2012 BAFTA Long List

Today the British Academy released the long list that’s the result of round one voting by Academy members. 285 films entered this year and round one reduces the list of eligible films to 15 in each category. As we know round two will reduce these 15 contenders down to 5 nominations in each category. Leading the pack are My Week With Marilyn and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy with 16 mentions each, followed by The Iron Lady with 14, and The Artist, Midnight In Paris, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and War Horse with 13 each.

Best Film
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo
The Ides of March
The Iron Lady
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Outstanding British Film
Arthur Christmas
Attack the Block
Coriolanus
The Guard
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows – Part 2
The Iron Lady
Jane Eyre
My Week with Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Submarine
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Tyrannosaur
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Film Not in the English Language
Abel
As If I Am Not There
The Boy Mir – Ten Years in Afghanistan
Calvet
Dhobi Ghat (Mumbai Diaries)
Incendies
Little White Lies
Pina
Post Mortem
Potiche
Le Quattro Volte
A Separation
The Skin I Live In
Tomboy
The Troll Hunter

Animated Film
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn*
Arthur Christmas*
Gnomeo and Juliet
Puss in Boots
Rango*

Director
The Artist*
The Descendants
Drive*
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Help
Hugo*
The Ides of March
The Iron Lady
J. Edgar
Midnight in Paris
Moneyball
My Week with Marilyn
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
War Horse
We Need to Talk About Kevin*

Leading Actress
Bérénice Bejo (Peppy Miller) – The Artist*
Carey Mulligan (Sissy) – Shame
Charlize Theron (Mavis Gary) – Young Adult
Emma Stone (Skeeter Phelan) – The Help
Helen Mirren (Rachel Singer) – The Debt
Jodie Foster (Penelope Longstreet) – Carnage
Kate Winslet (Nancy Cowan) – Carnage
Kristen Wiig (Annie) – Bridesmaids
Meryl Streep (Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady*
Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre) – Jane Eyre
Michelle Williams (Marilyn Monroe) – My Week with Marilyn*
Olivia Colman (Hannah) – Tyrannosaur
Rooney Mara (Lisbeth Salander) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Tilda Swinton (Eva) – We Need to Talk About Kevin*
Viola Davis (Aibileen Clark) – The Help*

Supporting Actress †
Alexandra Roach (Young Margaret Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Bryce Dallas Howard (Hilly Holbrook) – The Help*
Carey Mulligan (Irene) – Drive
Emily Watson (Rosie Narracott) – War Horse
Evan Rachel Wood (Molly Steams) – The Ides of March
Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote) – The Help*
Judi Dench (Dame Sybil Thorndike) – My Week with Marilyn*
Kathy Bates (Gertrude Stein) – Midnight in Paris
Kathy Burke (Connie Sachs) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Marion Cotillard (Adriana) – Midnight in Paris
Melissa McCarthy (Megan) – Bridesmaids*
Octavia Spencer (Minny Jackson) – The Help*
Olivia Colman (Carol Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
Shailene Woodley (Alexandra King) – The Descendants
Zoe Wanamaker (Paula Strasberg) – My Week with Marilyn*

Leading Actor
Antonio Banderas (Robert Ledgard) – The Skin I Live In
Brad Pitt (Billy Beane) – Moneyball*
Brendan Gleeson (Gerry Boyle) – The Guard
Daniel Craig (Mikael Blomkvist) – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
Eddie Redmayne (Colin Clark) – My Week with Marilyn
Gary Oldman (George Smiley) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy*
George Clooney (Matt King) – The Descendants*
Jean Dujardin (George Valentin) – The Artist*
Leonardo DiCaprio (J. Edgar Hoover) – J. Edgar
Michael Fassbender (Brandon) – Shame*
Owen Wilson (Gil) - Midnight in Paris
Peter Mullan (Joseph) – Tyrannosaur
Ralph Fiennes (Caius Martius Coriolanus) - Coriolanus
Ryan Gosling (Driver) – Drive
Ryan Gosling (Stephen Meyers) – The Ides of March

Supporting Actor
Alan Rickman (Prof. Severus Snape) - Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Albert Brooks (Bernie Rose) – Drive
Ben Kingsley (George Méliès) – Hugo
Benedict Cumberbatch (Peter Guillam) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Christopher Plummer (Hal) – Beginners*
Colin Firth (Bill Haydon) - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Eddie Marsan (James) – Tyrannosaur*
Ezra Miller (Kevin - Teenager) – We Need to Talk About Kevin
George Clooney (Mike Morris) – The Ides of March
Jim Broadbent (Denis Thatcher) – The Iron Lady
John Hurt (Control) – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Jonah Hill (Peter Brand) – Moneyball*
Kenneth Branagh (Sir Laurence Olivier) – My Week with Marilyn*
Paul Giamatti (Tom Duffy) – The Ides of March
Philip Seymour Hoffman (Paul Zara) – The Ides of March*

Documentary
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Life in a Day
Pina
Project Nim
Senna

To check all categories go here. Nominations announcement is on Tuesday, January 17 and will be streamed live on BAFTA site. Awards ceremony will be on Sunday February 12.

84th Academy Awards Achievement in Visual Effects Shortlist

Yesterday the Academy announced the 10 films that remain in the running for the VFX category. Film in the shortlist are in *BLUE.  To check the official announcement go here.

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12/11

Last Friday the Academy announced that 15 films have been selected to be considered in the VFX category and here they are.

*Captain America: The First Avenger
Cowboys & Aliens
*Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
*Hugo
*Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol
*Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
*Real Steel
*Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows
Sucker Punch
Super 8
Thor
*Transformers: Dark of the Moon
*The Tree of Life
*X-Men: First Class

According to the recent rules in early January the list will be narrow to 10 films and on January 19 all members of the Visual Effects Branch will vote to define the 5 that will be nominated. To read the official announcement go here.

Nostalgia de la Luz (Nostalgia for the Light)

Had to close 2011 with my take on a film. Most particular is that I’m closing the year with comments about a documentary and not a fiction film. 2011 had some outstanding films but my top films are definitively documentaries and yes, it’s a first! Really loved Pina it is truly outstanding but my top film for 2011 absolutely is a documentary about a Chilean desert and everything that once happened there, is currently happening there and will continue to happen there. Is about the Atacama Desert.

In life there are many things that make us deeply wonder, like the infamous question “where do we come from”, we being the human race or better, life in planet Earth. The Atacama Desert is “the” driest place in planet Earth, there is no humidity –so, there are no clouds making it the best place to have the largest telescopes on Earth. From there astronomers are learning about the beginnings or the big bang -if you wish-; but actually are learning about the past, a very-very-very far away past that could explain us, life, and the very ephemeral present. Documentary starts telling us about all this with the most mind blowing images of the universe, which are so good that honestly made me feel tiny, very tiny and humble.

I already felt small and deeply humbled by what I saw, but nothing prepared me to what followed.

The first fateful September 11th came with brutal repression that killed many and yes, I have seen several movies about that date and what followed after; BUT, never like what I saw here. The Atacama Desert during Pinochet had several concentration camps and one is quite close to where the marvelous and huge telescopes are. Was an old mine from the times when mining was like slavery, so easily became a prison for political prisoners. Prisoners from those camps and elsewhere were killed and dumped into massive graves that were “moved” to erase their existence. In the “moving” process bodies, cadavers were split with broken feet and heads parts flying out and bodies placed on trucks to be thrown elsewhere (mostly in the sea). Many, many Chileans mothers walk the Atacama Desert searching for their sons and daughters, brothers and sisters; and some found something that allow them to finally realize that they are dead. These mothers, as the close-by astronomers, are searching the past for clues.

I know I’m telling a lot about what this film is about, but I’m doing it so when you watch this film you’ll be prepared, you will have an idea of what you will see and after watching you will be able to “digest” everything a lot faster. See, the situation with this film is that is not horror, NO, on the contrary is so beautiful, then so real, then so crude-real (and beautiful), so painful to watch (everything hurts), so beautiful, so beautiful, so horrific, so beautiful and finally an ending that strongly blends both stories into one. Ah!!

Patricio Guzman’s oeuvre is so well-done that will impress you beyond your imagination as flawlessly and most delicately will tell you his story (he narrates), a slice of the story of his country, the story where most likely Scientists will find more and new answers about our past, and where Chilean people found, are finding and will find knowledge about their recent past. Chapeau Master Guzman.

Strongly recommend this marvelous film that was screened in 2010 Cannes, won the 2010 European Film Award for documentary plus many more well-deserved honors in the festival circuit. Film has impressed general audiences but most interesting for me was to find that also impressed scientists, still after watching you’ll understand why so many have succumbed to Patricio Guzman incredible narrative and narrative style.

BIG ENJOY!!!

Watch trailer @MOC