The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo wins and loses at Baftas

While the mainstream media has focused on the unsurprising ‘home ground’ success of the Colin Firth-led The King’s Speech at the recent British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Awards, for crime fiction fans there was also some interest in a few of the lesser-publicised awards.

In a well-deserved nod, the Swedish-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson’s juggernaut THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO won the Best Film not in the English Language (equivalent of the Oscars’ Best Foreign Film). This was a truly terrific film - well written, acted, and directed. It actually showed in New Zealand in late 2009 (see my review here), but because of release dates has been eligible for this year’s awards round in England and the USA. Both at the time, and now in hindsight, this was one of the best films I’d seen on the big screen in a long time. It’s a shame it hasn’t got even more attention at the English-speaking awards.

Unfortunately (but not unexpectedly) Noomi Rapace missed out on the Best Actress nod to Natalie Portman’s much-acclaimed and publicised performance in Black Swan. Rapace was truly brilliant as Lisbeth Salander, but Portman has had the Best Actress awards locked up across the board this year, and it would be a massive surprise if anyone other than her took out the biggest of all, the Oscar, in the near future. In a kudos to the Bafta judges, it was great to see Rapace recognised with her Bafta nomination for Best Actress - it’s a real shame Hollywood overlooked her for an Oscar nomination, given her terrific performance.

Have you watched m/any of the nominated or winning films? What do you think of the Bafta results? Has TKS built up some Oscar momentum, or will its hometown advantage come to much less when the Hollywood red carpet is rolled out and the likes of The Social Network, Christian Bale in The Fighter, and Amy Adams, might once again walk away with some of the major awards? Thoughts welcome.

'King' Rules at BAFTA'S

Best Film – The King’s Speech
Best Director – The Social Network – David Fincher
Best Leading Actress – Natalie Portman – Black Swan
Best Leading Actor – Colin Firth – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actress – Helena Bonham Carter – The King’s Speech
Best Supporting Actor – Geoffrey Rush – The King’s Speech
Best Adapted Screenplay – The Social Network – Aaron Sorkin.
Best Original Screenplay – The King’s Speech – David Seidler
Best Cinematography – True Grit – Roger Deakins
Outstanding British Film – The King’s Speech
Outstanding British Debut – Four Lions – Chris Morris
Best Editing – The Social Network – Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter
Best Original Music – The King’s Speech – Alexandre Desplat
Best Production Design – Inception – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat
Best Costume Design: Alice in Wonderland – Colleen Atwood
Best Sound – Inception – Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick
Best Special Visual Effects – Inception – Corbould, Franklin, Lockley, Bebb
Best Make Up & Hair – Alice in Wonderland – Valli O’Reilly, Paul
Best Short Film – Until the River Runs Red – Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis
Best Short Animation – The Eagleman Stag – Michael Please
Best Film Not in the English Language – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Best Animated Film – Toy Story 3
Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award – Tom Hardy

just two more weeks colin...my prayer is that you get the oscar you deserved last year and certainly deserve this year. and to all the 'king's speech' detractors get over it. i am still pulling for 'the king's speech' over critic fave 'the social network'. and go natalie.

BAFTA's Tomorrow

colin firth won the bafta last year for 'a single man' as he should have. will he repeat his win this year for the king's speech'? i think so.

the bafta's are awarded tomorrow in london

Rapace in running for Best Actress BAFTA!

Back in August last year I reported on rumours coming out of Hollywood that Noomi Rapace could be in the running for an Oscar nomination for her tremendous portrayal of Lisbeth Salander in the Swedish-language film adaptation of Stieg Larsson's books. Along with speculation that the makers of the English-language version might try to dampen any such hype, in case it damaged their own film.

I think, if all things were equal (which they never are in the entertainment world), Rapace would be a worthy shoo-in for at least an Oscar nomination. However it remains to be seen whether Hollywood would/will embrace the foreign-language performance. Rapace was overlooked by the Golden Globe Awards (I'm not sure whether her and the film were eligible, depending on their criteria) - Natalie Portman (BLACK SWAN) won Best Actress in a Drama ahead of four other English-language performances - but today comes welcome news that Britain's own film awards, the BAFTAs, have lined up Rapace as a deserved nominee in the Best Actress category.

Joining Rapace and Portman in the Best Actress category for the BAFTAs are Annette Bening and Julianne Moore (THE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT), along with Hailee Steinfeld (TRUE GRIT). Moore and Bening were both nominated in the Best Actress - Comedy or Musical category at the Golden Globes (Bening won the category), where like Rapace, Steinfield was overlooked by the Hollywood Foreign Press. It's kind of interesting that in fact the BAFTA list only includes three of the ten Best Actress nominees (Drama and Comedy/Musical) from the Golden Globes.

The Academy Award (Oscar) nominations will be announced next week. It would be fantastic (and deserved) to see Rapace on the list, but I'm not that hopeful of the American academy sharing the foresight of their British counterparts, even though there is some overlap between the bodies. A shame. In its latest 'Oscar predictions' rankings, Entertainment Weekly lists Rapace at number 10 for Best Actress, with bigger names (which may be preferred by the often-conservative American academy voters) and previous Oscar nominees and winners such as Hilary Swank, Michelle Williams and Nicole Kidman 'above' her (Halle Berry was also rated above her until the BAFTA nominations).

As I said in my review of Män som hatar kvinnor (aka the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) in December 2009: "In terms of acting, I thought Noomi Rapace was brilliant as Lisbeth Salander. She conveyed the computer hacker’s conflict, confusion, anger, and uniqueness (amongst other things) exceptionally well through glances, gestures, and other non-speaking moments – not just scripted dialogue. Like the best performances, I never saw it as someone acting as Lisbeth Salander, rather Rapace was Lisbeth Salander. " Read the full review here.

What do you think of Rapace's performance as Salander (especially in the first film, which is eligible for this year's Oscars etc)? Do you think she deserves to be nominated? How does her performance compare to some of the other strong female acting performances of 2010?

'The King's Speech' Leads BAFTA Noms with 14

2010 BAFTA NOMINATIONS

BEST FILM
"Black Swan," Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
"Inception," Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
"The King's Speech," Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
"The Social Network," Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Cean Chaffin
"True Grit," Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

DIRECTOR
"127 Hours," Danny Boyle
"Black Swan," Darren Aronofsky
"Inception," Christopher Nolan
"The King's Speech," Tom Hooper
"The Social Network," David Fincher

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
"Black Swan," Mark Heyman, Andres 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

LEADING ACTOR
Javier Bardem, "Biutiful"
Jeff Bridges, "True Grit"
Jesse Eisenberg, "The Social Network"
Colin Firth, "The King's Speech"
James Franco, "127 Hours"

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"

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"

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"

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

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," Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter

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

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

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
"Alice in Wonderland," Nominees 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," Nominees TBC

MAKE UP AND HAIR
"Alice in Wonderland," Nominees 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

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
"Biutiful," Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
"The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo," Soren 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 Jose Campanella

ANIMATED FILM
"Despicable Me," Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
"How to Train Your Dragon," Chris Sanders, Dean Deblois
"Toy Story 3," Lee Unkrich

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
"127 Hours," Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson
"Another Year," Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
"Four Lions," Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
"The King's Speech," Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin
"Made in Dagenham," Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley

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)

SHORT ANIMATION
"The Eagleman," Stag Michael Please
"Matter Fisher," David Prosser
"Thursday," Matthias Hoegg

SHORT FILM
"Connect," Samuel Abrahams, Beau Gordon
"Lin," Piers Thompson, Simon Hessel
"Rite," Michael Pearce, Ross Mckenzie
"Turning," Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Alison Sterling, Kat Armour-Brown
"Until the River Runs Red," Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis

THE ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING STAR AWARD (VOTED FOR BY THE PUBLIC)
Gemma Arterton
Andrew Garfield
Tom Hardy
Aaron Johnson
Emma Stone