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Posting winners as they are announced....  Twitter reactions to Affleck winning over Haneke are pouring and some are hilarious!

Argo is 2013 BAFTA top winner. Ceremony is over and I'm glad as was hoping Amour getting MORE love than what got. Sigh.

Winners are in *BLUE.


1/9/13
Early today the British Academy announced the nominations for the current edition and in my opinion these nominations look very similar to what we will learn tomorrow from Hollywood. Leading the pack is Lincoln (10 nods) that many foresee will get the most nods tomorrow as already got here and in the Golden Globes. Following close by Skyfall, Life of Pi and Les Misérables; perhaps the surprise is that Joe Wright’s Anna Karenina got six nominations as film was received with a cool critical reception and besides one or two categories film is not seen as a contender in Oscars.

Also surprising is the absence of great independent films like Sightseers or Berberian Sound Studio as in the best film category nods include mainly mainstream films and were shut down from tech categories.

But the best news for me is that Amour got four nominations which gives me hope that Oscar could give film an opportunity in Best Film as surely if BAFTA had more slots than five, film could have gotten a nod. Great!

Now the aprox. 6,500 Academy members will have to vote to decide winners to be announced at the awards ceremony hosted by Stephen Fry on February 10 at the Royal Opera House in London.

These are the nominations.

Best Film
*Argo, Ben Affleck
Les Misérables, Tom Hooper
Life of Pi, Ang Lee
Lincoln, Steven Spielberg
Zero Dark Thirty, Kathryn Bigelow

Outstanding British Film
Anna Karenina, Joe Wright
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, John Madden
Les Misérables, Tom Hooper
Seven Psychopaths, Martin McDonagh
*Skyfall, Sam Mendes

Animated Film
*Brave, Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman and Steve Purcell
Frankenweenie, Tim Burton
Paranorman, Chris Butler and Sam Fell

Film Not in the English Language
*Amour (Love), Michael Haneke
Hodejegerne (Headhunters), Morten Tyldum
Jagten (The Hunt), Thomas Vinterberg
De rouille et d'os (Rust and Bone), Jacques Audiard
Intouchables (Untouchable), Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache

Director
Michael Haneke for Amour
*Ben Affleck for Argo
Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
Ang Lee for Life of Pi
Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director of Producer
*Director Bart Layton and Producer Dimitri Doganis for The Imposter
Director/writer David Morris, Director/producer Jacqui Morris, Director/writer Dexter Fletcher and writer Danny King for Wild Bill
Director James Bobin for The Muppets
Director/writer Tina Gharavi for I Am Nasrine

Leading Actress
*Emmanuelle Riva in Amour
Helen Mirren in Hitchcock
Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone

Supporting Actress
Amy Adams in The Master
*Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables
Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Judi Dench in Skyfall
Sally Field in Lincoln

Leading Actor
Ben Affleck in Argo
Bradley Cooper in Silver Linings Playbook
*Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables
Joaquin Phoenix in The Master

Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin in Argo
*Christoph Waltz in Django Unchained
Javier Bardem in Skyfall
Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln

Original Screenplay
Michael Haneke for Amour
*Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master
Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola for Moonrise Kingdom
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty

Adapted Screenplay
Chris Terrio for Argo
Lucy Allibar and Benh Zeitlin for Beasts of the Southern Wild
David Magee for Life of Pi
Tony Kushner for Lincoln
*David O. Russell for Silver Linings Playbook

Cinematography
Seamus McGarvey for Anna Karenina
Danny Cohen for Les Misérables
*Claudio Miranda for Life of Pi
Janusz Kaminski for Lincoln
Roger Deakins for Skyfall

Editing
*William Goldenberg for Argo
Fred Raskin for Django Unchained
Tim Squyres for Life of Pi
Stuart Baird for Skyfall
Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg for Zero Dark Thirty

Production Design
Sarah Greenwood and Katie Spencer for Anna Karenina
*Eve Stewart and Anna Lynch-Robinson for Les Misérables
David Gropman and Anna Pinnock for Life of Pi
Rick Carter and Jim Erickson for Lincoln
Dennis Gassner and Anna Pinnock for Skyfall

Costume Design
*Jaqueline Durran for Anna Karenina
Beatrix Aruna Pasztor for Great Expectations
Paco Delgado for Les Misérables
Joanna Johnston for Lincoln
Colleen Atwood for Snow White and The Huntsman

Make Up and Hair
Ivana Primorac for Anna Karenina
Julie Hewett, Martin Samuel and Howard Berger for Hitchcock
Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor and Rick Findlater for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Lisa Westcott for Les Misérables
Lois Burwell and Kay Georgiou for Lincoln

Original Music
Dario Marianelli for Anna Karenina
Alexandre Desplat for Argo
Mychael Danna for Life of Pi
John Williams for Lincoln
*Thomas Newman for Skyfall

Sound
Mark Ulano, Michael Minkler, Tony Lamberti and Wylie Stateman for Django Unchained
Tony Johnson, Christopher Boyes, Michael Hedges, Michael Semanick, Brent Burge and Chris Ward for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Simon Hayes, Andy Nelson, Mark Paterson, Jonathan Allen, Lee Walpole, John Warhurst for Les Misérables
Drew Kunin, Eugene Gearty, Philip Stockton, Ron Bartlett and D. M. Hemphill for Life of Pi
Stuart Wilson, Scott Millan, Greg P. Russell, Per Hallberg and Karen Baker Landers for Skyfall

Special Visual Effects
Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Peter Bebb and Andrew Lockley for The Dark Night Rises
Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton and R. Christopher White for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey
*Bill Westenhofer, Guillaume Rocheron, Erik-Jan De Boer for Life of Pi
The Avengers (nominees TBC)
Richard Stammers, Charley Henley, Trevor Wood and Paul Butterworth for Prometheus

Documentary
The Imposter, Bart Layton
Marley, Kevin Macdonald
McCullin, David Morris and Jacqui Morris
*Searching for Sugar Man, Malik Bendjelloul
West of Menphis, Amy Berg

Short Animation
Here To Fall, Kris Kelly and Evelyn McGrath
I’m Fine Thanks, Eamonn O’Neill
*The Making of Longbird, Will Anderson and Ainslie Henderson

Short Film
The Curse, Fyzal Boulifa and Gavin Humphries
Good Night, Muriel d’Asembourg and Eva Sigurdardottir
*Swimmer, Lynne Ramsay, Peter Carlton and Diarmid Scrimshaw
Tumult, Johnny Barrington and Rhianna Andrews
The Voorman Problem, Mark Gill and Baldwin Li

Perhaps with exception of the many nods for Skyfall plus Anna Karenina, these nods definitively look like what Oscar could nominate tomorrow.  Perhaps the hardest category for voters has to be Director as how can anyone compare the work of master filmmaker Michael Haneke to other directors?  Just being nominated along Haneke is a huge honor for the other nominees.

Watch the recording of the live announcement.

Today the UK Regional Critics' announced the winners for the current RAFA's edition after the voting that run from January 14 to 25. Winners are decided solely by the votes of arts/entertainment journalists, staff and freelance, editors, critics and bloggers in all forms of regional and local media around the UK.

Feature-length films of any genre and from any country of origin were eligible for consideration provided they had a UK theatrical release between 10 February 2012 and 8 February 2013.

The UK regional critics’ award winners in all categories are as follows:

Film of the Year: Argo
Director of the Year: San Mendes for Skyfall
Screenwriters of the Year: Amy Jump, Alice Lowe and Steve Oram for Sightseers
Rising Star: Ben Whishaw in Skyfall

British Performance of the Year -voted by the public-: Robert Pattinson in The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2

Is the first major UK award in the local season that surprisingly went for an American film as usually UK films are honored with this famous distinction.

On January 20, the critics' group had their award ceremony and Michael Haneke's Amour was triumphant as won three awards including the top honor, film of the year as well as Actress and Screenplay. To read the full press release go here.

Winners are in *BLUE.

12/18/12
A few minutes ago the British group announced their nominations that seem somehow to follow the trend of what we have seen from across the pond. But it's official, this is the best list of films, filmmakers and actors I have seen up to this moment; there may be a few exceptions, but in general this is a fantastic list with many extraordinary films and master directors. Absolutely agree with the following excerpt from the official announcement.

In all categories, the films are of outstanding quality this year, indicating how the London critics view all films from around the world on a level footing - brilliance is the only benchmark. Choosing winners will be harder than ever, but never will they have been more deserving.

Michael Haneke's Amour and Paul Thomas Anderson's The Master lead the nominations with seven (7) nods each. And just take a look at the honored directors, especially the their category -all right miss Jacques Audiard- nevertheless is a great list of five. Most interesting is to see the actresses that are honored with a nomination as list can't be better as includes Isabelle Huppert, Marion Cotillard, Helen Mirren, Judi Dench, Helen Hunt, Jessica Chastain, Jennifer Lawrence, Amy Adams, Emmanuelle Riva, Anne Hathaway, and more. Also remarkable is that they didn't forgot to honor Mads Mikkelsen.

This edition their highest honor, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film goes to Helena Bonham Carter. Award ceremony will take place on January 20, 2013 at May Fair Hotel; worth mention is that this group characterizes for tying their annual event to charity and this year their charity partner is Missing People, a 24/7 lifeline when someone disappears.

The nominations in full.

Film of the Year
*Amour
Argo
Beasts Of The Southern Wild
Life Of Pi
The Master

British Film of the Year
*Berberian Sound Studio
The Imposter
Les Miserables
Sightseers
Skyfall

Foreign Language Film of the Year
Amour
Holy Motors
Once Upon A Time in Anatolia
*Rust and Bone
Tabu

Director of the Year
Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master
Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty
Nuri Bilge Ceylan for Once Upon A Time In Anatolia
Michael Haneke for Amour
*Ang Lee for Life Of Pi

Actress of the Year
Jessica Chastain in Zero Dark Thirty
Marion Cotillard in Rust and Bone
Helen Hunt in The Sessions
Jennifer Lawrence in Silver Linings Playbook
*Emmanuelle Riva in Amour

Supporting Actress of the Year
Amy Adams in The Master
Judi Dench in Skyfall
Sally Field in Lincoln
*Anne Hathaway in Les Misérables
Isabelle Huppert in Amour

Actor of the Year
Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
Hugh Jackman in Les Misérables
Mads Mikkelsen in The Hunt
*Joaquin Phoenix in The Master
Jean-Louis Trintignant in Amour

Supporting Actor of the Year
Alan Arkin in Argo
Javier Bardem in Skyfall
Michael Fassbender in Prometheus
*Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Master
Tommy Lee Jones in Lincoln

Screenwriter of the Year
Paul Thomas Anderson for The Master
Mark Boal for Zero Dark Thirty
*Michael Haneke for Amour
Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained
Chris Terrio for Argo

British Actress of the Year
Emily Blunt in Looper and Your Sister's Sister
Judi Dench in The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Alice Lowe in Sightseers
Helen Mirren in Hitchcock
*Andrea Riseborough in Shadow Dancer

British Actor of the Year
Daniel Craig in Skyfall
Charlie Creed-Miles in Wild Bill
Daniel Day-Lewis in Lincoln
*Toby Jones in Berberian Sound Studio
Steve Oram in Sightseers

Young British Performer of the Year
Samantha Barks in Les Misérables
Fady Elsayed in My Brother The Devil
*Tom Holland in The Impossible
Will Poulter in Wild Bill
Jack Reynor in What Richard Did

Breakthrough British Film-Maker
Ben Drew, writer/director of Ill Manors
Sally El Hosaini, writer/director of My Brother The Devil
Dexter Fletcher, co-writer/director of Wild Bill
Bart Layton, writer/director of The Imposter
*Alice Lowe and Steve Oram, writers of Sightseers

Documentary of the Year
*The Imposter
London: The Modern Babylon
Nostalgia For The Light
Queen of Versailles
Searching for Sugar Man

Technical Achievement Award
Jaqueline Duran for costumes in Anna Karerina
William Goldenberg for film editing in Argo
Ben Richardson for cinematography in Beasts of the Southern Wild
Joakim Sundstrom and Stevie Haywood for sound design in Berberian Sound Studio
Bernard Floch for makeup in Holy Motors
Claudio Miranda for cinematography in Life of Pi
*Bill Westenhofer for visual effects in Life of Pi
Jack Fisk and David Crank for production design in The Master
David Raedeker for cinematography in My Brother the Devil
Alexandre Desplat for music in Rust and Bone

Have to close by commenting that even the technical nominees are especially remarkable for the movies they are honoring but most important the tech areas they point-out in each movie. Great.

List is suggesting me that, in current award season, maybe BAFTA could be a lot more interesting than Oscar.

A few moments ago BAFTA announced the nominees for the current edition and most interesting is to find that is a ladies year as four out of the five are actresses. Nominees were selected by a jury headed by Pipa Harris and if you vote you'll have a chance of winning tickets to BAFTA Film Awards ceremony on Sunday February 10th.

Voting starts today, January 7th and ends tomorrow, January 8th. To Vote go here.

These are the nominees that had a "breakout year in 2012":

Andrea Risenborough, Elizabeth Olsen, Juno Temple, Suraj Sharma and Alicia Vikander


After thinking for a while my vote went to Alicia Vikander for her magnificent performance in A Royal Affair.

Directed by Norwegian most famous directing duo, Joachim Rønning and Espen Sandberg, film tells another Norway's history not that much known tale. First was 2008 Max Manus and now Thor Heyerdahl amazing story where to prove he was right on his scientific findings crossed the Pacific on a balsa wood raft in 1947.

The story is truly fantastic and one the world should be aware as he was the first to prove that the Inca traveled to Polynesia which before trip he hypothesized but no one believe him as then it was common knowledge that Polynesia inhabitants origin came only from Asia. So film presents us the character as a kid, an excerpt of his life in Fatu Hiva -where he creates his theory-, his inability to find interest in the expedition, his persistence until succeeding, and the 101-days trip across the ocean.

But as fascinating as the story is, the movie is not much entertaining as drama is built oddly, action takes too much time with the sharks and script needed much more development for viewers to sustain the almost two hours film takes to tell story. There are moments -when the group is at the sea- that you get tired as story doesn't built up but becomes repetitive and some of us knew the end, so movie was about the ride not about reaching an unknown end.

Then acting is too stiff for my liking even when I imagine that they had to represent Nordic behavior under extreme circumstances as close as possible to reality; but a bit of less stiffness could have been more emotions shown by actors while still being very Nordic.

As can be easily imaginable, film has many outstanding visuals; but the most extraordinary does not come with the men at sea, but from the beginning. The opening sequence with a still camera is impressive as also are most of the winter scenes. While watching spontaneously thought that movie keeps the same camera style no matter where they are (winter, hot weather, urban setting, etc) and perhaps if they had changed the style according to the setting then probable visuals would have been even more remarkable in the non-winter moments. Tech specs are great in general as is the biggest ever Norwegian production up to date - co produced with UK and Denmark-.

But if you wish to learn the story in a more engaging way I suggest you watch the "real" documentary directed by Thor Heyerdahl with the same name that went to win the 1951 Oscar in the documentary category. There are two versions, one narrated in English and the other in Norwegian, both narrated by Thor Heyerdahl himself. Still I know documentary is not easy to find, so many will have to conform with the 2012 film.

As we know film is Norway submission to 2013 Oscar, got a 2013 Golden Globes nomination, and more honors surely will come to film. I liked Max Manus as director's storytelling and filmmaking style was good for the story they were telling, but in this sense I find Kon Tiki not as good as their previous film.

Enjoy!!

Watch trailer @MOC