2010 BAFTA Award Winners and Commentary

In one of the major shows before this year’s Oscars, one of the major battles between the two biggest films of the year ended up being a blowout. Not only did Katheryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker take the Best Film category from James Cameron’s Avatar at tonight’s BAFTA ceremonies but dominated the show with six wins. Avatar had to settle for only two wins. Bigelow also defeated Cameron for the Best Director award as well.

This seems to be a trend as there is growing buzz over The Hurt Locker and growing criticism for Avatar. The 3D film has been called to carpet for not having all that original of a story as well as having too much style and not a lot of substance. For the most part, The Hurt Locker is universally regarded as one of the best movies of the year; perhaps even the decade.

If there was one awards show to put Avatar in its place, it would have been the BAFTAs. The British don’t mess around with their bluntness and will award what they think is the best rather than donate awards to those who have the strongest momentum in the press. This will have either one of two reactions come Oscar time: either the Academy will take notice and this will make The Hurt Locker the front runner; or there will be a backlash against The Hurt Locker for stealing the award away from the technical achievement that is Avatar. I’m more likely to think that it will be a case of the former rather than the latter but there are those who are part of the voting process that can’t be too happy that the BAFTAs have disrupted the storybook narrative that had Avatar winning award after award leading up to the Oscars. It may have been acceptable for some for The Hurt Locker to have taken the top award but for it to have dominated that field wasn’t supposed to happen in the opinion of some.

To be fair, there are some awards that could go either way. Even though the guy is a bit of a jackass, a strong case could be made for Cameron to have won the award for best director. It may have not been the most interesting story but Avatar was a stunning technical achievement. Cameron did an amazing job turning Pandora into a world that the audience felt was real. Another strong case could have been made for Avatar to have won the award of Best Cinematography over The Hurt Locker, which didn’t happen. However, Avatar did win for Best Production Design and Best Special Effects; both of which The Hurt Locker was nominated (the only two categories for which The Hurt Locker was nominated and didn’t win). Personally, I would have to lean towards Avatar for Best Director and The Hurt Locker for Best Cinematography. It’s going to be an interesting race heading towards March 7^th.

The real story is that, on paper, Avatar lost at the BAFTAs. It should have won the two awards that it did and had it not, it would have been an embarrassment. In some people’s eyes though, it should have won more. It was built and being pushed to be the dominate film this year. People had forgotten about The Hurt Locker prior to the awards season; although it was critically acclaimed at the time of its release. This was Avatar’s awards season to monopolize. At least it has its billion dollars worth of sales to fall back on. Which, in the grand scheme of things, counts the most.

Other than the battle of the two goliath films, there wasn’t much news. Those who were expected to win did win. Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique continued to be the strongest frontrunners for their respective supporting acting categories. It’s appropriate though considering that Waltz and Mo’Nique gave two of the greatest performances of the decade. Up in the Air took home the award for Best Adapted Screenplay and The Hurt Locker won for Best Original Screenplay which surprised no one.

The only other minor shock of the evening to some may have been Carey Mulligan defeating Meryl Streep for Best Actress. However, An Education was a British film so Mulligan had home field advantage. Also, while Streep was very good as Julia Child in Julie & Julia, I wouldn’t say it was such a fantastic performance that she was a runaway favourite.

It’ll be interesting to see what happens. I think the BAFTAs will have some influence over the Oscar voting, which will benefit The Hurt Locker. There might be a few people voting and politicking for Avatar but that will most likely only be a few people who have an emotional investment with the film. When it comes down to it, with the Oscars only two weeks away, we have a new leading candidate.

2010 Orange British Academy Film Award Winners

 

BEST FILM

• THE HURT LOCKER

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM

• FISH TANK – Kees Kasander, Nick Laws, Andrea Arnold

OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

• DUNCAN JONES – Director – Moon

DIRECTOR

• THE HURT LOCKER – Kathryn Bigelow

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

• THE HURT LOCKER – Mark Boal

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

• UP IN THE AIR – Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

• A PROPHET – Pascal Caucheteux, Marco Cherqui, Alix Raynaud, Jacques Audiard

ANIMATED FILM

• UP – Pete Docter

LEADING ACTOR

• COLIN FIRTH – A Single Man

LEADING ACTRESS

• CAREY MULLIGAN – An Education

SUPPORTING ACTOR

• CHRISTOPH WALTZ – Inglourious Basterds

SUPPORTING ACTRESS

• MO’NIQUE – Precious: Based on the Novel Push by Sapphire

MUSIC

• UP – Michael Giacchino

CINEMATOGRAPHY

• THE HURT LOCKER – Barry Ackroyd

EDITING

• THE HURT LOCKER – Bob Murawski, Chris Innis

PRODUCTION DESIGN

• AVATAR – Rick Carter, Robert Stromberg, Kim Sinclair

COSTUME DESIGN

• THE YOUNG VICTORIA – Sandy Powell

SOUND

• THE HURT LOCKER – Ray Beckett, Paul N. J. Ottosson

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

• AVATAR – Joe Letteri, Stephen Rosenbaum, Richard Baneham, Andrew R. Jones

MAKE UP & HAIR

• THE YOUNG VICTORIA – Jenny Shircore

SHORT ANIMATION

• MOTHER OF MANY – Sally Arthur, Emma Lazenby

SHORT FILM

• I DO AIR – James Bolton, Martina Amati

ORANGE RISING STAR AWARD

• KRISTEN STEWART

Films In Order of Wins

Film (Click title for trailers)	Wins
The Hurt Locker (read my review)	6
Avatar (read my review)	2
Up	2
The Young Victoria	2
An Education (review coming soon)	1
Fish Tank	1
Inglourious Basterds (read my review)	1
Precious (read my review)	1
A Prophet	1
A Single Man	1
Up in the Air (read my review)	1