This Year’s BAFTA Awards Winners Look Oddly Familiar

You’ve heard of the BAFTA’s right? The British like to call them their equivalent of the Academy Awards. Being an American and therefore ignorant, I would be inclined to believe them except that I’ve noticed that BAFTA winners never get as worked up about winning a British Film Award as they do when they win an Academy Award. So you tell me what that means.

Handed out by the British Academy of Film Arts, the BAFTAs are invariably indistinguishable from American Film Award shows – except for the fact that they have the most God-awful ugly statues as their prize. Seriously, can someone tell me why that mask is missing an eye?

I didn’t actually watch the British Film Awards (because I don’t live in British) but from what I can make out from the recap, everything went down just as it did at The Golden Globes except that Kate Winslet only won once and she kept her acceptance speech brief, to the point and free of any false modesty.

Mickey Rourke, on the other hand, kept his remarks after his win just as long, awesomely rambling and off-color as he did at The Globes – at one point thanking his co-star Marissa Tomei for going nude in “The Wrestler” by saying: “I liked looking at her.” I’m sure the world will tire of the Mickey Rourke story someday soon, but for now his eccentricity is just poetry in motion.

Bucking the trend set on Wednesday by the London Film Critics Awards, which named “The Wrestler” as their film of the year, “Slumdog Millionaire” rebounded from their not-as-cool “British Film of the Year” award bya near sweep of the BAFTAs. The film claimed seven grotesque golden statues including ones for director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Simon Beaufoy. Other winners included Heath Ledger, and Penelope Cruz in the Supporting Performance category and WALL-E for best animated film – a BAFTAs not as good as an ANNIE award, I know, but I think WALL-E might be the only sentient being capable of finding beauty in that heinous trophy.

Here is a list of British Film Award Winners:

BEST FILM
“Slumdog Millionaire”

OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
“Man On Wire” – Simon Chinn / James Marsh

LEADING ACTOR
Mickey Rourke – “The Wrestler”

LEADING ACTRESS
Kate Winslet – “The Reader”

SUPPORTING ACTOR
Heath Ledger – “The Dark Knight”

SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Penélope Cruz – “Vicky Cristina Barcelona”

DIRECTOR
“Slumdog Millionaire” – Danny Boyle

ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
“In Bruges” – Martin Mcdonagh

ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
“Slumdog Millionaire” – Simon Beaufoy

FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
“I’ve Loved You So Long” – Yves Marmion / Philippe Claudel

ANIMATED FILM
“Wall-E” – Andrew Stanton

MUSIC
“Slumdog Millionaire” – A. R. Rahman

CINEMATOGRAPHY
“Slumdog Millionaire” – Anthony Dod Mantle

EDITING
“Slumdog Millionaire” – Chris Dickens

PRODUCTION DESIGN
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

COSTUME DESIGN
“The Duchess” – Michael O’connor

MAKE UP & HAIR
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

SOUND
“Slumdog Millionaire”

SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”

SHORT ANIMATION
“Wallace And Gromit: A Matter of Loaf And Death”

SHORT FILM
“September” – Stewart Le Maréchal / Esther May Campbell

ACADEMY FELLOWSHIP
Terry Gilliam