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2009/01/15 at 12:00am

Official BAFTA nominations list

01.15.2009 | By Mack Chico |

This is Bafta’s best year by far, and there isn’t a major studio in the world that doesn’t know it. The British are creating the best independent films in the world, and for the first time in its long history of pure envy the British Academy can cock a snook at its far more glamorous American counterpart. You don’t need to be Barry Norman to work out that the big films fighting for the top honours at the Bafta awards on February 8 will also be walking up the aisle two weeks later in Los Angeles.

Penelope Cruz was nominated again, making her chances to be nominated at the Oscar’s even better. I did scour the internet and got the complete list of BAFTA nominees. Here you go:

BEST FILM

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Frost/Nixon
Milk
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

DIRECTOR

Clint Eastwood, Changeling
David Fincher, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Ron Howard, Frost/Nixon
Stephen Daldry, The Reader
Danny Boyle, Slumdog Millionaire

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

Joel and Ethan Coen, Burn After Reading
J. Michael Straczynski, Changeling
Philippe Claudel, I’ve Loved You So Long
Martin McDonagh, In Bruges
Dustin Lance Black, Milk

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

Eric Roth, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Peter Morgan, Frost/Nixon
David Hare, The Reader
Justin Haythe, Revolutionary Road
Simon Beaufoy, Slumdog Millionaire

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

Alexandre Desplat, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hans Zimmer, James Newton Howard, The Dark Knight
Benny Andersson, Bjorn Ulvaeus, Mamma Mia!
A.R. Rahman, Slumdog Millionaire
Thomas Newman, Wall-E

CINEMATOGRAPHY

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Reader
Slumdog Millionaire

EDITING

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Frost/Nixon
In Bruges
Slumdog Millionaire

PRODUCTION DESIGN

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Revolutionary Road
Slumdog Millionaire

COSTUME DESIGN

Changeling
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Revolutionary Road

SOUND

Changeling
The Dark Knight
Quantum of Solace
Slumdog Millionaire
Wall-E

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Iron Man
Quantum of Solace

MAKE UP & HAIR

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
The Dark Knight
The Duchess
Frost/Nixon
Milk

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

Hunger
In Bruges
Mamma Mia!
Man on Wire
Slumdog Millionaire

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

The Baader Meinhof Complex
Gomorrah
I’ve Loved You So Long
Persepolis
Waltz With Bashir

ANIMATED FILM

Persepolis
WALL-E
Waltz With Bashir

SHORT ANIMATION

Codswallop
Varmints
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death

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

SHORT FILM

Kingsland #1 The Dreamer
Love You More
Ralph
September
Voyages D’affaires (The Business Trip)

THE ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD

Michael Cera
Noel Clarke
Michael Fassbender
Rebecca Hall
Toby Kebbell

Hugh Jackman to host 81st annual Oscar awards!

By Mack Chico

2008/12/12 at 12:00am

Movies

Hugh Jackman to host 81st annual Oscar awards!

12.12.2008 | By Mack Chico |

Hugh Jackman will host the 81st annual Academy Awards in February. Executive producer Bill Condon and producer Laurence Mark made the announcement today.

Jackman takes over for comedian Jon Stewart, who has served as Oscar moderator for the past two years.

“Hugh Jackman is a consummate entertainer and an internationally renowned movie star,” said Mark and Condon in a joint statement. “He also has style, elegance and a sense of occasion. Hugh is the ideal choice to host a celebration of the year¹s movies and to have fun doing it.”

The “Australia” actor previously hosted the Tony Awards in 2005, a year after winning the 2004 Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in “The Boy from Oz.”

"Slumdog" and "Hunger" sweep at the BIFA

By Mack Chico

2008/12/01 at 12:00am

Movies

"Slumdog" and "Hunger" sweep at the BIFA

12.1.2008 | By Mack Chico |

You could be seeing these two films at the upcoming Oscar awards in 2009.

Director Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” about a poor Indian boy who gets a shot at winning millions in a television game show, swept the British Independent Film Awards on Sunday with three prizes.

“Hunger,” artist Steve McQueen‘s widely acclaimed directorial debut, also picked up three awards, followed by Mike Leigh‘s uncharacteristically upbeat “Happy-Go-Lucky,” which took both the best supporting actor and actress prizes.

Slumdog Millionaire won the best British independent film, best director and most promising newcomer categories, the latter going to young actor Dev Patel who played the lead role of Jamal.

The movie has already won rave reviews at film festivals and generated early Oscars buzz.

Also with three awards was Hunger, a hard-hitting film about the final days of IRA prisoner and hunger striker Bobby Sands in 1981.

Sands was played by Michael Fassbender, who won the best actor category, while McQueen was awarded the Douglas Hickox prize for best debut director and cinematographer Sean Bobbitt was honoured for best technical achievement.

Best actress went to Vera Farmiga in “The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas,” and the best screenplay award was won by Martin McDonagh for “In Bruges.”

Alexis Zegerman was named best supporting actress for Happy-Go-Lucky, and Eddie Marsan won the best supporting actor prize for the same film.

“The Escapist” won the best achievement in production award, “Man on Wire” won best documentary, “Soft” won best British short film, and best foreign film went to “Waltz With Bashir,” Ari Folman’s haunting Middle East war animation.

Actor David Thewlis was honoured with the Richard Harris award for outstanding contribution to British film, and Michael Sheen won the Variety award.

Bardem Calls The Spanish ‘a bunch of stupid people’

Javier Bardem

By Mack Chico

2008/09/09 at 12:00am

Movies

Bardem Calls The Spanish ‘a bunch of stupid people’

09.9.2008 | By Mack Chico |

Oscar winner Javier Bardem lashes out at Spanish critics, calling them “a bunch of stupid people” in response to backlash following his Academy Award success. The Spanish actor sat down recently with The New York Times for an interview touching upon the criticism from his homeland, fame, and how he feels about his Spain. Read More

By Mack Chico

2008/09/04 at 12:00am

Movies

Toronto Film Festival just not the same

09.4.2008 | By Mack Chico |

Bad news for Oscar prognosticators: The Toronto International Film Festival, starting Thursday, isn’t quite its bellwether self this year.

Factors such as rising travel costs, delays caused by the writers’ strike and weakened art-house divisions have kept the most likely best-picture candidates out of the lineup.

Unlike in the past, when 1999’s American Beauty proved a trip up north could lead to Oscar glory, late fall’s choicest academy bait, such as Frost/Nixon and Australia, won’t be there. Even high-profile titles opening in October — Ridley Scott’s Body of Lies, Oliver Stone’s W — are missing.

That doesn’t mean there won’t be celebrity gridlock at the 33rd edition of North America’s premier film gathering, which features 312 movies from 64 countries through Sept. 13.

Among the hundreds of stars expected: Keira Knightley, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Benicio Del Toro, Charlize Theron, Adrien Brody, Dakota Fanning, Michael Caine, Queen Latifah and Viggo Mortensen. Even the tabloid world’s most famous former couple, Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston, will be there — on separate days.

If there is a major upside to the 2008 schedule, it is that the doom and gloom cast by last year’s dour war-themed dramas (In the Valley of Elah, Rendition) and vigilante gut-wrenchers (The Brave One, Reservation Road) have been replaced by what the festival’s co-director Piers Handling declares as “the return of the American comedy.”

Call it the Juno effect. “There are a few films about the Iraq war,” such as Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker and The Lucky Ones with Rachel McAdams, he says. “But there are at least five really good, solid comedies. Kevin Smith’s Zack and Miri Make a Porno. Nick and Nora’s Infinite Playlist. Ghost Town, Religulous. The Coen brothers with Burn After Reading.”

Even British filmmaker Mike Leigh, whose last outing was the 2004 abortion weeper Vera Drake, has an effort that lives up to its title: Happy-Go-Lucky.

And a possible crowd-pleaser has emerged, if the reactions at Telluride can be trusted: Slumdog Millionaire, the story of a teen orphan in India who wins the jackpot on a Hindi version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. Directed by Danny Boyle (Trainspotting), it was recently picked up by Fox Searchlight in a deal with Warner Bros.

Fair warning, though. There is a Paris Hilton documentary, as if we didn’t know enough about the celebutante, helpfully titled Paris, Not France. But, as Handling notes, “It’s really short.”