BAFTA Film Awards 2009 – Nominees

BAFTA Film Awards

On 15 January 2009, the nominees for this year’s BAFTA Awards of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts have been announced. The awards ceremony will be held on 8 February 2009 at the Royal Opera House in London (UK) and is regarded to be a preview to the Oscar awards (similar to the Golden Globes, awared on 11 January).

There are a few interesting works dealing with war and terrorism. The information below is on the already reduced shortlist of nominees:1

 

Frost/Nixon
(USA)

The policital drama about the legendary interview of the former US president Richard Nixon by the talkshow host David Frost. Nixon had withdrawn from office due to the Watergate Affair, but had not given a statement so far. (The Vietnam-)War has only an indirect role, but this approach to power, its misuse and the then crisis of confidence is highly interesting, especialy as the latter is still radiating today.

 

BAFTA Nominations (6):
Best Film: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Best Director: Ron Howard
Best Adapted Screenplay: Peter Morgan
Best Leading Actor: Frank Langella
Best Editing: Mike Hill, Dan Hanley‘Best Make Up & Hair: Edouard Henriques, Kim Santantonio

 

Other Nominations:
 Golden Globes (5):
Best Motion Picture – Drama: Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Brian Grazer, Ron Howard
Best Director – Motion Picture: Ron Howard
Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama: Frank Langella
Best Screenplay – Motion Picture: Peter Morgan
Best Original Score – Motion Picture: Hans Zimmer

 

 
HungerThe film is about the last six weeks in the life of the IRA member Bobby Sands, in whose he took part in a hunger strike of IRA prisoners, initiated by him. The action was stopped after him and 9 other hunger-strikers died as a result. At the end, the British government fulfilled the demands of the detainees, but it did not recognise their political status. Bobby Sands still is an important Irish-republican icon, not the least due to his many poems and songs that have been smuggled from the prison. 

 

BAFTA Nominations (2):
Best British Film: Laura Hastings-Smith, Robin Gutch, Steve McQueen, Enda Walsh
Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer: Steve McQueen (writer, director)

 

Prizes:
Cannes Film Festival 2008: Caméra d’or for Steve McQueen
European Film Award 2008: European Discovery of the Year

 

 
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
(USA)

This may be “just” an entertaining adventure film, but the Cold War is the underlying theme, of course in this series’s winking-absurd way.

 

BAFTA Nomination:
Best Visual Effects: Pablo Helman, Marshall Krasser, Steve Rawlins

 

Other Nominations:
Grammy 2009: Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media for John Williams
Razzie Awards 2009: Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel

 

Links:

 

 Iron Man
(USA)

An entertaining and action-packed comic strip adaption in which a weapons producer discovers his conscience to fight against evil as flying super-hero – which sounds fat more silly as it actually is.

 

BAFTA Nomination:
Best Visual Effects: Hal T. Hickel, Shane Mahan, John Nelson, Ben Snow

 

Other Nomination:
Grammy 2009: Best Score Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: Ramin Djawadi

 

 
Persepolis
(France)
This animated screen adaptation of a comic strip is about a girl growing up during the Islamic Revolution in Iran.

 

BAFTA Nominations (2):
Best Animated Film: Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud
Best Film not in the English Language: Marc-Antoine Robert, Xavier Rigault, Marjane Satrapi, Vincent Paronnaud

 

Other Prizes:
César 2008 (2): Best First Work, Best Writing
Cannes Film Festival 2007: Jury Prize

 

Other Nominations:
César 2008 (4): Best Film, Best Editing, Best Soundtrack, Best Sound
Cannes Film Festival 2007: Golden Palm

 

 
Son of Rambow
(UK)This both amusing and touching movie is on the friendship between two different boys who try to shoot an amateur version of Rambo – First Blood.

 

BAFTA Nomination:
Carl Foreman Award for the Most Promising Newcomer: Garth Jennings (writer)

 

 

The Baader Meinhof ComplexThe film tries to draw an authentic picture of the German 1970s terror organisation Rote Armee Fraktion (Red Army Faction, RAF).

 

BAFTA Nomination:
Best Film not in the English Language: Bernd Eichinger, Uli Edel

 

 

 

The Reader
(USA)

A young man is reader to a women in whom he falls in love – only to discover that she is a former Nazi concentration ward. A film about guilt, atonement and forgiveness.

 

BAFTA Nominations (5):
Best Film: Anthony Minghella, Sydney Pollack, Donna Gigliotti, Redmond Morris
Best Director: Stephen Daldry
Best Actress: Kate Winslet
Best Adapted Screenplay: David Hare
Best Cinematography: Chris Menges, Roger Deakins

 

Other Nominations:
Golden Globes (4): Best Director (Motion Picture), Best Drama, Best Screenplay (Motion Picture), Best Supporting Actress

 

 

Tropic ThunderA wonderful satire about Hollywood, film making and not the least war movies by and with Ben Stiller about a film crew shooting a Vietnam movie getting into real combat actions.

 

BAFTA Nomination:
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr.

 

Other Nominations:

Golden Globes: Best Supporting Actor (2x) 

 

Waltz with Bashir
(Israel, France, Germany)

A fascinating animed documentary about the trauma of an Israeli soldier that took part in the Libanon War with a phenomenal visual and sound aesthetics, not the least in the nightmare sequences.

 

BAFTA Nominations:
Best Film not in the English Language: Serge Lalou, Gerhard Meixner, Yael Nahlieli, Ari Folman

Best Animated Film: Ari Folman 

Prizes:

European Film Awards 2008: Best Composer
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy 2008: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenplay, Best Editing, Best Sound, Best Art Direction 

Other Nominations:

Golden Globes 2009: Best Foreign Language Film
César 2009: Best Foreign Film
Cannes Film Festival 2008: Golden Palm
Awards of the Israeli Film Academy 2008: Best Cinematography
European Film Awards 2008: Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter 

 

FurtherLinks:
BAFTA (Wikipedia)
BAFTA Awards

  1. Named alphabetically; the nominations and prizes are usually a selection – the full list can be seen e.g. at IMDB (ref. to links).

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