British Film Academy’s 2006 Longlists
by Andre Soares
Via Adam Dawtrey’s article "’Casino,’ ‘Queen’ lead pack" in Variety:
The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) has announced the longlists for the 2006 Bafta Awards. The lists consist of 15 titles per category picked after the first round of BAFTA voting.
Casino Royale and The Queen, the two most commercially successful British films of 2006, were mentioned 14 times each.
Others in the longlists are El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth, Babel, Children of Men, and The Departed, each with 13 mentions; The Last King of Scotland and Little Miss Sunshine with 12; Volver and Dreamgirls with 10; The Devil Wears Prada and Notes on a Scandal with 9; Bobby and Flags of Our Fathers with 8; United 93 with 7; and The History Boys with 5.
All the aforementioned films — except for Dreamgirls — are up for a Best Film nomination. Of those, only The Devil Wears Prada failed to get a corresponding Best Director mention. In place of David Frankel, Mel Gibson was nominated for Apocalypto, which received a total of nine mentions.
Missing in action are the Weinstein Co.’s Factory Girl, which was rushed into release in order to be considered for this year’s awards, and prestigious small-scale British films such as London to Brighton and Red Road, whose stars, Tony Curran and Kate Dickie, were chosen best actor and best actress at the British Independent Film Awards this past November. (According to the Variety report, the distributors of the small British films didn’t send out screeners.) [Addendum: Both films were nominated in the best first film category.]
In fact, the Baftas, much like the Oscars, the Golden Globes, and U.S. film critics’ groups, tend to like their nominees — and especially their winners — to be well-known internationally (read: in the United States). Thus, precious few non-English-language films managed to get into the Bafta’s longlists for best film, best director, and best performances, while even local productions with little chance of breaking into the U.S. market, as the aforementioned Red Road and London to Brighton (one could also add the British Independent winner This Is England), have been thoroughly ignored.
Additionally, like other awards groups the Baftas have an absurd way of listing leading and supporting performances. If an unknown had played Meryl Streep’s role in The Devil Wears Prada, chances are every awards group would have listed that actress as a supporting performer. The Baftas have Streep as the lead and Anne Hathaway — in whose character The Devil dwells — as a supporting player. In another example, Greg Kinnear, as much a part of the Little Miss Sunshine ensemble as Toni Colette, Alan Arkin, Abigail Breslin, and Steve Carell, shows up in the best actor longlist, while the other four are listed in the best supporting categories.
In case you’re wondering … several titles found in U.S. critics’ lists — e.g. Letters from Iwo Jima — can’t be found in the BAFTA lists because they will not open in the United Kingdom in time to qualify for the 2006 awards. (For eligibility, films must open before Feb. 11, 2007, the date the BAFTA winners will be announced. In previous years, qualifying films could open until the end of March.)
The longlists will be turned into shortlists consisting of five nominees when the second round of voting comes to a close on Jan. 12.
Bafta longlists for best film, foreign-language film, direction, and performances:
Best Film - Top 15:
Babel
Bobby
Casino Royale
Children of Men
The Departed
The Devil Wears Prada
Flags of Our Fathers
The History Boys
The Last King of Scotland
Little Miss Sunshine
Notes on a Scandal
El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth
The Queen
United 93
Volver
Best Foreign-Language Film - Top 15:
36 Quai des Orfèvres
Apocalypto
Zwartboek / Black Book
L’Enfant / The Child
Moartea Domnului Lazarescu / The Death of Mr. Lazarescu
Gabrielle
Chinjeolhan Geumjassi / Lady Vengeance
Lemming
La Tourneuse de pages / The Page Turner
El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth
Paradise Now
Rang De Basanti / Paint it Yellow
Secuestro Express
Volver
Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle / Zidane - A 21st Century Portrait
Best Director - Top 15:
Mel Gibson - Apocalypto
Alejandro González Iñárritu - Babel
Emilio Estevez - Bobby
Martin Campbell - Casino Royale
Alfonso Cuarón - Children of Men
Martin Scorsese - The Departed
Clint Eastwood - Flags of Our Fathers
Nicholas Hytner - The History Boys
Kevin Macdonald - The Last King of Scotland
Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris - Little Miss Sunshine
Richard Eyre - Notes on a Scandal
Guillermo del Toro - El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth
Stephen Frears - The Queen
Paul Greengrass - United 93
Pedro Almodóvar - Volver
Best Actor - Top 15:
Cillian Murphy - The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Clive Owen - Children of Men
Daniel Craig - Casino Royale
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Greg Kinnear - Little Miss Sunshine
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Matt Damon - The Departed
Peter O’Toole - Venus
Richard Griffiths - The History Boys
Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat
Timothy Spall - Pierrepoint
Toby Jones - Infamous
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
Best Actress - Top 15:
Annette Bening - Running with Scissors
Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
Emma Thompson - Stranger Than Fiction
Eva Green - Casino Royale
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Ivana Baquero - El Laberinto del fauno / Pan’s Labyrinth
Jodie Whittaker - Venus
Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Juliette Binoche - Breaking and Entering
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Kirsten Dunst - Marie Antoinette
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Penélope Cruz - Volver
Renée Zellweger - Miss Potter
Best Supporting Actor - Top 15:
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
Bill Nighy - Notes on a Scandal
Brad Pitt - Babel
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Gael García Bernal - Babel
Jack Nicholson - The Departed
James McAvoy - The Last King of Scotland
Leslie Phillips - Venus
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed
Michael Caine - Children of Men
Michael Sheen - The Queen
Stanley Tucci - The Devil Wears Prada
Steve Carell - Little Miss Sunshine
Best Supporting Actress - Top 15:
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Anne Hathaway - The Devil Wears Prada
Cate Blanchett - Babel
Diane Lane - Hollywoodland
Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
Emily Watson - Miss Potter
Frances de la Tour - The History Boys
Helen McCrory - The Queen
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Judi Dench - Casino Royale
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel
Sharon Stone - Bobby
Sylvia Syms - The Queen
Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
Golden Globe Foreign-Language Film Nominees at the American Cinematheque
Berlin Film Festival’s First Six Films in the International Competition
Kansas City Film Critics Circle Awards - 2006 Winners
Producers Guild of America (PGA) Awards - 2006 Nominations
Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards - 2006 Nominations
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