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Live BAFTA Blog 2009

8pm – Welcome To The BAFTAS!
We’re off! The venue? London’s magnificent Royal Opera House. The first red carpet comment? Sharon Stone going on about the weather. No, she’s not nominated for anything. Onwards and upwards…
 
8.05pm
Floppy-haired mouth Jonathan Ross returns as host. Claims he’s nervous. Claims he’s "shaking like Christian Bale’s PA". More amusingly, points out how Kate Winslet’s two movies are a nightmare for someone with a speech impediment: "The Weader and Wevolutionary Woad…"  
 
8.10pm
First award… It’s a big one: the Music award. And it’s Kylie to dish it out. Clever. In it’s first of many noms, can Slumdog beat Mamma Mia! to annoy everyone by continuing to win everything everywhere?
 
8.12pm
Yes. Here we go again… Danny Boyle’s hands must be red-raw from clapping.
 
8.15pm
Oooh, another big award. Gemma Arterton hands out Best Sound to… WALL-E! Only kidding. It’s Slumdog Millionaire again. Are we in for a clean sweep?  
 
8.20pm
Well, well… Despite being the first man to fluff the auto-cue, Matthew Macfayden gives everyone a whiff of change by handing Best Production Design to The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. Game on.  
 
8.23pm
Striiiiiiike two! Benjamin Button scores Best Hair & Make-up to go level with Slumdog. Another amazingly short speech. And no crying. What’s wrong with these people? Do they not realise they’re at an Awards ceremony?
 
8.25pm
Bosh! This is like a boxing match. Slumdog hammers back with Best Cinematography, picked up by the great DoP Anthony Dod Mantle. Whose extraordinary anti-gravity hair just has to be a wig.
 
8.30pm
Was there any point in anyone else turning up? Best Adapted Screenplay goes to – yawn – Slumdog Millionaire. The writer claims to have stolen a chocolate award off one of the tables at last year’s ceremony. Robert Downey Jr is chewing gum. Rude. But cool.
 
8.35pm.
Finally, an award that Slumdog CAN’T win: the Carl Foreman gong for best first feature by a Brit. The astonishing Hunger and the wonderful Son Of Rambow must be crossing their fingers. And the winner is… Slumdog Millionaire?? Kidding. Steve McQueen strides up to accept for Hunger. He’s wearing a kilt. Luckily, there’s no passing breeze.     
 
8.40pm
Hats off to Pinewood and Shepperton Studios, home to everything from Powell & Pressburger’s Black Narcissus to Jim Cameron’s Aliens. Cut to Brad Pitt and his lovely pencil moustache. He’s been shooting Tarantino’s WWII actioner Inglourious Basterds. At least, that’s his excuse. 
 
8.45pm
Nice touch: Frost/Nixon star Michael Sheen struts on stage with David Frost, the man he plays in Ron Howard’s excellent drama. Sadly, they both proceed with a succession of terrible, terrible jokes. Quick, montage! In Bruges wins Best Screenplay. Probably because it’s the only one that sees Colin Farrell karate-chop a dwarf. Probably. 
 
8.48pm
Adorably, Slumdog star Dev Patel trembles with nerves while handing Best Costume to The Duchess. Or maybe he’s shaking with rage that Slumdog hasn’t been nominated for this one.
 
8.55pm
The snappily titled Best Film Not In The English Language goes to the equally punchy French drama I’ve Loved You So Long. Sharon Stone presents Outstanding British Film. She’s still going on about the weather. Man On Wire director James Marsh rocks up with his shirt hanging out. Gets discreetly told off by Jonathan Ross. Good work, Wossy. 
 
9pm
We’ve raced to the BAFTAs half-way point already and the biggies are all left to come. It’s been fully half an hour since Slumdog Millionaire won an award. Outrageous, we’re sure you’ll agree.
 
9.05pm
The cameraman gives us a quick comparison between Mickey Rourke’s moustache and Brad Pitt’s. And the winner is… Rourke, with a tasty beard/’tache combo! Maybe next year they’ll introduce this as a category.   
 
9.10pm
Now we’re cooking! Penelope Cruz wins Best Supporting Actress for snogging Scarlett Johansson. No, no, sorry, for her excellent performance in Woody Allen’s Vicky Christina Barcelona.
 
9,13pm
Renowned Special Visual Effects expert (oh, and Harry Potter star) Emma Watson presents that very award to… The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button. Techie nerds score a kiss off her. Sadly, their acceptance speech is so boring that Pitt appears to have briefly slipped into a coma.
 
9.20pm
"Oh my God I can’t read any more!" giggles a possibly drunk Goldie Hawn while trying to introduce Best Supporting Actor. Mercifully, she just about holds it together to announce the late Heath Ledger as the winner for his magnificent performance as The Joker. Big applause followed by a touching (and huge) montage for departed: Anthony Minghella, Richard Widmark, Charlton Heston, Roy Scheider, Paul Newman… Is there anyone left in Hollywood over 65? Apart from Clint Eastwood?
 
9.25pm
Shia LaBeouf, last year’s winner of the Orange Rising Star award, takes a break from drinking and driving to present this year’s award. Bit of a surprise, too: Adulthood star/director Noel Clarke beats Michael Fassbender, Tony Kebbell and Michael Cera. "Yes. We. Can!" he declares. Obama’s copyright lawyers are already on the phone.   
 
9.30pm
Magneto and Dr Xavier resist the temptation to have a psychic duel on stage and present Best Director instead. It’s now nearly an hour since Slumdog’s last award. Can Danny Boyle do it? Yes. He Can. Boyle starts by thanking the man who fixed the wiring in his dad’s house. Then his son stands up and yells, "I love you, Dad!" Lots of Daddy-love here suddenly.     
 
9.35pm
It’s Winslet versus Jolie versus Streep for Best Actress… Who’s best at shouting and crying? It’s our Kate! Big hugs for Mum and Dad. Polite clapping from Streep. Shrugs from Kristen Scott Thomas. Smiles from Jolie. And, amazingly, no tears from Winslet. Must be an imposter.  
 
9.39pm
Ding ding! It’s the battle of the moustaches: Benjamin Button star Brad Pitt up against The Wrestler’s Mickey Rourke for Best Actor. Or could Sean Penn nick it for not going "full retard" in Milk?
 
9.40pm
It’s Rourke! "It’s a pretty statue…" he muses. Thanks a lot of people for saving his career. Drop the F-bomb twice. Thanks Marisa Tomei for taking her clothes off in the movie. Then dedicates his award to late, great Richard Harris and gets the biggest cheer of the night. Superb.
 
9.48pm
Hello Mick Jagger! Drops an F-bomb of his own and prepares to announce the BAFTA Best Film of 2009. Danny Boyle and the Slumdog team get ready to launch into the air. Everyone’s waiting. And the BAFTA goes to… You guessed it. They’re off out of their seats. A fabulous triumph for the unstoppable Slumdog juggernaut.
 
21.55pm
All that’s left is for Jonathan Pryce (wearing a scarf indoors, perplexingly) and Jeff Bridges (having a hoot via video-link) to make maverick movie-maker Terry Gilliam a Fellow Of The Academy. Standing ovation. "That’s not fair!" half-jokes Gilliam. "Inside this decaying form is a young aspiring filmmaker…"
 
10pm
And that’s all, folks. Slumdog soars to victory again. We’ll see you at the Oscars…  
 

Bale Rant: Out Of Context?

The amusement of listening to Christian Bale throwing his toys out of the pram wore off pretty fast yesterday. If you’re yet to hear it – listen here.

But it raises a few interesting questions. Certainly, it would appear that the key presence on the set is Bale himself rather than relatively inexperienced director "McG". As pointed out in this blog entry from the Guardian, it’s more embarrassing for the director, who feebly suggests that Bale "take a walk" to try and calm the situation. When Bale shouts "Let’s go again!" he sounds like an actor/director.

Certainly, if it had been a director shouting at a technician, there wouldn’t nearly be such a scandal – it might even be considered normal. It’s solely due to Bale’s star status that the audio recording has become such big news.

Furthermore, if it was such a key scene, Bale would have undoubtedly been in a hot-headed frame of mind. John Conner is concerned with saving humanity from Skynet and a good bit of shouting would be commonplace for the character. Remember that Bale is a method man – remember when he thinned down to a puny streak of flesh for The Machinist? He submerges himself in a character…

 Bale

I don’t read much Harry Knowles to be honest, but he pointedly makes the case in favour of Bale here over on Ain’t It Cool, claiming to know a witness to the incident who confirms that DP Shane Hurlbut was completely out of line in adjusting the lights during such a key scene.

Finally, it’s worth remembering that this was shot not long after the incident in which Bale was arrested (and later released) over allegations of abuse made by his own family. He was perhaps feeling the pressure out of character as well as in it. Such an eruption might well be expected under the circumstances.

Hurlbut must have a side of the story to tell, and probably will. But for now it’s impossible to judge Bale (or Terminator Salvation) without the benefit of context.

Who Should Play BA!?!

We get a lot of bad news in these days of infinite remakes, sequels and re-hashes. Nothing is sacred anymore. So we constantly are affronted with abominations like last year’s CGI Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Keanu Reeves’ The Day The Earth Stood Still.

But this is a bit of good news.

Ridley Scott is making the A-Team movie!!!!

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The key question, of course, is who should play BA Baracus?!!?

We asked you guys on our site poll today and here’s how the voting went. It’s a close run thing.

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My ‘other’ would be Michael Clarke Duncan. What do you guys think?

And The Nominees Are…

Oscar nominations day today. Here are the nominees in the major categories. You read them here first!
Click on each nominee to find out more.

BEST FILM
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON
FROST/NIXON
MILK
THE READER
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE

LEADING ACTOR
FRANK LANGELLA – Frost/Nixon
RICHARD JENKINS – The Visitor
SEAN PENN – Milk
BRAD PITT – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
MICKEY ROURKE – The Wrestler

LEADING ACTRESS
ANGELINA JOLIE – Changeling
ANNE HATHAWAY – Rachel Getting Married
MERYL STREEP – Doubt
KATE WINSLET – The Reader
MELISSA LEO – Frozen River

SUPPORTING ACTOR
ROBERT DOWNEY JR. – Tropic Thunder
MICHAEL SHANON – Revolutionary Road
PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – Doubt
HEATH LEDGER – The Dark Knight
JOSH BROLIN – Milk

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS – Doubt
PENÉLOPE CRUZ – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
TARAJI P HENSON – The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button
VIOLA DAVIS – Doubt
MARISA TOMEI – The Wrestler

DIRECTOR
MILK – Gus Van Sant
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – David Fincher
FROST/NIXON – Ron Howard
THE READER – Stephen Daldry
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
WALL-E
HAPPY GO LUCKY
FROZEN RIVER
IN BRUGES
MILK

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Eric Roth
FROST/NIXON – Peter Morgan
THE READER – David Hare
DOUBT
SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Simon Beaufoy

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX
DEPARTURES
THE CLASS
WALTZ WITH BASHIR
REVENGE

ANIMATED FILM
BOLT
WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
KUNG FU PANDA

That’s 13 nominations for The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button! The big loser is Revolutionary Road, which misses out on Best Film, Best Director for Sam Mendes and Best Actress for Kate Winslet…

Harry 7 Underway!

Potter starlet Emma Watson updated her official website with this yesterday. They’re already underway with Part VII!!

"On Monday I go in for test shoots for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (part 1). I am quite excited to be back actually. I don’t think I have seen Dan since the summer since he left for NY and Rupert since Autumn. I think I have a couple of costume fittings and a hair appointment to make my hair a bit browner. Not sure whether we have a couple rehearsals as well.
Excited to see if they have cast anyone yet…"

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There’s a November 19, 2010 release for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part I, followed by a May 2011 release of Part II.pix20205

For me, it just highlights the ridiculousness of The Half-Blood Prince being held back until next summer. They’ll have nearly finished this one by the time it comes out. The whole franchise is out of sync…!

Those Bafta Noms In Full…

Why do they have to read them out at 7.30 am??? BEST FILM

  • THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Kathleen Kennedy, Frank Marshall, Ceán Chaffin
  • FROST/NIXON – Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
  • MILK – Dan Jinks, Bruce Cohen
  • THE READER – Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris
  • SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

  • HUNGER – Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch, Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
  • IN BRUGES – Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Martin McDonagh
  • MAMMA MIA! – Judy Craymer, Gary Goetzman, Phyllida Lloyd, Catherine Johnson
  • MAN ON WIRE – Simon Chinn, James Marsh
  • SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson, Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD

for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer for their First Feature Film

  • SIMON CHINN (Producer) – Man On Wire
  • JUDY CRAYMER (Producer) – Mamma Mia!
  • GARTH JENNINGS (Writer) – Son of Rambow
  • STEVE McQUEEN (Director/Writer) – Hunger
  • SOLON PAPADOPOULOS, ROY BOULTER (Producers) – Of Time And The City

DIRECTOR

  • CHANGELING – Clint Eastwood
  • THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – David Fincher
  • FROST/NIXON – Ron Howard
  • THE READER – Stephen Daldry
  • SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

  • BURN AFTER READING – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
  • CHANGELING – J. Michael Straczynski
  • I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Philippe Claudel
  • IN BRUGES – Martin McDonagh
  • MILK – Dustin Lance Black

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

  • THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Eric Roth
  • FROST/NIXON – Peter Morgan
  • THE READER – David Hare
  • REVOLUTIONARY ROAD – Justin Haythe
  • SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Simon Beaufoy

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

  • THE BAADER MEINHOF COMPLEX – Bernard Eichinger, Uli Edel
  • GOMORRAH – Domenico Procacci, Matteo Garrone
  • I’VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Yves Marmion, Philippe Claudel
  • PERSEPOLIS – Marc-Antoine Robert, Xavier Rigault, Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Parannaud
  • WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahl Ieli, Ari Folman

ANIMATED FILM

  • PERSEPOLIS – Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Parannaud
  • WALL•E – Andrew Stanton
  • WALTZ WITH BASHIR – Ari Folman

LEADING ACTOR

  • FRANK LANGELLA – Frost/Nixon
  • DEV PATEL – Slumdog Millionaire
  • SEAN PENN – Milk
  • BRAD PITT – The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
  • MICKEY ROURKE – The Wrestler

LEADING ACTRESS

  • ANGELINA JOLIE – Changeling
  • KRISTIN SCOTT THOMAS – I’ve Loved You So Long
  • MERYL STREEP – Doubt
  • KATE WINSLET – The Reader
  • KATE WINSLET – Revolutionary Road

SUPPORTING ACTOR

  • ROBERT DOWNEY JR. – Tropic Thunder
  • BRENDAN GLEESON – In Bruges
  • PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN – Doubt
  • HEATH LEDGER – The Dark Knight
  • BRAD PITT – Burn After Reading

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

  • AMY ADAMS – Doubt
  • PENÉLOPE CRUZ – Vicky Cristina Barcelona
  • FREIDA PINTO – Slumdog Millionaire
  • TILDA SWINTON – Burn After Reading
  • MARISA TOMEI – The Wrestler

MUSIC

  • THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Alexandre Desplat
  • THE DARK KNIGHT – Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard
  • MAMMA MIA! – Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
  • SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – A. R. Rahman
  • WALL•E – Thomas Newman

Globes And Going Forward

Big success for Slumdog Millionaire, Kate Winslet and Mickey Rourke at yesterday’s Globes.

Four wins for Slumdog (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Score and a win at The Critics’ Choice Awards) make it the new favourite for the Oscar. Previously the commonly beheld favourite was Revolutionary Road. Now all we need is to convince the world that it isn’t a Bollywood film as some people have mistakenly dubbed it.

I’m happy that Slumdog is the new top dog. If it wins the big prize in February it’ll be a victory for fun, fast-paced filmmaking. I saw Revolutionary Road last week, and I very much enjoyed it. But, from weepy violin soundtrack to big-name emotional breakdown scenes, it is so much an Oscar film that I hope it doesn’t win. I watched it with my other half and I very much enjoyed. But her response was, "Well I wouldn’t choose to see it." And I can absolutely understand where she was coming from. It’s very much the same as I felt about Million Dollar Baby.

But (but!) Kate Winslet was magnificent. I have so much respect for this amazing actress. The look on her face as her marriage to Leo DiCaprio collapses in Revolutionary Road is just incredibly convincing. It’s the kind of performance in which you know that the actor suffered with the character. She drove the entire film and I am absolutely convinced that she’ll get the Oscar. She is the most favourite of all the favourites, which is bad luck for Ange Jolie and Changeling – but the winner is clear.

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I’m still awestruck by The Wrestler and I hope Mickey Rourke goes on to pick up an Oscar too. It’s the Best Film as well as far as I’m concerned, but the chances of it winning that at the Oscars seem pretty slim. Here’s my review – go see it!

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