BAFTA Nominations

[ITALIANO]

Eastwood is EXTREMELY popular in Europe - in Italy and France especially.

[rudeboy]

Clint is hugely popular over here - it's just accidents of release that have led to his films being consistently overlooked by the BAFTAs.

Million Dollar Baby wasn't screened in time to make the nominations - there was some controversy about that at the time.

Letters from Iwo Jima was released too late to be eligible - it was eligible the following year, and with the BAFTAs desperate to predict the Oscars was overlooked. Flags of Our Fathers had numerous longlist mentions but, well, it just wasn't very good.

[OscarGuy]

Clint Eastwood is very American and his films are very American in their ideals. I just don't think his work appeals to many outside of the U.S..

[dreaMaker]

Wow, this is first Eastwood's nomination since Unforgiven.. Seems they didn't love him very much.

[flipp525]

A surprise Cate Blanchett nod for Benjamin Button is one of my biggest wishes for nomination morning. I think it's one of her best performances.

[OscarGuy]

The reason I think they are ignoring her is that her work is too subtle. I mean look at all the precursors for Penelope Cruz. I haven't seen that performance, but everything I've read about it suggests it's a very showy performance. Same with Meryl Streep, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Heath Ledger, Mickey Rourke and Sean Penn. Kate Winslet's Revolutionary Road performance is the closest thing to the kind of subtle that is Cate Blanchett in Benjamin Button. Plus, with all of her past "firecracker" performances, they must think it's too subdued for her, which of course is why many of you like it more than her past work.

[Reza]

I have to say that it sort of boggles my mind how these organizations like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button enough to nominate it for Best Picture and other slew of awards but fail to nominate one of the MAJOR, MAJOR reasons why the film worked the way it has: Cate Blanchett which is why I feel she might show up surprisingly at the Oscars this year.

Why is it that only a few of us here are recognizing Blanchett's contribution to the overblown Benjamin Button? None of the precursors have so much as mentioned her on their lists. And what's with the mentions of Brad Pitt.....he does nothing in that film despite the whole story revolving around him.

Let's see if the Academy pulls a welcome surprise with Cate.

[anonymous1980]

I have to say that it sort of boggles my mind how these organizations like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button enough to nominate it for Best Picture and other slew of awards but fail to nominate one of the MAJOR, MAJOR reasons why the film worked the way it has: Cate Blanchett which is why I feel she might show up surprisingly at the Oscars this year.

[bettestreep2008]

Wow! Another complete shut out for "Australia".

I honestly thought it would score nods in the tech categories like Cine, Art, Costume and maybe music - but BAFTA have snubbed it and so have many of the guilds.

Still think the Academy might throw it a bone or 2 when the noms are announced next week.

[HarryGoldfarb]

How weird is getting this thing with Winslet, now showing up twice as lead. What impact will this have on Oscar Nominations.. is the controversy regarding where she deserves to be in going to play against her? the fact that The Reader is being considered a superior film might mean she won't score as lead?



Edited By HarryGoldfarb on 1232071551

[Big Magilla]

I'm not so sure. Their website still singles out the Carol Foreman Award for new directors, producers, etc., but merely lists other awards by category as does their press release announcing this year's nominees.

I never got why they named the music award after Anthony Asquith anyway. He was a distinguished director, the son of the WWI British Prime Minister, but his films were not exactly noted for their scores.

[OscarGuy]

I'm sure the directing award is still the David Lean award and the music award is still the Anthony Asquith...

[dreaMaker]

I just realized (i'm sooo late, i know) that they don't have David Lean Award and Anthony Asquith Award anymore
Also, they don't nominate directors for Best Film, only producers...

I'm glad The Reader received five nods... Also, we're all witnesses of Slumdog Millionaire's climbing to the Oscar throne, and i am so NOT loving it..

[OscarGuy]

Statistics will be a little more difficult for me here since they have multiple categories, but here goes.

Overall, their nominees generate just under 50% comparison to the Oscars. 43 out of 96 last year, 43 out of 98 the year before, 49/95 in 2005, 36/95 in 2004 and 42/96 in 2003. Prior to 1993, they were far worse, going fairly low in 1976 to 7/56.

For individual categories (last 10 years, #s are Out of Five):
'08 '07 '06 '05 '04 '03 '02 '01 '00 '99 '98
Picture (3) 3 4 4 2 3 5 3 3 2 3
Director (3) 2 4 4 2 3 4 3 5 2 3
Actor (3) 3 3 4 3 4 5 2 3 2 2
Actress (3) 4 5 3 2 1 3 3 2 2 3
Supp. Actor (3) 3 1 3 3 1 4 0 3 2 2
Supp. Actress (3) 3 2 3 2 2 4 4 3 0 4
Orig. Screen. (3) 2 4 2 3 3 3 3 4 4 3
Adap. Screen. (3) 4 2 4 3 2 4 3 4 1 1
Score (2) 2 2 3 1 2 2 1 2 2 3
Editing (2) 2 3 2 2 2 4 3 3 3 2
Cinemat. (2) 3 2 2 2 3 3 5 2 2 3
Art Dir. (2) 2 2 3 2 3 4 5 3 1 3
Costume (3) 4 3 4 2 3 3 4 3 1 2
Make Up (1) 1 1 1 0 2 1 2 1 1 3
Sound (2) 2 1 2 3 3 3 3 2 2 2
VFX (2) 2 1 3 2 3 2 2 2 2 0
Anim Feat (1) 1 2
Foreign (2) 0 2 2 2 1 3 2 2 2 1
Anim. Short (1) 0 0 1 1 1 1 0 1 1 1
Live Short (0) 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Basically, don't expect a lot. Most categories only have about 2-of-5 correlation with a few exceptions. I've also listed above the number you should probably expect for 2008.

Never bet on the Short Film categories. They have vastly different rules and so they seldom match. Plus, release date plays a big part and it's almost impossible to know when anything releases for the Academy's tastes.

Below are my thoughts on what could make it through based on these numbers. These are not my predictions for the only ones to make it through as there are likely to be more. I think it will be more varied than that and I certainly see more than the allotted in each category making it through this year (and, in the case of Orig. Screenplay, fewer).

Picture: Button, Slumdog, Frost.
Director: Fincher, Howard, Boyle
Actor: Langella, Penn, Rourke
Actress: Jolie, Streep, Winslet (RR)
Supp. Actor: Downey, Hoffman, Ledger
Supp. Actress: Adams, Cruz, Tomei
Orig. Screenplay: Burn, Bruges, Milk
Adap. Screenplay: Button, Frost, Slumdog
Music: Button, Slumdog
Editing: Button, Slumdog
Cinematography: Button, Slumdog
Art Direction: Changeling, Button
Costume: Changeling, Button, Duchess
Makeup: Dark Knight
Sound: Dark Knight, WALL-E
VFX: Button, Dark Knight
Anim Feature: WALL-E
Foreign: Baader, Bashir



Edited By OscarGuy on 1232036217

[rolotomasi99]

From the BAFTA website.

--best film--
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
MILK
THE READER
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

once again, we have almost the annointed five here. THE READER being nominated by bafta for best film over THE DARK KNIGHT is not exactly surprising. THE DARK KNIGHT still did quite well in nominations for a comic book movie.

these four films seem to consistently find strong support among award groups. it would be shocking to find one of them did not have enough support in the academy to secure a best picture nomination.
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
MILK
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

the only question is what will fill the fifth slot?
THE DARK KNIGHT
WALL-E
THE READER
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD
GRAN TORINO (shudder)



Edited By rolotomasi99 on 1232034604