BAFTA nominations were announced today with Lincoln on the lead followed by Les Miserables and Life of Pi. Steven Spielberg’s political drama predictably gained 10 nominations in the Academy Awards which this year, appear to pay little attention to big British movies.
Lincoln was described by film critics as one of the finest films ever made about American politics for its dramatic chain of historical events, as well as the epic role of Anglo-Irish actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Lewis grabbed the attention with his ability to turn the archaic features of one of the iconic American politicians, President Abraham Lincoln, into flesh and blood. Of course, as expected, Lewis was nominated for Leading Actor, but Spielberg’s name wasn’t on the nominations list for Director where we can see Ben Affleck for Argo, Ang Lee for Life of Pi, Quentin Tarantino for Django Unchained, Kathryn Bigelow for Zero Dark Thirty and Michael Haneke for Amour.
Lincoln was nominated for: Best Film, Adapted Screenplay (Tony Kushner), Leading Actor (Daniel Day-Lewis), Supporting Actor (Tommy Lee Jones), Supporting Actress (Sally Field), Original Music (John Williams), Cinematography (Janusz Kaminski), Production Design, Costume Design, and Make up & Hair.
Tom Hooper’s Les Miserables and Ang Lee’s Life of Pi each had nine nominations, while the highest grossing film in UK history, Skyfall was nominated eight times. Skyfall got the Best British Film nomination but not a Best Film, which was a bit surprising to British fans. It seems this year’s EE BAFTA Film Awards will be celebrating American culture and history with both Lincoln and Ben Affleck’s bit patriotic thriller Argo.
Along with Lincoln for Best Film the other nominations are: Argo, Les Miserables, Life of Pi and Zero Dark Thirty. For Leading Actor were nominated Ben Affleck (Argo), Bradley Cooper (Silver Linings Playbook), Daniel Day-Lewis (Lincoln), Hugh Jackman (Les Miserables), and Joaquin Phoenix (The Master). Nominated for Leading Actress are Emmanuelle Riva (Amour), Helen Mirren (Hitchcock), Jennifer Lawrence (Silver Linings Playbook), Jessica Chastain (Zero Dark Thirty) and Marion Cottilard (Rust and Bone).
The ceremony of the EE BAFTA 2013 Film Awards will be held on February 10 at the Royal Opera House in London and hosted by Stephen Fry. The nominations usually correctly predict the future success in the Oscars. We will see Oscars’ shortlist this Thursday.
