Tag Archives: Bafta

The BAFTA nominations are out…. #film #awards

8 Jan

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Gravity leads the way as the spectacle of cinema in 2013 gets 11 nominations with 12 Years A Slave and American Hustle hot on its heels!!! Who’s got your vote??

Best film

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Philomena

Outstanding British film

Gravity
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom

Philomena

Rush

Saving Mr Banks

The Selfish Giant

Best actress

Amy Adams (American Hustle)

Cate Blanchett (Blue Jasmine)

Sandra Bullock (Gravity)

Judi Dench (Philomena)

Emma Thompson (Saving Mr Banks)

Best actor

Christian Bale (American Hustle)

Bruce Dern (Nebraska)

Leonardo DiCaprio (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave)

Tom Hanks (Captain Phillips)

Best supporting actress

Sally Hawkins (Blue Jasmine)

Jennifer Lawrence (American Hustle)

Lupita Nyong’o (12 Years a Slave)

Julia Roberts (August: Osage County)

Oprah Winfrey (The Butler)

Best supporting actor

Barkhad Adbi (Captain Phillips)

Daniel Bruhl (Rush)

Bradley Cooper (American Hustle)

Matt Damon (Behind the Candelabra)

Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave)

Best director

Alfonso Cuaron (Gravity)

Paul Greengrass (Captain Phillips)

Steve McQueen (12 Years a Slave)

David O Russell (American Hustle)

Martin Scorsese (The Wolf of Wall Street)

Best adapted screenplay

12 Years a Slave

Behind the Candelabra

Captain Phillips

Philomena

The Wolf of Wall Street

Best original screenplay

American Hustle

Blue Jasmine

Gravity

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Best documentary

The Act of Killing

The Armstrong Lie

Blackfish

Tim’s Vermeer
We Steal Secrets

Best animated film

Despicable Me 2

Frozen

Monsters University

Rising Star award

Dane DeHaan

George MacKay

Lupita Nyong’o

Will Poulter

Lea Seydoux

Cinematography

12 Years a Slave

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Inside Llewyn Davis

Nebraska

Costume design

American Hustle

Behind the Candelabra

The Great Gatsby

The Invisible Woman

Saving Mr Banks

Editing

12 Years a Slave

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Rush

The Wolf of Wall Street

Make-up and hair

American Hustle

Behind the Candelabra

The Butler

The Great Gatsby

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Music

12 Years a Slave

The Book Thief

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Saving Mr Banks

Production design

12 Years a Slave

American Hustle

Behind the Candelabra

Gravity

The Great Gatsby

Sound

All is Lost

Captain Phillips

Gravity

Inside Llewyn Davis

Rush

Visual effects

Gravity

The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

Iron Man 3

Pacific Rim

Star Trek Into Darkness

Short animation

Everything I Can See From Here

I Am Tom Moody

Sleeping with the Fishes

Short film

Island Queen

Keeping Up with the Joneses

Orbit Ever After

Room 8

Sea View

Outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer

Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson (writers, Good Vibrations)

Kieran Evans (writer-director, Kelly + Victor)

Scott Graham (writer-director, Shell)

Kelly Marcel (writer, Saving Mr Banks)

Paul Wright. Polly Stokes (writer-director and producer, For Those in Peril)

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Featured Film Critic – Channel 5 News – BAFTA Nominations 2013

10 Jan

So yesterday I featured with fellow film critic Simon Thompson on Channel 5 News, to discuss the BAFTA nominations announced that day. Was Skyfall left short of the awards noms – we thought so, but weren’t that surprised, and is Lincoln deserving of its 10 nominations? Yes, but that again wasn’t surprising as the film is pure awards bait.

We answered all those questions and a few more, hope you enjoy it!

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The BAFTA EE Rising Star Awards – why you should be excited for the nominees

7 Jan

 

The shortlist has just been announced and now it’s in your hands to vote for your top newcomer to the world of film.

To help you make up your mind, here’s a little bit about each fantastic nominee…

 

Elizabeth Olsen.

Probably for the last twenty years she’s been known as the little sister to the extremely famous Olsen Twins and their numerous franchises. But, Elizabeth diligently stayed in school, she studied at the Tisch School of the Arts, and despite some smaller roles in the past, burst on to the scene at  the end of 2011 in the critically acclaimed Martha Macy May Marlene. Some would say she was robbed of an Oscar nod for her performance, but that hasn’t stopped her throughout 2012, other films such as Liberal Arts have been well received by critics and 2013 will be a big year for her with two films eagerly anticipated – Very Good Girls, with Dakota Fanning and the Western remake of Oldboy with Josh Brolin.

 

Andrea Riseborough

Working her way up the ladder with smaller parts in Made in Dagenham and Never Let Me Go, RADA graduate Andrea Riseborough has also starred in the ill-received remake of Brighton Rock and the even more ill-received W.E. (Madonna’s dire directorial outing). Although these have dive bombed at the box office, these film failures have been nothing to do with Riseborough’s talent, which resonates on-screen. She brings an air of old school talent, charm and dedication, from her early parts as Margaret Thatcher in The Long Walk to Finchley to her latest outing – Shadow Dancer, where she managed to pick up a well deserved BIFA prize for Best Actress. It’s clear that if she wins this award or not, Riseborough will have an exciting career ahead.

 

Juno Temple

Heralding from a film family, Juno Temple has managed to steadily work in a wide variety of films, from Killer Joe to The Dark Knight Rises (blink and you’ll miss her as Selina Kyle’s sidekick). Starting off as a child actress, as she’s got older she’s received critical acclaim for roles in films such as Atonement and Notes on a Scandal. Ever diverse Juno Temple is clearly an actress who likes to challenge herself and with American dark fantasy thriller Horns coming out later this year and also starring Daniel Radcliffe, it looks like 2013 is going to be very exciting for this actress.

 

Suraj Sharma

If you were going to be cast in one film to launch your career, Ang Lee’s Life of Pi was most certainly the pick of the bunch. Chosen over thousands of other hopefuls, nineteen year old Suraj Sharma commands the seas and a Bengal tiger in this epic tale of a boy lost at sea. Very few people could have played the part so well, and for a newcomer, he deserves all the praise he’s going to get for this film. Outstanding performance.

 

Alicia Vikander

Very few people can steel the show from Keira Knightley, but in Anna Karenina, Swedish actress Alicia Vikander does just that. Vikander’s Kitty is so genuine, sweet and compassionate towards Domhnall Gleeson’s Levin that she is easily the best thing about this film. Her next international film outing will be in The Seventh Son, opposite Ben Barnes, Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges and its pretty clear that she’ll quickly be making a name for herself outside of her native Sweden in the months to come.

The BAFTA Awards takes place on the 10th February so make sure you follow @bafta to find out more details on how to cast your all important vote.

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For the new generation of British talent, its PAYBACK SEASON!

9 Mar

So in the same week that The Guardian brought out an interesting article about the number of upper class, well educated men and women becoming successful actors – http://www.guardian.co.uk/stage/2012/mar/07/being-posh-helps-actors – I attended the film premiere for Payback Season, featuring “the underdog” Adam Deacon. 

The stars of this film are not the graduates of Eton and Cambridge, but lesser known schools with, in some cases, the Anna Scher theatre training as the most notable training credit on their cv as opposed to RADA or LAMDA. They are the ones really living the dream, feeling privileged to be walking the red carpet for yet another successful British film, if not by the critics, then by the masses of 13-2o year old girls who scream as they arrive on the red carpet, and the boys who admire these actors as they’re at home nurturing their X-Box’s.

If I had my preference for which red carpet events to attend and soak up, it would be these types of films, the energy in the room is amazing. No star of the film takes for granted the privileged positions that they are in promoting these films, they talk to people like me on the other side of the tape for as long as I’d like (instead of “one question only”) and you get the sense of pride in their achievements, passion for their work and support for their co-stars. More often than not, I’ve heard stories of junkets featuring stroppy actors who see this element of the promotional tour as a chore, and hate the publicity of the red carpet, and when asked simple questions about why they would take on a particular role and the challenges they faced embodying it, give some overtly artistic and pretentious answer.

Here you see their eyes light up and when questioned, hear the words, hard work, determination and dedication. And when you see this level of genuine love for what they do and how far they have come, you can’t but help become the next number one fan of this film even before seeing it.

All this is what makes me as an audience member realise that we really are in the presence of a new type of British film making and talent – and that its here to stay. Since Noel Clarke and Ashley Walters paved the way for the urban british film revolution, its been going from strength to strength and without egos to destroy it – if anything I feel that you’re being guided through this new wave by one large family of film makers and actors who know each other like they’d grown up together, support each others choices as family does and talk proudly not of themselves, but of their “brother and sisters” achievements next to them.

We’re seeing the stars who began their paths being plucked from obscurity in Kidulthood and Adulthood become the next writers, directors and BAFTA award winning actors. Next according to Adam Deacon is the international market, an exciting time to showcase what makes London unique in its approach to film and with that we wish him all the very best of luck.

Payback Season hits cinemas today so make sure you support your next generation of British film talent and go check it out…

Thanks for reading

 

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A Big Night for kids TV at The Children’s BAFTA’s

30 Nov

Well last weekend was the star studded Childrens BAFTA’s Awards at the London Hilton Hotel on Park Lane. Leicester Square TV, including myself was there (in the world’s smallest press pen I might add! ) But never the less a great night – congratulations to all the winners, well deserved! Here are a few of the highlight videos where I’m lucky enough to interview the cream of the crop in children’s tv!

The Host of the evening Barney Harwood explains just how excited he is about Rentaghost!

Horrible History go all shy about being favourites to win an award – oh and eventually sing us a song! 

Ronnie Ancona talks about her love of pre school kids TV

Ted Robbins gets super excited about being at the Awards and his stint as a panto dame this December!

The Newsround Legend John Craven talks about the show’s honorary award

Tyger Drewe Honey tells us what’s coming up in Outnumbered

Peppa Pig wins a BAFTA and isn’t Harley Bird just the cutest! 

So there you have it, a fab night full of excellent talent all held in one big old hotel room!!! Hope you enjoyed the videos!

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BFI London Film Festival Day 2 – Terry Gilliam’s mind comes alive in 19 minutes thanks to The Wholly Family

13 Oct

It takes a lot of guts to find a talent as huge as Terry Gilliam, hunt him down via Google maps to his holiday home in Naples and convince him to shoot a film to promote a pasta brand by luring him with a box of said food. Is that as far-fetched as Gilliam’s mind – maybe – however, that is exactly what Garofalo pasta did a couple of years ago. As a result we have The Wholly Family. A film which was turned away from the Chicago Film Festival for being a result of extreme product placement, however welcomed with open arms at the London Film Festival.

Knowing that Gilliam’s mind is full of weird and wonderful journeys of exploration, I walked into the screening wondering how he’d be able to restrain his creativity into just one 19 minute short. The moment we see the opening panning down shot of a Naples street however, we knew something special was about to happen. The thing with Gilliam’s vision is that it has no boundaries and when the brief was to include food and exclude any killings or people dying (pasta makes us happy don’t forget!) he was like a horse galloping off the starting blocks onto a winning race.

The story itself covers a day and a night in the life of an ‘American’ family on holiday in Naples. I have the inverted commas here because due to the continental casting the mother is Italian, father English and together they produce an American son. To any other director this just wouldn’t work, however to Mr Gilliam when addressed in the Q&A after, he quite simply said – Fuck It! He liked the boy he cast – there was just something special about this kid who had never been in even a school play, and he just happened to be American. For this you cannot help but love Terry Gilliam.

During their walk down the typically Italian street the boy comes across a pulcinella (a Punch doll – as in Punch and Judy) and the fantastical street seller reminds the spoilt little boy that it is bad luck to buy one for yourself, but if you steal it to give to someone else it brings good luck – and as one can predict the child quickly manages to pilfer the doll and that night whilst dreaming embarks on a dream world which can only be described as a cross between the animation of Gilliam’s Monty Python and The Time Bandits. The result – an enthralling remaining 15 minutes of some of Gilliam’s most playful work (which does include a fair element of pasta) and ends with a strong moral anecdote.

I laughed out loud and forgot where I was for the duration of this film, it’s a rollercoaster ride of Gilliam’s highly imaginative mind, and having been filmed in only one week shows you just what a genius this man is. He’s also very charming and down to earth as I found in the interviews following the screening – which made the whole experience all the more fascinating.

 

Its playing as part of the London Film Festival’s short film line up and is most certainly worth your attention so please go watch, you will not be disappointed, it’s quite the opposite.


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