#21 The Results Are In! Oscar Winners!

So the Oscars are now over and thus ending the big chain of award seasons. Now the Academy Awards are over and the winners are walking away with there little golden statues, we can talk about who won and if they deserved it. Like pretty much any awards ceremony that has happened this year It was somewhat quite predictable at times. Like how ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ ran away with eight, yes that’s right, eight Oscars. Not bad for a film that was planned to go straight to DVD.

First thing that I didn’t recognise at first was that the ceremony was very, how should I say… minimalistic in comparison to other years. There where no massive plastic statues and there was a lot of TV screens use which was fantastically set out. I tip my hat to the set designer. For every time an actors award came up the previous winners came on to announce the winners which was acutely quite nice to see. A couple of parts where tacky like when Ben Stiller came on dressed as Joaquin Phoenix, It was funny don’t get me wrong I found it quit funny however it wasn’t necessary in a presides awards ceremony.

So of course ‘Slumdog-‘ has was worth something but did it need to steal the show? Other films such as ‘Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ were total lift in the dark only picking up small awards like ‘Best Achievement In Art Direction’ and ‘Best Achievement In Makeup’. However at least it won some awards unlike Eastwood’s fantastic drama ‘Changeling’ which got not nothing. I saw this film, it was good, it was bloody good and why it won nothing is beyond me. But this just shows how many classics have come out in a small space of time. However I was glad the Danny Boyle won best director because he does deserve it after filming ‘Slumdog-‘ but part of me wanted Gus Van Sant to win because I as starting to become a big Van Sant fan after watching his great indie films like ‘Elephant’ (2003) and ‘Last Days’ (2005). Hopefully in the future (close future) Van Sant will release another film that gets him some critical apprise. When Boyle took the stage he began jumping up and down like Tiger (from Winnie the Pooh) and after everyone and had given a puzzling look to the person sitting next to them he explained his actions on stage. Aparently he had promised his children, when they where young, that he would do so.

Now with the actors awards, firstly

“The award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role goes to…”

Penelope Cruz won the Best Supporting Female award for her psycho role in Allen’s 'Vicky Christina Barcelona’. I haven’t seen the film only the trailers so I can’t comment on if she is good or not but good on her. If I got to pick who I wanted to win it would be Taraji P. Henson from ‘Curious Case-‘ . Then came Best Supporting Actor and if anyone can’t guess who won your not in for a shock.

“The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role goes to…”

Heath Ledger. Heath’s parents and sister went on stage to accept the award whilst a tearful audience (Adrian Brody and Brad Pitt to name a few) honoured his legacy. Heath really did go out with a band however I’m curios is history will repeat its self next year if he is nominated for his last film from director Terry Gilliam ‘The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus’. We will have to see if I’m still writing by then. Continuing on, another not so surprise was the Leading female award…

“The award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role goes to…”

Kate Whinslett, so give me a second whilst I applauded her. Second over. So she won for her role in ‘The Reader’ congratulations, I guess now I have to watch it. And Lastly,

“The award for Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role goes to…”

Not Mickey Rourke. Even though he’s been though hell and back he didn’t get the Academy Award it went to Sean Penn for his gay ol’ role in ‘Milk’. I loved ‘Milk’ and I do think he deserves it so badly because he was completely un-mislabel in that film however I kinda felt that Rourke would win it. Even if he had upset the Academy a couple of years ago I think he should have had a chance.

For the rest of the winners head on over to Empire Online, TotalFilm.com or pretty much any film web site.

Oliver Hunt

#17 BAFTA Part II: The Results

Well what can I say, pretty much everyone and their dogs, know that ‘Slumdog’s Millionaire’ was the big star of the night. With Boyle’s latest hit film scooping up a grand total of seven films all the other great films felt left in the shadows. Films like ‘Milk’ and ‘Frost Nixon’ being certainly left out; it just supported my theory of the films being release simply at the wrong time. If they were shown earlier or maybe later they would definitely have been noticed more. Having said that thought doesn’t mean that I didn’t feel that ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ didn’t deserve that many awards because it truly did but it certainly over shadowed others films.

However one film it didn’t get so over shadowed was Fincher’s ‘Curious Case Of Benjamin Button’ which won only three awards. Even though it won several awards Brad Pitt didn’t get to leave his seat after loosing Best Supporting Actor to you know who… Heath Ledger. An interesting part to the evening was when Michael Sheen and David Frost (the person Michael Sheen was playing in ‘Frost/Nixon’) went on stage to read the winner for Best Original Screenplay.

Now lets focus on the British films. I was glad to see that Steve McQueen (not to be mistaken for the other McQueen from ‘Bullit’) win THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD for his film ‘Hunger (2008). Martin McDonagh won himself a BAFTA for his latest flick ‘In Bruges’. McDonagh had previously won himself an Oscar for his first short film ‘Six Shooter’, so it is interesting to see that he has won a award for pretty much everything he has done (includes his plays ‘The Pillowman’). Which begs the question if it is just a flook or is he the next big thing. And lastly film to win OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM was the Chinn and March’s film ‘Man On Wire’.

The last thing I’m going to say is that I am glad that Mickey Rourke won the award for LEADING ACTOR, and had a rather touching and funny speech in which he swore twice. As I said in my review for ‘The Wrestler’ I think that Rourke deserves some acclaim for his role I the film. Having said that I was sad that Van Sant’s latest film ‘Milk’ was a bit left out. I really thought they deserved HAIR AND MAKE-UP, but we will have to see if I receives anything when the Academy Awards come rolling in. Oh and Terry Gilliam has now been excepted into the BAFTA’s which was… nice.

For all the rest of the winners I have put them below.

BEST FILM

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Christian Colson

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

MAN ON WIRE – Simon Chinn, James Marsh

THE CARL FOREMAN AWARD

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

STEVE McQUEEN (Director/Writer) – Hunger

DIRECTOR

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

IN BRUGES – Martin McDonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Simon Beaufoy

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

I'VE LOVED YOU SO LONG – Yves Marmion, Philippe Claudel

ANIMATED FILM

WALL•E – Andrew Stanton

LEADING ACTOR

MICKEY ROURKE – The Wrestler

LEADING ACTRESS

KATE WINSLET – The Reader

SUPPORTING ACTOR

HEATH LEDGER – The Dark Knight

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

PENÉLOPE CRUZ – Vicky Cristina Barcelona

MUSIC

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – A. R. Rahman

CINEMATOGRAPHY

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Anthony Dod Mantle

EDITING

SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE – Chris Dickens

PRODUCTION DESIGN

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo

COSTUME DESIGN

THE DUCHESS – Michael O'Connor

SOUND

SLUMDOG MILLIONARE – Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Eric Barba, Craig Barron, – Nathan McGuinness, Edson Williams

MAKE UP & HAIR

THE CURIOUS CASE OF BENJAMIN BUTTON – Jean Black, Colleen Callaghan

ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD

NOEL CLARKE

Oh yeah and Kate Whinslet won, again.

Oliver Hunt