaries. It sounds morbid, but I always find obituaries the best part of most award ceremonies. Sad, poignant and touching... and it inevitably closed with Heath Ledger. RIP.
10:34 – Daniel Radcliffe does his posh, gushing best to present the "Outstanding British Contribution" award to propmaster Barry Wilkinson, but cocks it up. Never mind Radders! Barry takes it all in good humour, and reads out his prepared speech very nervously. Bless.
10:39 -- Sir Ian McKellen presents "Best Director" to the Coen Brothers for No Country For Old Men. The most deserved award so far, collected by Joel Coen – looking uncannily like Howard Stern!
10:46 – Harvey Keitel presents "Best Actress" to... oh my God, it's that daffy French woman Marion Cottilard for La Vie En Rose! She does the obligatory overly-emotional speech, clearly dumbfounded to have won.
10:51 – Kate Hudson, not as sexy as she used to be, presents "Best Actor" to Daniel Day-Lewis. Hooray! The perfect outcome and he's British, too! He makes the best speech of the night, too.
10:57 – Kevin Spacey and Jeff Goldblum arrive as a kind of strained comedy double-act. Goldblum can be a funny guy – trouble is, he rarely knows it, so just when hilarity should ensue... he backs off. Oh well. They present "Best Film" to... yeah, Atonement. It's a good film, but the best of 2007? No way. But it's 100% British, see? That's how BAFTA roll. Anyway, director Joe Wright looks happy – but that might be because he's going out with Rosamund Pike.
11:03 pm – BAFTA stalwart Sir Richard Attenborough arrives to hand out the "Academy Fellowship" to Anthony Hopkins. Lucky he's there, eh? There's a great montage of clips from Hopkins' films, which reminds you he really has done a lot more than three Hannibal Lecter films. His speech (which he pockets to wing it) is pretty good, although I'm not that convinced he's quite the brilliant actor they make him out to be.
11:14 – Oh, it's finished. But wait... we have some clips of awards deemed too boring to televise in their entirety: "Short Film" goes to Dog Altogether, "Short Animation" went to The Pearce Sisters, "Make-Up/Hair" to La Vie En Rose, "Production Design" went to Atonement, "Cinematography" was awarded to No Country For Old Men, "Costume Design" to La Vie En Rose, "Sound" was nabbed by The Bourne Ultimatum, "Editing" went to Bourne again, and "Music" was won by La Vie En Rose.
11:20 – It's finished, for real this time.
Random thoughts post-BAFTA digestion...
1. Jonathan Ross doesn't have the gravitas or worldwide fame to host this ceremony. I was getting bored by Stephen Fry, so a change was long overdue, but it's tragic we don't have a Billy Crystal equivalent in the UK.
2. Why do they bother filming award winners backstage, for literally 2 seconds after they collect their awards? It's pointless and offers no insight for anyone.
3. The sound guys need to be fired. Ross' opening monologue boomed at me from my front-right, then rear-left speakers – totally ruining it. Then there were those weird "microphone banging noises" midway through that Ross had to apologize for, and Javier Bardem made a joke about. Very unprofessional.
Overall, it was another typical and rather drab BAFTA night. I was really pleased for This Is England (Best British Film), writer Diablo Cody (Best Screenplay) and the Coen Brothers (Best Directors), but the other results were either biased, stupid or inevitable.
The full list of 2008 winners, with the list of nominees, can be read at the BAFTA site here.
