Too Many Dicks on the Red Carpet: My evaluations and predictions for 2012's BAFTA nominees

The winner!

Well the poll on which of the"Avengers" prequels (well, not prequels, the films that led up to it) was the best has a clear winner: "Iron Man", with 80% of the vote. "Captain America" got 20% and "Thor" got 10%. Yeah, that doesn't add up, but it can only do it in 10s. I pretty much agree with the winner, though I believe "Thor" deserves more votes.  I'm very glad no one dared to vote for "The Incredible Hulk", you would have been shunned.

Ok, so this title isn't so much a film reference as the title of a song, but I think this can be overlooked as it perfectly demonstrates the topic of this post, aka, the complete absence of female nominees for the Orange Rising Star Award at the BAFTAs this year. They are showing this Sunday 11th February. Don't get me wrong, I love the BAFTAs, I adore the BAFTAs, I have been a devoted fan since my early years when I would sit and watch it with my mother and sister and laugh along to Stephen Fry's jokes, his quips, his witty comments on the films and the nominees. I have had less chance to watch it since coming to TV and living in houses that lack TVs, but this is not such a loss as Jonathan Ross can't hold a candle to Stephen Fry as host and as I always catch up on the winners online. This year however, I am going to try my darnedest to watch the awards live.

That said, this years nominees for the above mentioned award (Adam Deacon, Chris Hemmsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Chris O'Dowd and Eddie Redmayne), though I am a fan of all of them (except Adam Deacon, don't even really know who he is), I do resent the lack of female representation. There have been some fantastic female new comers in the past few years of film and I think they require acknowledgement, therefore I am going to do my own TFOO Rising Star Award and choose my own, female only short-list.

And the nominees are...

Emma Stone

Why she should have been nominated:
Easy A (2010)
Crazy Stupid Love (2011)

Three words to describe Emma: funny, natural, charm.

Felicity Jones

Why she should have been nominated:
Cemetery Junction (2010)
Like Crazy (2011)

Three words to describe Felicity: vulnerability, intuitive, graceful.

 


 Jennifer Lawrence 

Why she should have been nominated:
Winter's Bone (2010)
 X-Men: First Class (2011)
Like Crazy (2011)

Three words to describe Jennifer: strength, charisma, elegance.

Mia Wasikowska

Why she should have been nominated:
The Kids are Alright (2010)
Jane Eyre (2011)


Three words to describe Mia: adaptable, natural, intelligent. 






Rooney Mara 

Why she should have been nominated:
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011)

Three words to describe Rooney: brave, memorable, unique.






This lack of female nominees is not by any means a constant characteristic of the Rising Star Award. In 2007 Eva Green won and in 2010 Kristen Stewart (I will withhold negative comments) and, to be fair, Emma Stone was one of last year's nominees (though Tom Hardy won). But I think, considering the female talent that is "rising" right now, at least one of my nominees, or some other female actress, should have been included on this year's list.

I've discovered that in 2009 Michael Fassbender lost the award to Noel Clarke. What an atrocity!

This of course is not the only or by any means the most important award of the evening. Here are a list of the awards - and their nominees - which I am most eager to see the winners of:

"Leading Actor"
Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) – Moneyball
Gary Oldman (George Smiley) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney (Matt King) – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin (George Valentin) – The Artist
Michael Fassbender (Brandon) – Shame
Oh I do hope Fassbender wins, surprisingly enough. I'm not sure who I think will win, this is quite a heavy list. Everyone is saying this is the best performance of Clooney's career, and he certainly would be a more high-profile choice than Fassbender. They quite often give it to someone who's been nominated before, one of those "it's about time they got one" scenarios... I haven't seen "The Artist", but I doubt Dujardin will win. Gary Oldman will certainly give the others a run for their money and Brad Pitt can't be dismissed. To hazard a guess, I will say Clooney, but who knows, this is Fassbender's year...


"Leading Actress"
Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller) – The Artist
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams (Marilyn Monroe) – My Week with Marilyn
Tilda Swinton (Eva) – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) – The Help
I don't think anyone expects this to go to anyone other than Meryl Streep, though critics do rave about Davis' performance in "The Help". You can quite often guarantee awards if you play convincingly a famous public figure, which gives Streep the edge, but also Williams. I am going to go for Meryl Streep! (That said, Tilda Swinton is constantly nominated and a strong contender also.)


"Outstanding British Film" (a category in which I am very interested) are:
My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Shame 
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need to Talk About Kevin
I didn't see "We Need to Talk About Kevin" or "Senna", but the former has had a lot of positive response and has definitely been one of the most talked of British films this year. I think "Shame" was a much stronger film than "My Week With Marilyn" (I would happily see Michelle Williams get Best Actress, but I think Best British Film is pushing it) and a touch better than "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", though the latter was superb, with some amazing performances. I shall go for "Shame" out of hope, but I imagine "We Need to Talk About Kevin" may just beat it and both that and "TTSS" made it into the Best Film category, which "Shame" didn't, so logically it shouldn't be able to beat them.

"Best Director"
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
Drive - Nicolas Winding Refn
Hugo - Martin Scorsese
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Tomas Alfredson
We Need to Talk About Kevin - Lynne Ramsay 
Hmm... This is tougher to judge than the previous categories. I have only seen "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy", so really my opinion is moot, but purely from the talk I have heard about the other four, I would guess either "The Artist" - which has the advantage of being in black and white and the first silent feature film made in years - or "TTSS". I don't believe an American children's film like "Hugo", despite its fantastic reviews, will win, but I haven't seen it so your guess is as good as mine. 

Of course, the category everyone is talking about is "Best Film", for which are nominated:
The Artist
The Descendents
Drive
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
I doubt "the Help" will win, I think this film was more about performance and I didn't see any 5 star reviews in proper film magazines or newspapers, the Guardian etc. "Drive" came 1st in Empire's best films of the year, but the BAFTAs are different. I haven't seen it, so I can't really judge what kind of film it is. It may well win. I don't know anyone who's seen "the Artist", it must have a very niche audience, that said it highly praised by all critics I've read. All I've heard of "The Descendents" is Clooney's brilliant performance, so I shall eliminate this film... I suppose that leaves me with "TTSS". I believe either this or "Drive" will win.

Film News: Our favourite Joseph Gordon-Levitt is set to direct his debut film, an as of yet untitled romantic comedy, which will star himself and Scarlett Johannson. A Guardian article on this subject described it as "reportedly the tale of a lothario and "his journey to become less of a selfish dick"." - There's a JGL quote within a Guardian quote for you. Gordon Levitt already runs a webiste "hitRECord" on which he encourages burgeoning artists of all forms, film makers, musicians, artists, photographers, to collaborate and make art together. He submitted a film they'd made at Sundance and has produced a book, filled with collected works, called "Recollection".