The King's Speech's many speeches.

I enjoyed watching the BAFTAs on Sunday night, I’m a sucker for these movie awards. Golden Globes, BAFTAs, Oscars, I just love watching them. Usually just to see who wins, but they are strangely entertaining. Movies are pretty much the only genre of awards ceremonies that are good to watch though. I mean, the BRITS were on last night apparently, anybody give a Lego brick about it?

The BAFTAs were on the BBC, but were unfortunately being shown at an hour delay, so Twitter was completely out of bounds for the night. This would have probably annoyed some people as they could have had it ruined for them as they innocently browsed Twitter during Helena Bonam Carter’s speech.

It’s not allowed to be ruined! It has to be a surprise even if it isn’t live. So, I shut myself in my living room for a couple of hours and banned myself and anyone else in the house from social networks! Thankfully it was adhered too. No uprising here.

Jonathon Ross hosted the night, and did a pretty good job. He was funny when he needed to be, starting off the night by telling the audience Ricky Gervais would not be allowed into the building. His humour was more light-hearted than scornful, and that’s what it should be at the BAFTAs.

It largely went off without a hitch. Rosamund Pike managed to make a bit of a fool of herself on stage whilst announcing an award. She clearly struggled with the autocue and then appeared to be unable to talk independently before moving swiftly on to opening the envelope before even announcing the nominations. Luckily Jonathon Ross saved the day, moving faster than Usain Bolt on acid and stopping the former Bond girl from prematurely blurting out the winner like a drunk tramp yelling out bus schedules at three in the morning would do. Proof that actors need writers and direction I suppose.

As always on nights like these, I had my favourites, those I wanted to win, and this time round I had a good year, as most of my choices won. Some didn’t and some plain vexed me but overall my favourites took the gong.

What I think I’ll do is go through each major category, listing the nominations and then revealing the winner. Then I’ll give my humble little opinion on it. Feel free to disagree, these are just my thoughts. The standard this year was very very high so sometimes I found it difficult to choose a winner. But here goes.

BEST FILM

Black Swan
Inception
The King’s Speech
The Social Network
True Grit

Winner: The King’s Speech
My choice: Inception

There was only really going to be one winner in England. Although I haven’t seen True Grit yet, I think it would have to be particularly outstanding to beat The King's Speech. A brilliant movie and, although I do like Inception more, I can appreciate it winning the top gong.

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

127 Hours
Another Year
Four Lions
The King’s Speech
Made in Dagenham

Winner: The King’s Speech
My choice: The King’s Speech

Again, only one choice here. The others bar one are good but The King’s Speech just had that bit more to win this one quite easily. Strange to see Four Lions nominated here, which brings me right on to…

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

The Arbor; Clio Barnard (Director), Tracy O’Riordan (Producer)
Exit through the gift shop; Banksy (Director), Jaimie D’Cruz (Producer)
Four Lions; Chris Morris (Director/Writer)
Monsters; Gareth Edwards (Director/Writer)
Skeletons; Nick Whitfield (Director/Writer)

Winner: Four Lions; Chris Morris (Director/Writer)
My choice: Monsters; Gareth Edwards (Director/Writer)

I honestly cannot believe Four Lions was even nominated never mind selected as the winner. Maybe I’m missing something, but when I was in the cinema watching it I felt like I should have instead been in my living room watching Channel 4. This movie shouldn’t be a movie, it should be a one off TV programme, nothing more. It has its moments for sure but they’re so spaced out I found myself bored by it. The fact Monsters, a film made on a shoestring budget over a few years by Gareth Edwards in South America whilst doing all special effects on his home computer, did not win this award astounds me. The fact Four Lions did, simply bemuses me.

DIRECTOR

127 Hours; Danny Boyle
Black Swan; Darren Aronofsky
Inception; Christopher Nolan
The King’s Speech; Tom Hooper
The Social Network; David Fincher

Winner: The Social Network; David Fincher
My choice: Black Swan; Darren Aronofsky

All of these directors were worthy of this one, but I was surprised Fincher won it. For me, of them all, Darren Aronofsky was the most meticulous and most dedicated of all of them. That’s why I believe he should have won. The Social Network is an important piece of cinema, but Black Swan was like art, and Aronofsky was the artist who worked so hard on it.

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Black Swan; Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin
The Fighter; Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
Inception; Christopher Nolan
The Kids Are All Right; Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
The King’s Speech; David Seidler

Winner: The King’s Speech; David Seidler
My choice: Inception; Christopher Nolan

Really difficult to call this one as all of them have some claim to the award. Of them all, it was between The King’s Speech and Inception, and I thought Inception edged it simply because it is a brilliant and intricate story, told brilliantly by the writer and director: Christopher Nolan. He wrote it with the screen in mind, and it showed. Nolan was really unlucky not to win this, considering just how good Inception is.

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

127 Hours; Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
The Social Network; Aaron Sorkin
Toy Story 3; Michael Arndt
True Grit; Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Winner: The Social Network; Aaron Sorkin
My choice: The Social Network; Aaron Sorkin

Difficult to judge, I chose The Social Network because it jazzed up the book to make it more entertaining, however maybe it should lose marks for deviating too much from the truth. I chose it for entertainment purposes. You may have noticed that Scott Pilgrim vs. The World wasn’t nominated for any awards. I really thought it should have at least been nominated for this one, seeing as it’s based on a very popular graphic novel and has been adapted brilliantly from it. It definitely should have been nominated and should have won. Maybe snobbery stopped it from doing so. Also, Toy Story 3 an adapted screenplay? On that basis all sequels are now adapted screenplays.

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

Biutiful; Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev
I Am Love; Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D’Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante
Of Gods and Men; Xavier Beauvois
The Secret in Their Eyes; Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella

Winner: The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo; Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev
My choice: Unfortunately I haven't seen any of them, so I declined to choose.

ANIMATED FILM

Despicable Me; Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
How To Train Your Dragon; Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
Toy Story 3; Lee Unkrich

Winner: Toy Story 3; Lee Unkrich
My choice: Toy Story 3; Lee Unkrich

I thought How To Train Your Dragon would have been a dark horse in this one, but in the end Pixar took their yearly gong, and rightly so.

LEADING ACTOR

Javier Bardem; Biutiful
Jeff Bridges; True Grit
Jesse Eisenberg; The Social Network
Colin Firth; The King’s Speech
James Franco; 127 Hours

Winner: Colin Firth; The King’s Speech
My choice: Colin Firth; The King’s Speech

Another tough one, but it had Colin Firth’s name on it. A brilliant performance. It will be interesting to see if he can take the Oscar. I really hope he does.

LEADING ACTRESS

Annette Bening; The Kids Are All Right
Julianne Moore; The Kids Are All Right
Natalie Portman; Black Swan
Noomi Rapace; The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Hailee Steinfeld; True Grit

Winner: Natalie Portman; Black Swan
My choice: Natalie Portman; Black Swan

A dead cert, Natalie Portman deserved this one. She was the best part of Black Swan, without her it wouldn’t have been half as good. A mesmerising performance that deserves much praise and many awards.

SUPPORTING ACTOR

Christian Bale; The Fighter
Andrew Garfield; The Social Network
Pete Postlethwaite; The Town
Mark Ruffalo; The Kids Are All Right
Geoffrey Rush; The King’s Speech

Winner: Geoffrey Rush; The King’s Speech
My choice: Christian Bale; The Fighter

This one was between Geoffrey Rush and Christian Bale for me. I chose Bale because I was just really impressed with his performance as Dicky Eklund in The Fighter. It was so good it nearly stole the show. Rush is a fair enough winner though because of the on-screen chemistry he had with all characters. A brilliant actor whose role in the success of The King’s Speech should not be overlooked.

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Amy Adams; The Fighter
Helena Bonham Carter; The King’s Speech
Barbara Hershey; Black Swan
Lesley Manville; Another Year
Miranda Richardson; Made in Dagenham

Winner: Helena Bonham Carter; The King’s Speech
My choice: Helena Bonham Carter; The King’s Speech

Another one for The King’s Speech, and another one deserving of the award. I enjoyed Helena Bonham Carter’s performance, mainly because she was so ‘normal’ for once!

ORIGINAL MUSIC

127 Hours; AR Rahman
Alice in Wonderland; Danny Elfman
How To Train Your Dragon; John Powell
Inception; Hans Zimmer
The King’s Speech; Alexandre Desplat

Winner: The King’s Speech; Alexandre Desplat
My choice: Inception; Hans Zimmer

Another tough one, but for me Hanz Zimmer’s score for Inception is outstanding. It’s memorable, hard-hitting, and essential in driving the movie forwards. Not that The King’s Speech’s music wasn’t good, it was, but Inception’s was just better in my opinion.

CINEMATOGRAPHY

127 Hours; Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak
Black Swan; Matthew Libatique
Inception; Wally Pfister
The King’s Speech; Danny Cohen
True Grit; Roger Deakins

Winner: True Grit; Roger Deakins
My choice: Inception; Wally Pfister

Again. I haven’t seen True Grit, so I can’t complain too much. I just thought the cinematography in Inception was as good as anything I’d seen in the last decade. It would have been strange though if True Grit won nothing. I think it will win more than one at the Oscars.


Sir Christopher Lee was honoured with the academy fellowship. It surprised me that he hadn’t been given it already considering how much he’s done in his career. The Harry Potter series was also awarded a BAFTA for its contribution to cinema, which is fair enough, but it would’ve been nice if J.K.Rowling could have taken more credit for it than producer David Heyman did.

Of the other awards The Social Network took the award for Editing; Inception received three BAFTAs for Production design, Sound and Special Visual Effects; Alice in Wonderland took Costume Design as well as Make-up and Hair; The Eagleman Stag, by Michael Please won Best Short Animation; and Until The River Runs Red, by Paul Wright and Poss Kondeatis won the BAFTA for Best Short Film.

Tom Hardy also received the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star award. This award was the only award of the night that was voted for by the public. Not a bad feat for Hardy who was in up against the likes of Andrew Garfield.

And that was that, all awards handed out and off to the party they went. Now, it’s time for the Oscars and we’ll see if The King’s Speech can clean up just as much as it did in Britain.