64th BAFTA Film Awards: Nominations

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Best Film

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

Outstanding British Film

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

Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer

  • The Arbor – Clio Barnard (Writer), Tracy O’Riordan (Producer)
  • Exit Through The Gift Shop – Banksy (Director), Jaimie D’Cruz (Producer)
  • Four Lions – Chris Morris (Writer/Director)
  • Monsters – Gareth Edwards (Writer/Director)
  • Skeletons – Nick Whitfield (Writer/Director)

Director

  • Danny Boyle – (127 Hours)
  • Black Swan – (Darren Aronofksy)
  • Christopher – Nolan (Inception)
  • Tom Hooper – (The King’s Speech)
  • David Fincher – (The Social Network)

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)

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)

Foreign Film

  • Biutiful
  • I Am Love
  • Of Gods And Men
  • The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
  • The Secret In Their Eyes

Animated Film

  • Despicable Me
  • Toy Story 3
  • How To Train Your Dragon

Leading Actor

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

Leading Actress

  • Natalie Portman – (Black Swan)
  • Julianne Moore – (The Kids Are All Right)
  • Noomi Rapace – (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
  • Hailee Steinfeld – (True Grit)
  • Annette Bening – (The Kids Are All Right)

Supporting Actor

  • Christian Bale – (The Fighter)
  • Andrew Garfield – (The Social Network)
  • Mark Ruffalo – (The Kids Are All Right)
  • Geoffrey Rush – (The King’s Speech)
  • Pete Postlethwaite – (Inception)

Supporting Actress

  • Amy Adams – (The Fighter)
  • Lesley Manville – (Another Year)
  • Barbara Hershey – (Black Swan)
  • Miranda Richardson – (Made In Dagenham)
  • Helena Bonham Carter – (The King’s Speech)

Original Music

  • A. R. Rahman – (127 Hours)
  • Danny Elfman – (Alice In Wonderland)
  • Wally Pfister – (Inception)
  • Danny Cohen – (The King’s Speech)
  • Roger Deakins – (True Grit)

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)

Editing

  • 127 Hours – (Jon Harris)
  • Black Swan – (Andrew Weisblum)
  • Inception – (Lee Smith)
  • The King’s Speech – (Tariq Anwar)
  • The Social Network – (Kirk Baxter & Angus Wall)

Production Design

  • Alice In Wonderland – (Robert Stromberg & Karen O’Hara)
  • Black Swan – (Therese Deprez & Tora Peterson)
  • Inception – (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias & Doug Mowat)
  • The King’s Speech – (Eve Stewart & Judy Farr)
  • True Grit – (Jess Gonchor & Nancy Haigh)

Costume Design

  • Alice In Wonderland – (Colleen Atwood)
  • Black Swan – (Amy Westcott)
  • The King’s Speech – (Jenny Beavan)
  • Made In Dagenham – (Louise Stjernsward)
  • True Grit – (Mary Zophres)

Special Visual Effects

  • Alice In Wonderland  – (TBC)
  • Black Swan – (Dan Schrecker)
  • Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 – (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait’hadi & Christian Manz)
  • Inception – (Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley & Peter Bebb)
  • Toy Story 3 – (TBC)

Sound

  • 127 Hours – (Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri & Douglas Cameron)
  • Black Swan – (Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan & Dominick Tavella)
  • Inception – (Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo & Ed Novick)
  • The King’s Speech – (John Midgley, Lee Walpole & Paul Hamblin)
  • True Grit – (Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland & Douglas Axtell)

Make Up & Hair

  • Alice In Wonderland – (TBC)
  • Black Swan – (Judy Chin & Geordie Sheffer)
  • Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 1 – (Amanda Knight & Lisa Tomblin)
  • The King’s Speech – (Frances Hannon)
  • Made In Dagenham – (Lizzie Yianni Georgiou)

Short Animation

  • The Eagleman Stag
  • Matter Fisher
  • Thursday

Short Film

  • Connect
  • Lin
  • Rite
  • Turning
  • Until The River Runs Red

Orange Wednesday Rising Star

  • Gemma Arterton
  • Emma Stone
  • Tom Hardy
  • Andrew Garfield
  • Aaron Johnson

DVD Releases: January 17, 2011

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The Hole 3D

Director – Joe Dante

Starring – Chris Massoglia, Haley Bennett and Nathan Gamble

Dinner For Schmucks

Director – Jay Roach

Starring – Steve Carell, Paul Rudd and Stephanie Szostak

Grown Ups

Director – Dennis Dugan

Starring – Adam Sandler, Salma Hayek and Kevin James

The Switch

Director – Josh Gordon and Will Speck

Starring – Jennifer Aniston, Jason Bateman and Patrick Wilson

Why Did I Get Married Too?

Director – Tyler Perry

Starring – Janet Jackson, Tyler Perry and Jill Scott

Certified Copy

Director – Abbas Kiarostam

Starring – Juliette Binoche, William Shimell and Jean-Claude Carrière

Cake Eaters

Director – Mary Stuart Masterson

Starring – Kristen Stewart, Jayce Bartok and Bruce Dern

Outcast

Director – Colm McCarthy

Starring – James Nesbitt, Kate Dickie and Karen Gillan

Kites

Director – Anurag Basu

Starring – Hrithik Roshan, Bárbara Mori and Luce Rains

68th Annual Golden Globe Awards: Winners

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Best Motion Picture – Drama

  • The Social Network

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Drama

  • Natalie Portman – (Black Swan)

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Drama

  • Colin Firth – (The King’s Speech)

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy

  • The Kids Are All Right

Best Performance By An Actress In A Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy

  • Annette Bening – (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Performance By An Actor In A Motion Picture – Musical Or Comedy

  • Paul Giamatti – (Barney’s Version)

Best Performance By An Actress In A Supporting Role – Motion Picture

  • Melissa Leo – (The Fighter)

Best Performance By An Actor In A Supporting Role – Motion Picture

  • Christian Bale – (The Fighter)

Best Animated Feature Film

  • Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Language Film

  • In A Better World

Best Director – Motion Picture

  • David Fincher – (The Social Network)

Best Screenplay – Motion Picture

  • The Social Network – (Aaron Sorkin)

Best Original Score – Motion Picture

  • The Social Network – (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)

Best Original Song – Motion Picture

  • You Haven’t Seen The Last Of Me – (Burlesque)

Review: Conviction (2010)

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Based on a true story, Conviction tells the story of a working mother, Betty Ann Waters (Hilary Swank), who puts herself through law school in an effort to represent her brother, Kenny Waters (Sam Rockwell), who has been wrongfully convicted of murder and has exhausted his chances to appeal his conviction through public defenders.

Tony Goldwyn’s direction, while pleasing and sometimes well dramatised, often feels awkward, tiresome and disengaging, struggling to bring out the emotion and capture the inspirational message in an engaging manner, mainly due to the haphazard execution of the films structure, which mostly eradicates the possibility of emotional investment.

It would be easy, therefore, to cast off Conviction as a TV film trying, yet failing, to be something more, but that would be an injustice to the fantastic performances on show from more or less every actor involved..

Hilary Swank delivers a typically veracious, if less than stellar, turn as Betty Anne, while Sam Rockwell inhabits the role of Kenny with an extraordinary level of depth and naturalism, unavoidably making you trust him and believe his innocence.

Minnie Driver injects much-needed humour and likeability into the film as swank’s loyal compadre, and Juliette Lewis, despite only appearing in two scenes, completely envelops her character, giving a breathtaking performance as a wasted tramp whose also a key witness for the prosecution.

Conviction is ultimately an okay, yet disappointedly constructed, tale of retribution, elevated by several terrific performances.

US Box Office: January 14 – 16, 2011

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1. The Green Hornet – $34,000,000

2. The Dilemma – $17,400,000

3. True Grit – $11,200,000

4. The King’s Speech – $9,100,000

5. Black Swan – $8,100,000

6. Little Fockers – $7,100,000

7. Tron: Legacy – $5,600,000

8. Yogi Bear – $5,300,000

9. The Fighter – $5,100,000

10. Season Of The Witch – $4,500,000

16th Annual Critics’ Choice Awards: Winners

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Best Film

  • The Social Network

Best Director

  • David Fincher – (The Social Network)

Best Actor

  • Colin Firth – (The King’s Speech)

Best Actress

  • Natalie Portman – (Black Swan)

Best Supporting Actor

  • Christian Bale – (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actress

  • Melissa Leo – (The Fighter)

Best Young Actor/Actress

  • Hailee Steinfeld – (True Grit)

Best Acting Ensemble

  • The Fighter

Best Original Screenplay

  • The King’s Speech – (David Seidler)

Best Adapted Screenplay

  • The Social Network – (Aaron Sorkin)

Best Cinematography

  • Inception

Best Art Direction

  • Inception

Best Editing

  • Inception

Best Costume Design

  • Alice In Wonderland

Best Makeup

  • Alice In Wonderland

Best Visual Effects

  • Inception

Best Sound

  • Inception

Best Animated Film

  • Toy Story 3

Best Action Film

  • Inception

Best Comedy Film

  • Easy A

Best Film Made For Television

  • The Pacific

Best Foreign Language Film

  • The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo

Best Documentary Film

  • Waiting For Superman

Best Score

  • The Social Network – (Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)

Best Song

  • If I Rise – (127 Hours)

Cinema Releases: January 14, 2011

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The Green Hornet

Director – Michel Gondry

Starring – Seth Rogen, Jay Chou and Cameron Diaz

Blue Valentine

Director – Derek Cianfrance

Starring – Michelle Williams, Ryan Gosling and Faith Wladyka

Conviction

Director – Tony Goldwyn

Starring – Hilary Swank, Sam Rockwell and Melissa Leo

Henry’s Crime

Director – Malcolm Venville

Starring – Keanu Reaves, Vera Farmiga and James Caan

Brotherhood

Director – Will Canon

Starring – Lou Taylor Pucci, Trevor Morgan and Jon Foster

Review: Thank You For Smoking (2005)

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Thank You For Smoking is based on  the 1994 novel of the same name by Christopher Buckley. It follows the schemes of Big Tobacco’s chief spokesman, Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart), who twists the truth on behalf of cigarettes while trying to remain a role model for his twelve-year-old son, Joey (Cameron Bright).

It is, essentially, a clever, humorous and effervescent satirical comedy. Plainly it provides a host of fascinating truths about the tobacco dispute – some of them true, some of them false – sugar-coating and simplifying them to appeal to our emotions. Jason Reitman’s direction is rapid, enlightened, and irrefutable; his writing overflowing with ripe, razor-sharp dialogue, one-liners and tantalising characters.

Eckhart is simply outstanding as Nick, the Vice President of the Academy of Tobacco Studies, an organisation that studies the effects of smoking on the nation’s health. He plays the character with an almost effortless level of charm and incredible versatility, delivering Nick’s lines with an arrogant, yet loveable nature. In one scene we’ll be admiring his candidness and, in the next, we’ll accept him as the devoted father-figure.

The structure, at times, seems a little dismayed, and the investigation into the tobacco industry feels somewhat rudimentary, but these are minor issues, ones that only slightly detract from the overall enjoyment. That said, Eckhart and the entire supporting cast – in particular J.K Simmons, who delivers his lines like he’s only vaguely grasped their meaning and accuracy – each deliver equally measured, good-humoured performances, bringing an astounding sense of believability to their respective characters and, in turn, the whole film.

Thank You For Not Smoking, trivial flaws aside, is an assured, witty and intelligent debut from writer-director Jason Reitman, with an exuberant, stand-out performance from Eckhart.

Review: Brilliantlove (2010)

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Originally titled The Orgasm Diaries, Brilliantlove is an indie sex drama about the steamy relationship of amateur photographer, Manchester (Liam Browne), and a young taxidermist, Noon (Nancy Trotter Landry).

When a successful dealer, Franny (Michael Hodgson), discovers Manchester’s portfolio, he thrusts his work onto the art world. Manchester’s consequential success destroys the beauty of the couples once idyllic romance.

Brilliantlove starts off as an explicit, atmospheric and titillating art parody, presenting Manchester and Noon either having sex or blatantly thinking about doing it. demonstrating a realistic environment in which the pure expression of love overcomes everyday concerns.

Ashley Horner’s simplistic and naturalistic direction perfectly illustrates the sexual, enchanting environment Manchester and Noon have concocted, in which the pure expression of love – particularly sexual desire and fornication – vanquishes everyday worries.

The two leads – Manchester and Noon – are well portrayed by Browne and Landry, bringing a likeability and naturalistic aura to the film, particularly in the non-sex scenes where they are able to explore their individual personalities and illicit relationship.

The problem comes in the second half when the film, scripted by Sean Conway, tries to explore deeper thematic possibilities, in this case the plot concerning Franny’s exploitation of Noon’s beauty. This breaks the realism that has been carefully constructed, damaging the initially strong premise.

Instead of building upon the premise, and maintaining its illusive charm, the film and its characters struggles outside the comfortabilty of the couples enclosed environment, unfortunately forcing the film to conclude in a predictably drab and unconvincing fashion.

Brilliantlove is an alluring, ethereal and tastefully directed, yet clumsily developed, study into sex, relationships and the irony of art.

Review: The Brothers Bloom (2008)

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The Brothers Bloom – Rian Johnson’s follow-up to the critically-acclaimed Brick – is a conceitedly intricate tale of con-men, retribution and love.

The film centers on two con men brothers – Stephen (Mark Ruffalo), the mastermind, and Bloom (Adrien Brody), the so-called anti-hero – who, with the help of their associate explosives expert Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), embark on one last con: tricking a rich, socially-isolated New Jersey heiress named Penelope Stamp

Johnson’s film is a subtly mischievous piece of cinema, cleverly written and whimsical, with a healthy dose of the inanity that made Brick the breakout success it was.

Each of the four leads – Brody, Ruffalo, Weisz and Kikuchi – inhabit their respective roles with a fantastically rich mania, delivering their one liners with incredible, soulful comedic timing.

It’s this, along with the light-hearted, distinguished approach to the direction that brings the warmhearted, densely written script and devilishly intrinsic tone to a exuberant life.

While it may not be as boundary-breaking as Brick, The Brothers Bloom is ultimately a joyous game between Johnson and the audience, one that takes you on an incredible journey, twist after twist, holding your attention, making you laugh throughout.

All in all, it’s a cleverly made, intelligent and high quality film that rewards your investment.