Who will win at the Baftas. 2015.

Film In an attempt to what's become my routine, I was up bright and early to watch the Baftas being streamed on Facebook (for some reason). The best bit was obviously "Benedict Cumberbatch for The Imitation Game" "No!" mostly because it was the only moment in which either of the presenters, Stephen Fry and Sam Claflin went off script. Anyway, here's the usual predictions based on having only seen a couple of the films.

BEST FILM

BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, John Lesher, James W. Skotchdopole
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater, Cathleen Sutherland
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson, Scott Rudin, Steven Rales, Jeremy Dawson
THE IMITATION GAME Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten

Boyhood. Though the appearance of The Grand Budapest Hotel is so many categories is gratifying given that its experimental use of changes in aspect ratio and sheer level of not trying to be an awards film. Plus is came out nearly a year ago which shows just how long the Bafta memory is.


OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
’71 Yann Demange, Angus Lamont, Robin Gutch, Gregory Burke
THE IMITATION GAME Morten Tyldum, Nora Grossman, Ido Ostrowsky, Teddy Schwarzman, Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King, David Heyman
PRIDE Matthew Warchus, David Livingstone, Stephen Beresford
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Lisa Bruce, Anthony McCarten
UNDER THE SKIN Jonathan Glazer, James Wilson, Nick Wechsler, Walter Campbell

Under The Skin. Though I haven't seen any of the others. For all I know if I'd seen Paddington this sentence would have begun differently. But I'll never forget seeing Scarlett Johannson walking part Primark.


OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER

ELAINE CONSTANTINE (Writer/Director) Northern Soul
GREGORY BURKE (Writer), YANN DEMANGE (Director) ’71
HONG KHAOU (Writer/Director) Lilting
PAUL KATIS (Director/Producer), ANDREW DE LOTBINIÈRE (Producer) Kajaki: The True Story
STEPHEN BERESFORD (Writer), DAVID LIVINGSTONE (Producer) Pride

Pass. Pride?


FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

IDA Pawel Pawlikowski, Eric Abraham, Piotr Dzieciol, Ewa Puszczynska
LEVIATHAN Andrey Zvyagintsev, Alexander Rodnyansky, Sergey Melkumov
THE LUNCHBOX Ritesh Batra, Arun Rangachari, Anurag Kashyap, Guneet Monga
TRASH Stephen Daldry, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Kris Thykier
TWO DAYS, ONE NIGHT Jean-Pierre Dardenne, Luc Dardenne, Denis Freyd

Trash is an interesting choice here. Generally this is thought of as the foreign film category, but Trash was written by Richard Curtis and directed by Stephen Daldry and has Rooney Mara and Martin Sheen in the cast. But's a Brazilian co-production so there it is. Either way the Dardennes will win this.


DOCUMENTARY

20 FEET FROM STARDOM Morgan Neville, Caitrin Rogers, Gil Friesen
20,000 DAYS ON EARTH Iain Forsyth, Jane Pollard
CITIZENFOUR Laura Poitras
FINDING VIVIAN MAIER John Maloof, Charlie Siskel
VIRUNGA Orlando von Einsiedel, Joanna Natasegara

Oooh, oooh, film I've seen. Of course it's an oddity because it won the Oscar for this category last year, insanely beating The Act of Killing which won at the Baftas last year.


ANIMATED FILM

BIG HERO 6 Don Hall, Chris Williams
THE BOXTROLLS Anthony Stacchi, Graham Annable
THE LEGO MOVIE Phil Lord, Christopher Miller

MARVEL film (ish) nominated for Bafta. The Lego Movie will win though.


DIRECTOR

BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING James Marsh
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle

Boyhood, because why the hell wouldn't it be? As an act of direction, Boyhood is one of the most thrilling examples we've ever seen.


ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY

BIRDMAN Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris Jr, Armando Bo
BOYHOOD Richard Linklater
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wes Anderson
NIGHTCRAWLER Dan Gilroy
WHIPLASH Damien Chazelle

Again - imagine trying to write and rewrite a coherent screenplay on the fly across a decade.


ADAPTED SCREENPLAY

AMERICAN SNIPER Jason Hall
GONE GIRL Gillian Flynn
THE IMITATION GAME Graham Moore
PADDINGTON Paul King
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Anthony McCarten

Insanely difficult brief produces film everyone seems to adore and from a much loved character. As the Postman Pat film shows, this isn't the easiest thing in the world apparently.


LEADING ACTOR

BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH The Imitation Game
EDDIE REDMAYNE The Theory of Everything
JAKE GYLLENHAAL Nightcrawler
MICHAEL KEATON Birdman
RALPH FIENNES The Grand Budapest Hotel

But only because I've seen it, though its fair to say part of the film's ongoing appeal is this performance.


LEADING ACTRESS

AMY ADAMS Big Eyes
FELICITY JONES The Theory of Everything
JULIANNE MOORE Still Alice
REESE WITHERSPOON Wild
ROSAMUND PIKE Gone Girl

I like all of these actresses, so I've fallen back on the tie-breaker rules and chosen whoever's been in Doctor Who.


SUPPORTING ACTOR

EDWARD NORTON Birdman
ETHAN HAWKE Boyhood
J.K. SIMMONS Whiplash
MARK RUFFALO Foxcatcher
STEVE CARELL Foxcatcher

Notice how Hawke and Arquette were submitted for supporting actors even though you could argue that a fair percentage of the emotional weight of the film are carried by the two of them.


SUPPORTING ACTRESS

EMMA STONE Birdman
IMELDA STAUNTON Pride
KEIRA KNIGHTLEY The Imitation Game
PATRICIA ARQUETTE Boyhood
RENE RUSSO Nightcrawler

As above, though let's pause for a moment to enjoy the glow of Emma Stone having been nominated for a Bafta.


ORIGINAL MUSIC

BIRDMAN Antonio Sanchez
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Alexandre Desplat
INTERSTELLAR Hans Zimmer
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jóhann Jóhannsson
UNDER THE SKIN Mica Levi

Under The Skin.


CINEMATOGRAPHY

BIRDMAN Emmanuel Lubezki
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Robert Yeoman
IDA Lukasz Zal, Ryzsard Lenczewski
INTERSTELLAR Hoyte van Hoytema
MR. TURNER Dick Pope

For being able to sustain Wes Anderson's vision across the various aspect ratios.


EDITING

BIRDMAN Douglas Crise, Stephen Mirrione
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Barney Pilling
THE IMITATION GAME William Goldenberg
NIGHTCRAWLER John Gilroy
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jinx Godfrey
WHIPLASH Tom Cross

But not Boyhood? Here's an interview with editor Sandra Adair, the editor of "Boyhood" which demonstrates what an insane decision this is. She was there for the whole period of production and worked on it for three or four weeks a year during that period.


PRODUCTION DESIGN

BIG EYES Rick Heinrichs, Shane Vieau
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Adam Stockhausen, Anna Pinnock
THE IMITATION GAME Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald
INTERSTELLAR Nathan Crowley, Gary Fettis
MR. TURNER Suzie Davies, Charlotte Watts

Clearly, though it's fair to say I haven't seen Interstellar yet so ...


COSTUME DESIGN

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Milena Canonero
THE IMITATION GAME Sammy Sheldon Differ
INTO THE WOODS Colleen Atwood
MR. TURNER Jacqueline Durran
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Steven Noble

Clearly, though it's fair to say I haven't seen Into The Woods yet so ...


MAKE UP & HAIR

THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Frances Hannon
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Elizabeth Yianni-Georgiou, David White
INTO THE WOODS Peter Swords King, J. Roy Helland
MR. TURNER Christine Blundell, Lesa Warrener
THE THEORY OF EVERYTHING Jan Sewell

Hello the craft categories. Hello Guardians of the Galaxy. Clearly should have been nominated for Best Picture, but Bafta tends to be even pretty conservative in these things but the whole thing is a nonsense anyway isn't it etc etc


SOUND

AMERICAN SNIPER Walt Martin, John Reitz, Gregg Rudloff, Alan Robert Murray, Bub Asman
BIRDMAN Thomas Varga, Martin Hernández, Aaron Glascock, Jon Taylor, Frank A. Montaño
THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL Wayne Lemmer, Christopher Scarabosio, Pawel Wdowczak
THE IMITATION GAME John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Stuart Hilliker, Martin Jensen
WHIPLASH Thomas Curley, Ben Wilkins, Craig Mann

The film I've seen rule.


SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS

DAWN OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Erik Winquist, Daniel Barrett
GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY Stephane Ceretti, Paul Corbould, Jonathan Fawkner, Nicolas Aithadi
THE HOBBIT: THE BATTLE OF THE FIVE ARMIES Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, R. Christopher White
INTERSTELLAR Paul Franklin, Scott Fisher, Andrew Lockley
X-MEN: DAYS OF FUTURE PAST Richard Stammers, Anders Langlands, Tim Crosbie, Cameron Waldbauer

They're all worthy and I'm only using my MCU bias here to choose. Presumably it'll actually go to Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for its leap forward in mo-cap.


THE EE RISING STAR AWARD (voted for by the public)

GUGU MBATHA-RAW
JACK O’CONNELL
MARGOT ROBBIE
MILES TELLER
SHAILENE WOODLEY

Doctor Who rule for playing the sister of the best companion in the new series. Margot Robbie second for being in my favourite new show in 2011, Pan-Am.

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