Tuesday, March 19, 2024

“12 Years” Wins BAFTA Best Picture, But Upsets Divide Actors’ Categories

Share

Do the British Academy Awards mean anything to the American academy voters? It’s hard to say. Probably not. But on Sunday “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” divided most of the BAFTA big awards. And there were a couple of crazy upsets in the acting categories that must have award-centric websites going crazy. They basically got everything wrong.

While “12 Years” won Best Picture, “Gravity” won Best British picture– so weird since “Gravity” other than its producer, David Heyman, is an American film from a US company (Warner Bros) with two American actors (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney). Go figure. “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuaron, who is Mexican, won Best Director.

Cate Blanchett was the only actor who was a cinch and won Best Actress for “Blue Jasmine” (take that, Farrow family). Otherwise, the other acting wins were upside down– and just fine, but different from almost everything else we’ve thought was going on.

Chiwetel Ejiofor won Best Actor and beat Bruce Dern, Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, and Leonardo DiCaprio, et al for his work in “12 Years.” Bravo! Of course, he is British. Just saying, that doesn’t hurt.

First timer Barkhad Abdi won Best Supporting Actor for “Captain Phillips.” He knocked out Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender, and Daniel Bruhl (who’s British).

Best Supporting Actress went to Jennifer Lawrence for “American Hustle.” Lawrence knocked off Brit Sally Hawkins, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey and more importantly, Lupita Nyongo, who was the favorite.

Otherwise “Philomena” and “American Hustle” split the screenplay awards — adapted and original, respectively. “Gravity” picked up the technical awards.

Everyone got something. But there must have been some dropped jaws. For Ejiofor, the award counters the conventional wisdom that Brits don’t win the BAFTAs. But no Brits won the other acting awards. So there.

All of this means nada. It just means three of the four acting races are wide open. Leto is a little more vulnerable than previously thought. “Captain Phillips” could be stronger in some quarters. Barkhad Abdi is a long shot win in the U.S. but why not? And the way voting works with the Academy, anything could happen. It’s frustrating for the actors and the prognosticators, but great for TV ratings on Oscar night. Everyone loves a nail-biter!

I’ve often said that there are so many good choices this year, you could take any combination of the actors and actresses for the winners, and it would be all right. We were lucky to have such a bumper crop of excellent films!

 

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.
spot_img

Read more

In Other News