Dan's Media Digest

BRITISH ACADEMY FILM & TELEVISION AWARDS

The annual film BAFTAs were dished out last night and The Queen became the big winner (Best Film and Best Actress), closely followed by The Last King Of Scotland (Best British Film, Best Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay), with Casino Royale the big loser (nine nominations, but only one win for Sound). Well, Bond Girl Eva Green got the Rising Star award, but that was voted for by the fickle UK public, so I doubt it's getting pride of place on her mantlepiece.

And no, I'm not sure how The Queen can be proclaimed Best Film but not Best British Film, either. It's illogical. A film about the monarch, financed by the UK, isn't British enough? Oh well.

I'm not going to debate the outcome of each category, as it never really matters anyway. There's a financial benefit to the Academy Awards for the studios and it helps careers (unless you're Halle Berry or Cuba Gooding Jr), but no ceremony has ever effected my own movie choices.

Instead, let's look at the event itself. Stephen Fry was quite rightly dropped as host and replaced by Jonathan Ross. I'm a big fan of Stephen Fry, but his babbling wordplay had become almost impenetrable. You could tell half the laughs he got were out of sympathy.
So BAFTA turned to Ross, who has a proven track record as host of countless awards ceremonies. But his appointment for the BAFTAs was severely misjudged...

Jonathan Ross is overexposed on this format and his acidic humour just wasn't suited to the pompous occassion -- although it had been tamed down considerably. His opening monologue at the British Comedy Awards is usually an award-winner itself, so my expectations were high for the BAFTAs... but the scriptwriters had clearly been told to tone it down. Ocassionally an edgy gag broke through, but usually to awkward silence. Ross forgot that his audience weren't the fellow comedians, friends and fans his material works best with.

The quantity of celebrities was also noticeably low. The pre-show red carpet moments quickly revealed the ten "big names" and ten "no names". We were then reminded of their presence continually. Where was Clive Owen? Isn't Johnny Depp in town filming Sweeney Todd? Michael Gambon certainly is...

Dame Judi Dench was there (it's the law) together with familiar thesps like Sir Ian McKellen and Kate Winslett. The newer wave of Brit talent came in the shape of James MacAvoy, Sienna Miller, Simon Pegg and Jamie Bell (still trying to escape a "Billy Elliot himself..."-style introduction). It's only a matter of time before he commits hari kari over this, perhaps followed by Daniel Craig after the zillionth "007 himself..." intro.

Ricky Gervais' seemed to qualify as movie royalty after (ahem) Night At The Museum, although he neatly poked fun at pal Ross over "stealing Stephen Fry's job" and voiced everyone's thoughts with a pointed "... at least the Americans knew who he was!"

Ah yes, the Americans. It's always interesting to see who has been persuaded to flyt over from sunny L.A to drizzly London, then pretend to give a shit about the British Film Industry...

A "little birdie" probably let slip to Forest Whitaker he wouldn't leave empty-handed, while Jake Gyllenhaal made yet another BAFTA appearance. Jake's either a keen Anglophile, or David Puttnam has some polaroids to use as blackmail. In a similar situation to Billy Elliot (erm, Jamie Bell), Gyllenhaal seems unable to escape Brokeback Mountain-inspired double-entendres. But he didn't help his cause with a weak "guy/gay" gag...

It was all very repressed, polite and... unexciting. The Fellowship Award that traditionally closes the show and drags it down after the climax of the Best Film award, was back in force. Yet again, someone you've never heard of, an Editor with an impressive filmography (Lawrence Of Arabia, The Elephant Man, Chaplin, um, Striptease). To be honest, it was nice to see someone with a decade-spanning career being honoured, particularly as her loyalty stretched to adding American Pie director Chris Weitz in a list that included David Lynch and David Lean!

Oh, and whose idea was it to stick an unseen interviewer in the wings, ready to pounce on winners leaving the stage? Pointless. Nobody had anything more to add to what they'd said, er, about five seconds ago. Even the faceless interviewer felt intrusive when he corned an emotional Helen Mirren who had just dedicated her win to recently departed Ian Richardson...

And finally; no, I have no idea what Victor Meldrew was doing there, either...

The winners were:

BEST FILM
The Queen

BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR
The Last King Of Scotland

ACHIEVEMENT BY A BRITISH DIRETOR, WRITER OR PRODUCER IN THEIR FIRST FEATURE FILM
Andrea Arnold, Red Rose (director)

ACHIEVEMENT IN DIRECTION
Paul Greengrass (United 93)

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Little Miss Sunshine by Michael Arndt

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
The Last King Of Scotland by Peter Morgan & Jeremy Brock

FILM NOT IN ENGLISH
Pan's Labyrinth

ANIMATED FEATURE FILM
Happy Feet

ACTOR IN A LEADING ROLE
Forest Whitaker (The Last King Of Scotland)

ACTRESS IN A LEADING ROLE
Dame Helen Mirren (The Queen)

ACTOR IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Alan Arkin (Little Miss Sunshine)

ACTRESS IN A SUPPORTING ROLE
Jennifer Hudson (Dreamgirls)

ACHIEVEMENT IN FILM MUSIC
Gustavo Santaolalla (Babel)

CINEMATOGRAPHY
Children Of Men

EDITING
United 93

PRODUCTION DESIGN
Children Of Men

COSTUME DESIGN
Pan's Labyrinth

SOUND
Casino Royale

SPECIAL EFFECTS
Pirates Of The Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

MAKE-UP & HAIR
Pan's Labyrinth

SHORT ANIMATION FILM
Guy 101

SHORT FILM
Do Not Erase

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD (public vote)
Eva Green