BAFTAs

Beth Webb went along to the BAFTAs, checked who was
there, who stood out in the style stake and found out who Mark Kermode
predicted as the winners. If you missed her
tweets, here’s the summary.

On The Red Carpet…

The BAFTAs ceremony revolved around the new face of
Hollywood; Andrew Garfield and a barely recognisable blonde Emma
Stone lead the hype as the new faces of the Spiderman franchise while Jesse
Eissenberg caused a near R Patz style chorus as the understated face of
Fincher’s award-winning Facebook flick. Humble talents like Jennifer Lawrence
and Dominic Cooper breezed by while promising contenders Tom Hardy and
Natalie Portman remained absent despite weighty wins.

Style-wise Emma Stone, Amy Adams and the ever present
Thandie Newman lead the pack whilst Rosamumd Pyke and Gemma
Arterton represented as young female talent. To further contribute to the
fresh new faces of the British industry Nicholas Hoult and Dev Patel stormed
the show as the promise of things to come whilst Annette Bening and Tom
Ford‘s date for the evening Julianne Moore alongside Tilda Swinton maintained high status as
Veterans
of the red thread. The results were no great surprise especially given the
level of hype both Firth and Portman have endured these past few months
, but it’s the little pleasures like Inception‘s home grown visual skill
or Social Network‘s beautifully composed dialogue that makes the night’s
results worth taking into account and will hopefully set the bar for ceremonies
to come.

All in all an exciting night highlighting the fresh faces of
a new shift in Hollywood. Bloggers had a great time sinking the vino after a
perishingly cold red carpet experience, bitching about the various results (Tom
Hardy’s win did not go down particularly well!) and confessing various
stages of love for Andrew Garfield. An all round fantastic atmosphere, champion
night for the Brits and barely a fashion faux pas in sight.

In between Dev Patel and Welsh stud Steve Jones’s
fruitless predictions that 127 Hours would win tonight Mark Kermode sung very
highly of newcomer Garfield as he took his solemn duties for the evening:

“We just did News 24, we just did Sky, the usual
really, I’ve just had a bet with Jason Solomon whether Made In Dagegenham will
win best British newcomer because I really like it, but he seems to think it
will be Mike Leigh. It’s interesting this year because I think it’s
really uncertain what’s going to happen, everyone knows King’s Speech
has got the most nominations but beyond that that I think it’s a very open
field, you’ve got Social Network which I think Andrew Garfield’s in on, he’s
got best supporting actor and Orange rising star which he’s got a very firm
chance there; I think him and Gemma Arterton are the two leaders there.”

Do you think that’s due to Spiderman
fans everywhere?

“I think so, I think Kristen Stewart last year
was due to Twilight fans everywhere, as far as Garfield’s concerned he’s
got two very good films out this year; Never Let me Go and he’s terrific
in Social Network and I think his performance is really strong. That and with Black
Swan, Natalie Portman’s a very strong actress but maybe Annette Bening
might have the edge, who knows. And then the director, I still think David
Fincher‘s got a chance with Social Network, possibly even Christopher
Nolan with Inception which I would love to happen as he was snubbed at the
Oscars as far as the director’s nominations was concerned. If Social Network,
if you think about it, that is a story about a bunch of unsociable net like
nerds sitting in a room arguing about copyright law, how can you make that
interesting? That is a real achievement.”

Who else do you think got snubbed this year that stood a
chance?

“I think there’s a lot of stuff that has happened at
the BAFTAs that has corrected what happens at the Oscars, I think Andrew
Garfield getting recognised and the most significant thing is Chris Nolan get recognised
as a director because, and I keep saying this Inception is clearly the most
directed and one of the best directed films of the year and it seems absurd for
Christopher Nolan not to be in the running for it because he’s British, and it
may be a great multi million American block buster movie fine, it’s directed by
a Brit it’s written by a Brit and it’s a British driven film full of great
British talent. Every year there’s this question about how much the Brits are
represented at the BAFTAs and there’s some films that look like they’re British
films, but Inception is arguably a British film because that’s where it’s
created from and that’s what I think is important to recognise.”

Did Mark get it right? Here’s the results….

The King’s Speech won seven BAFTAs including Best
Film, Leading Actor for Colin Firth, Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush and
Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter Natalie Portman wins Leading
Actress The Social Network and Inception win three BAFTAs each Alice in
Wonderland takes home two awards The King’s Speech was named Best Film at the
Orange British Academy Film Awards, held at London’s Royal Opera House.

The film also won six other awards: Outstanding British
Film, Original Screenplay and Original Music, as well as a trio of performance
awards for Geoffrey Rush, Helena Bonham Carter and Colin Firth, who wins the
Leading Actor BAFTA for the second year running.

Natalie Portman was awarded the BAFTA for Leading Actress
for her performance as Nina Sayers in Black Swan. David Fincher won the
Director award for The Social Network and Aaron Sorkin took home the BAFTA for
Adapted Screenplay. The film also won the Editing award.

Inception won the Production Design, Sound and Special
Visual Effects BAFTAs. Director Chris Morris received the award for
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer for his first
feature film Four Lions. Alice in Wonderland won the BAFTAs for Costume Design
and Make Up Hair. Toy Story 3 took home the award for Animated Film. True Grit
won for Cinematography. The Film Not in the English Language BAFTA went to The
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The Eagleman Stag won the Short Animation award and
the Short Film award was presented to Until the River Runs Red. The Orange
Wednesdays Rising Star Award was presented to Tom Hardy, star of Inception and
Bronson. This award, the only one voted for by the public, recognises an
international actor or actress who has demonstrated exceptional talent and has
begun to be recognised as a film star in the making. The award is now in its
sixth year and was created in honour of Mary Selway, the highly respected
casting director who passed away in 2004. The highest accolade which the
Academy can bestow, the Fellowship, was presented to Christopher Lee. The award
for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema was received by JK Rowling and
David Heyman on behalf of The Harry Potter Films.