Bafta Awards 2009
admin | February 9, 2009
Britain’s Bafta’s took place in London last night at London’s Royal Opera House and they proved that the Baftas are currently by far the more interesting awards on the calendar. In a display of good taste and independent judgement, Bafta’s 6,000 voters – industry professionals every one – delivered some intriguing, heartening results.
The main colour to be seen in was black, worn by Alesha Dixon, Kylie and Emma Watson, all sporting black gowns. When speaking to the press, Emma Watson said, “The Baftas are very important. For us here, we don’t often have the support we need to get small British films off the ground so anything that promotes us, I think it’s wonderful.”
Brad Pitt and Daniel Craig were both two well known faces who looked absolutely gorgeous as they made their way into the Royal Opera House.
Artist Steve McQueen was making his big-screen debut, winning the Carl Foreman special achievement award for his uncompromising film Hunger, about IRA hunger strikers in the Maze prison.
And you have to love the fact that the British public voted Noel Clarke as this year’s Orange rising star. He may be best known as Doctor Who’s Mickey Smith, but he is also an accomplished screenwriter and director (Adulthood, Kidulthood) who deserves this public boost.
As for the ‘major’ awards, it was a relief that Kate Winslet has now put her acceptance speech problems behind her and remains the lead actress to beat at any awards ceremony. The Bafta voters opted for the right one performance by Kate, her work in The Reader has clearly burned itself on our collective memories in a manner Revolutionary Road has not.
The night’s big winner, Slumdog Millionaire, which won seven Baftas, may seem an obvious choice now, but until its British premiere back in October at the London Film Festival, it looked an unlikely awards front-runner.
One final pleasing aspect to the BAFTAs: here is a ceremony that can be edited down to two hours of TV time, and not a minute more.
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