Slumdog Millionaire – 7
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button – 3
Hunger – 1
In Bruges – 1
The Duchess – 1
I’ve Loved You So Long – 1
Man On Wire – 1
Vicky Cristina Barcelona – 1
The Dark Knight – 1
The Reader – 1
The Wrestler – 1
September – 1
Wallace And Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death – 1

Now who won what (in order)…

Music

Slumdog Millionaire
A.R. Rahman

Sound

Slumdog Millionaire
Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp

Production Design

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo

Make Up & Hair

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Jean Black, Colleen Callaghan

Cinematography

Slumdog Millionaire
Anthony Dod Mantle

Adapted Screenplay

Slumdog Millionaire
Simon Beaufoy

Outstanding British Film

Hunger
Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch, Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh

Outstanding British Contribution to Film

Pinewood and Shepperton Studios

Original Screenplay

In Bruges
Martin McDonagh

Costume Design

The Duchess
Michael O’Connor

Film not in the English Language

I’ve Loved You So Long
Yves Marmion, Philippe Claudel

The Carl Foreman Award

Man On Wire
Simon Chinn

Best Supporting Actress

Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Penelope Cruise

Special Visual Effects

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Eric Barba, Craig Barron, – Nathan McGuinness, Edson Williams

Best Supporting Actor

The Dark Knight
Heath Ledger

Orange Rising Star Award

Noel Clarke

Best Director

Slumdog Millionaire
Danny Boyle

Leading Actress

The Reader
Kate Winslet

Lead Actor

The Wrestler
Mickey Rourke

Best Picture

Slumdog Millionaire
Christian Colson

Fellowship

Terry Gilliam

Short Film

September
Stewart le Marechal, Esther May Campbell

Short Animation

Wallace And Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death
Steve Pegram, Nick Park, Bob Baker

Editing

Slumdog Millionaire
Chris Dickens

Animated Film

Wall-E

I’m so happy Danny Boyle is best director! :D!!! And Rourke and Winslet, great results!

Here’s a little vid of Twelve Monkeys (1995) one of my favourite films and (in my humble opinion) one of Gilliam’s best:

First of all, Terry Gilliam gets this year’s Academy Fellow, this is a given (and well deserved, I’d say). There’s a pretty cool article about him on the BAFTA website here.

Also, pinewood and Shepperton Studios get the Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award.

“They been home to some of the most successful, critically acclaimed and award winning feature films ever made such as The African Queen, David Lean’s Great Expectations, Dr Strangelove, Superman, Alien, The Shining, Ghandi, and most recently The Bourne Ultimatum and 20 of the 22 Bonds including Casino Royale and Quantum of Solace.”
- From the BAFTA site.

Will The Dark Knight be in for a BAFTA or nine?

Now onto the nominations…

Most award nominations go to:

• Slumdog Millionaire 11
• The Curious Case of Benjamin Button 11
• The Dark Knight 9
• Changeling 8
• Frost/Nixon 6
• The Reader 5

Click here for a list of all of this years nominees.

My thoughts

• I’d like Slumdog to get outstanding British film. At the very least I want Danny Boyle to win best director.
• I’d love Rourke to win best actor for The Wrestler but he’s up against some stiff competition from the likes of Sean Penn in Milk and Brad Pitt in The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.
• Kate Winslet deserves to do well!
• I reckon music-wise it should be A. R. Rahman for Slumdog or Hans Zimmer and James Newton Howard for making the Joker’s Dark Knight theme so unsettling.
• Special Visual effects could go to pretty much anyone, although I think Benjamin Button might tip the balance for using cutting-edge technology (and possibly more impactful in the eyes of cinema-goers than The Dark Knight’s use of IMAX cams). I very much doubt Quatum of Solace would pick up this award when it is up against the likes of cgi-centric pictures like Iron Man.
• In reality I think Benjamin Button will dominate both the BAFTAs and the Oscars. I’m sure it’s a great film (still not freakin released til tomorrow here!) but it’ll be a shame if a film like Slumdog misses out.

The BAFTA’s will be hosted by Jonathan Ross on Sunday 8 February 2009 in London’s Royal Opera House.

Check out last year’s film award winners here.

So, what are your predictions and who would you like to see winning awards?

Tropic Thunder has a brilliant ensemble cast and features one of my favourite actors, Robert Downey Jr. It pays homage to films like Platoon and Apocalypse Now, and it is laugh-out-loud funny.

Tropic Thunder sees Damien Cockburn (Steve Coogan) filming his directorial debut a war movie and it going badly. When he enlists the help of the author of Tropic Thunder the book, Four Leaf Tayback (Nick Nolte), the grizzled nam-vetran suggests they take the sheltered actors to the jungle and rig up cameras to shoot a far grittier movie. At this point things get all too real and Tugg Speedman (Ben Stiller), Jeff Portnoy (Jack Black), Kirk Lazarus (Robert Downey Jr) and Kevin Sandusky (Jay Baruchel) must fight their way through the jungle and its hostile inhabitants.

The cast are all good, but two of them really shone for me – Downey Jr and Tom Cruises’s unexpected cameo as Les Grossman. Downey plays an Australian method actor whose dedication has driven him to have a controversial skin pigmentation to turn him black. All of his jokes are delivered perfectly. Jack Black’s Jeff Portnoy, who is known as a comedy actor playing all the roles himself (Nutty Professor style) loses his drugs and spends much of the film in a cold sweat. At his most desperate when tied to a tree, he offers his services to his comrades if they release him – “I’ll cradle the balls, stroke the shaft, work the pipes, and swallow the gravy.” . Stiller’s character sees Tropic Thunder as a way to reboot his waning career after his last lukewarm performance in Scorcher 6 (shown in an amusing trailer at the beginning of the film) and doesn’t realise that fiction has suddenly become a battle for survival. Tom Cruise’s character Les Grossman is a complete maniac and constantly shouting, be it at colleagues, friends, or ransom-demanding Viet-Cong bad guys. In his more philosophical moments he dances to rap music and dishes out reassurances – “Speedman is a dying star. A white dwarf headed for a black hole. That’s physics. It’s inevitable.” It is a pleasant surprise to see Cruise in this role and he gets plenty of laughs.

Exchanges between Downry Jr and Stiller concerning his “Simple Jack” character are both funny and at times immoral, but shouldn’t be taken to heart. Equally there are jokes concerning race, but these are never overbearing.

I would rank this near to the likes of Shaun of the Dead and Borat for laughs and for that bit more substance than your average insipid comedy – you know, the kind that have those DVD covers of puke-worthy pinks and whites with people’s faces all over them, it’s the same for books and music too…

Go see it! You will laugh. Oh, and I know what dude I am. I’m the dude playin’ the dude, disguised as another dude!

Enjoy.

Recently I’ve been writing short stories, aiming to have them published in magazines. Hopefully I’ll crack it and this’ll add a bit more weight to my writing CV. Maybe I’ll be able to put a story or two on the site then, but we shall have to see. So far I have two short stories, one is a fantasy/fiction piece concerning time travel and another which is a claustrophobic sci-fi tale. I have quite a few ideas which I hope will flourish into more short stories. I’d like to get to the stage where I have an army of these which I can use as ammunition whenever someone shows interest in my writing and asks to see some.

I’m really enjoying writing these. It helps me to focus on words and sentences, to keep everything tight, to (try to) tell a coherent story in a short space of time and to watch the word count. I’d advise anyone who likes writing and is looking to be published to give it a try. Also, on weekday mornings when I’m fresh (knackered & grumpy) I can edit a printed copy and check it for flow/spelling etc.

Whether I’ll continue with these one-a-week short stories remains to be seen, as I am starting to get into writing my new book, but I’ll update here with any developments. Until then, if you’re a writer – happy writing!

Here’s the link to the full song. I’m not sure how long it’ll be up, so click now (unless you like James Bond, then apparently, don’t)!

I’m made up that they’ve won the Mercury. They were certainly my winners, and the bookie’s favourites, but I severely doubted they’d come away with the money. Some five-minute wonder would take it, surely? Usually it’s someone I’ve never heard of and don’t particularly want to hear of again (Antony and the Johnsons are a bit like nails on a chalk board as far as I’m concerned). Even better was the fact that I’d just finished watching Rocky II (he wins, too!) and taken the disc out when my TV hit me in the face (not literally) with a very happy Elbow, followed by a rousing rendition of their “The Loneliness of a Tower Crane Driver”. Brilliant!

Buy their latest album, “The Seldom Seen Kid” here – highly recommended by moi!

You may well remember songs like “Erase and Rewind” and “My Favourite Game” but you should certainly recall “Lovefool” which given the prominent place in ’96’s cinema version of Romeo & Juliet made The Cardigans a big name in pop. If you hear any of their back catalogue you’ll soon realise that there’s much more to the band than the Swedish bubblegum category you may originally have lumped them into. Nina’s lyrics are often intelligent and poignant, while the riffs are unconventional and vibrant. Unlike a lot of best ofs, The Cardigans meticulously chart their career from beginning to present and it is well worth getting hold of the two disc version. The quality of the early/alternate versions and b-sides on the second disc only serves to stress what a great and versatile band they are. From the chirpy, poppy “Rise and Shine” to the far Rockier “Godspell” you can hear the evolution in sound and also in Nina’s voice. CD also comes with an insert explaining all the songs and some of their humour. Highly recommended.

You can visit their website here.