BAFTA 2008 Winners
Those looking for hints for the upcoming Academy Awards will be disappointed with the results of the pompous-sounding Orange British Academy of Film & Television Arts.
The British-made (with Hollywood financing) romantic melodrama Atonement (top photo), nominated for 14 BAFTAs, was supposed to have swept the awards ceremony, but ended up with only two awards: best production design (Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer) and, strangely, best film.
Apparently, the British Academy, much like the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and film festival juries, decided to spread the wealth.
Thus, Atonement was the best film, but the best directed film was No Country for Old Men (Joel and Ethan Coen), while the best written films were Juno (original, Diablo Cody) and the French-language The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (adapted, Ronald Harwood – a brief online search failed to yield any results re: did Harwood actually write the French-language screenplay or did the production get a translator? If so, shouldn’t the translator be credited in some way?).
The films with the best performances were There Will Be Blood (actor, Daniel Day-Lewis), La Vie en Rose (actress, Marion Cotillard, above, lower photo), No Country for Old Men (supporting actor, Javier Bardem), and Michael Clayton (supporting actress, Tilda Swinton).
No Country for Old Men (left), the favorite for the 2008 Oscars, also took the best cinematography award (Roger Deakins), while La Vie en Rose won three other awards (makeup and hair, costume design — a posthumous win for British-born Marit Allen — and music) — thus becoming the most honored film of the evening. (No non-English-language film has ever amassed the most wins at the Academy Awards.)
In addition to the Atonement disappointment, the other two big surprises at the BAFTA ceremony were Marion Cotillard’s and Tilda Swinton’s victories. Cotillard’s best actress win was particularly stunning because British veteran Julie Christie was in the running. For her performance as a woman suffering from Alzheimer’s in the Canadian drama Away from Her, Christie has already won numerous prizes in the United States, including the Golden Globe and the Screen Actors Guild Award.
Prior to Cotillard, the only performer to win a best actress BAFTA for a role in a non-English-language film was another Frenchwoman, Stéphane Audran, voted best actress for two 1973 releases (in Britain): Luis Buñuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie and Claude Chabrol’s Just Before Nightfall. (Among the also-rans that year was none other than Julie Christie, for Don’t Look Now.)*
And in case you’re wondering about Atonement being the best film of the year but not the best British film of the year — that honor went to Shane Meadows‘ This Is England – well, that’s because the whole BAFTA membership may vote for the best film, but only select jury members get to choose the best British flick of the year.
That’s why last year The Last King of Scotland was named best British film while best British film also-ran The Queen was voted the best film of 2006. It’s a way for the British Academy to boost local product in need of international — or even national — recognition. Especially considering that most of the smaller British films are all but ignored by the general BAFTA membership, who much prefer Hollywood and other well-publicized international fare.
* Prior to 1968, there were "best foreign actress/actor" and "best British actress/actor" BAFTAs.
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