Blue Jasmine wins at the Costume Design Guild Awards.

Cate Blanchett on the red carpet.
An image of Cate Blanchett star of Blue Jasmine.

Star of Blue Jasmine, Cate Blanchett.

The 16th Annual Costume Designers Guild (CDG) Awards were announced last night and saw films such as Blue Jasmine, 12 Years a Slave and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, walk away with awards.

The Guild which hands out competitive awards in seven categories honoured the five-time Oscar nominee, Amy Adams, with the Lacoste Spotlight Awards.

Suzy Benzinger, costume designer for Blue Jasmine, walked home with the Excellence in Contemporary Film. Relatively new to the business, Suzy has only worked on a few low-budget films.

When she was hired to work on the Woody Allen film, that sees Cate Blanchett grace the screen as the leading actress, Suzy could not believe the budget she had for the film.

She said, “When you do a Woody Allen film you have a very limited budget. How limited? The entire budget for this film was $35,000. Panic set in.”

Suzy explained that once she started name dropping ‘Woody Allen’ and ‘Cate Blanchett’ doors soon began to open.

Often undervalued, the CDG awards are one of the lesser known awards that takes place all over Hollywood in the run up to The Oscars.

Other winners of the night included 12 Years A Slave for Excellence in Period Film and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire for Excellence in Fantasy Film.

Surprisingly, only one of the winners of the night are nominated for an Academy Award on Sunday evening. Patricia Norris for 12 Years a Slave will go up for Best Costume Design against films such as American Hustle, The Great Gatsby and The Invisible Woman.

if you haven’t already, please check out our post-BAFTAs podcast.

Inside Film at the Baftas

Alfonso and Jonas Cuaron, director and writer for the blockbuster film, Gravity are pictured with 2 of their BAFTA awards.

Image via empireonline.com

This years Baftas ceremony is all but over and after an incredible year for British film there was certainly some deserved winners and surprises on the night.

If you didn’t join us for our liveblog of the 67th annual award ceremony, or maybe didn’t even watch the awards at all, never fear as the nominations and winners for each category are as follows (lengthy list imminent):

Edit: Just in case you can’t be bothered to read it all, here’s our podcast instead.

Best Adapted Screenplay
Philomena – Winner
12 Years A Slave
Behind The Candelabra
Captain Phillips
The Wolf Of Wall Street


Best Leading Actor
Bruce Dern, Nebraska
Christian Bale, American Hustle

Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave – Winner
Tom Hanks, Captain Phillips
Leonardo DiCaprio, The Wolf of Wall Street


Best Animated Film
Despicable Me 2
Frozen – Winner
Monsters University


Best Leading Actress
Amy Adams, American Hustle
Emma Thompson, Saving Mr. Banks
Judi Dench, Philomena
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine – Winner
Sandra BullockGravity


Best British Short Animation
Sleeping With The Fishes Winner
Everything I Can See From Here
I Am Tom Moody


Make-Up and Hair
Behind The Candelabra, Kate Biscoe, Marie Larkin
The Butler, Debra Denson, Candace Neal, Robert Stevenson, Matthew Mungle

The Great Gatsby, Maurizio Silvi, Kerry Warn
American Hustle, Evelyne Noraz, Lori McCoy-Bell, Kathrine Gordon – Winner
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor, Rick Findlater


Best British Short Film
Island Queen
Keeping Up With The Joneses
Orbit Ever After

Room 8 – Winner
Sea View


Best Original Music
Gravity,Steven Price – Winner
12 Years A Slave, Hans Zimmer
The Book Thief, John Williams
Captain Phillips,Henry Jackman
Saving Mr. Banks, Thomas Newman


Best Cinematography
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis
Nebraska


Best Original Screenplay
Blue Jasmine
Gravity
Inside Llewyn Davis
American Hustle – Winner
Nebraska


Best Costume Design
American Hustle
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Behind The Candelabra
The Invisible Woman
Saving Mr. Banks


Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema
Peter Greenway


Best Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity – Winner
Steve McQueen, 12 Years A Slave
David O. Russell, American Hustle
Paul Greengrass,Captain Phillips
Martin Scorsese, The Wolf Of Wall Street


Outstanding British Film
Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom|
Philomena

Rush
Saving Mr. Banks
Gravity – Winner
The Selfish Giant


Best Documentary
The Armstrong Lie
Blackfish

Tim’s Vermeer
We Steal Secrets: The Story Of Wikileaks
The Act Of Killing – Winner


Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Kieran Evans, Kelly + Victor – Winner
Colin Carberry, Glenn Patterson, Good Vibrations
Kelly Marcel, Saving Mr. Banks
Paul Wright, Polly Stokes, For Those in Peril
Scott Graham, Shell


EE Rising Star
Dane DeHaan
George MacKay
Lupita Nyong’o
Will Poulter – Winner
Léa Seydoux


Best Production Design
12 Years A Slave
American Hustle
Behind The Candelabra
The Great Gatsby – Winner
Gravity


Best Editing
12 Years A Slave
Captain Phillips
Gravity
The Wolf Of Wall Street
Rush – Winner


Best Sound
All Is Lost, Richard Hymns, Steve Boeddeker, Brandon Proctor, Micah Bloomberg, Gillian Arthur
Captain Phillips, Chris Burdon, Mark Taylor, Mike Prestwood Smith, Chris Munro, Oliver Tarney
Gravity, Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri, Chris Munro – Winner
Inside Llewyn Davis, Peter F. Kurland, Skip Lievsay, Greg Orloff, Paul Urmson
Rush, Danny Hambrook, Martin Steyer, Stefan Korte, Markus Stemler, Frank Kruse


Fellowship
Dame Helen Mirren


Best Film
12 Years A Slave – Winner
American Hustle
Captain Phillips
Gravity
Philomena


Best Special Visual Effects
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton, Eric Reynolds
Iron Man 3, Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Dan Sudick
Pacific Rim, Hal Hickel, John Knoll, Lindy De Quattro, Nigel Sumner
Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny – Winner
Star Trek Into Darkness, Roger Guyett, Patrick Tubach, Ben Grossmann, Burt Dalton


Best Film not in the English Language
The Act Of Killing
Blue Is The Warmest Colour
The Great Beauty – Winner
Metro Manila
Wadjda


Best Supporting Actor
Bradley Cooper, American Hustle
Daniel Brühl, Rush
Matt Damon, Behind the Candelabra
Michael Fassbender, 12 Years a Slave
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips – Winner


Best Supporting Actress
Julia Roberts, August: Osage County
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle – Winner
Lupita Nyong’o, 12 Years a Slave
Oprah Winfrey, The Butler
Sally Hawkins, Blue Jasmine

The British Academy Film Awards 2014

A young blonde woman places signs with showing BAFTA nominees in the red seats at the Royal Opera House

A young blonde woman places signs with showing BAFTA nominees in the red seats at the Royal Opera HouseOrganising the seating arrangements for this years ceremony. Image via Vogue.co.uk

This weekend we celebrate the 67th British Academy Film Awards. We mentioned the BAFTA’s when we took a short look at the upcoming film season in our post, Tis the season post back in December.

This year’s ceremony takes place at the Royal Opera House in London (as it has since 2008) on Sunday at 9pm. It will be broadcast in Britain on BBC One and BBC One HD and we will be liveblogging the event as it happens from 8pm. Make sure you check our liveblog and our Twitter and Facebook to keep up to date with the news, award winners and any blunders as they happen (Miss Lawrence, we’re looking at you).

The films nominated for Best Film are 12 Years a Slave, American Hustle, Captain Phillips, Gravity and Philomena. Gravity is the most nominated film, up for a total of 11, American Hustle and 12 Years a Slave are nominated for 10 awards each.

The nominees, performers and presenters will walk down 131 yards of red carpet. Performing on the night are Tinie Tempah and Laura Mvula, who will open the awards with a performance of Heroes. Stephen Fry will be hosting the event for the ninth time.

Up for Best Actor are Christian Bale for American Hustle, Bruce Dern for Nebraska, Chiwetel Ejiofor for 12 Years a SlaveTom Hanks for Captain Phillips and Leonardo DiCaprio for Wolf of Wall Street.  It’s a well-known face that Leonardo DiCaprio has never won an Oscar. He’s also never won a Bafta and has only been nominated twice previously for The Aviator and The Departed.

For Best Actress the nominations are Amy Adams for American Hustle, Sandra Bullock for Gravity, Cate Blanchett for Blue Jasmine, Emma Thompson for Saving Mr Banks and Judi Dench for Philomena. Judi Dench is the most BAFTA nominated actress in Film with 15 nominations and 6 wins.

Another highly nominated actor is Woody Allen who has accumulated 24 BAFTA nominations and an impressive 10 wins throughout his career. This year he is nominated for Original Screenplay for Blue Jasmine.

Since 1971 a BAFTA Academy Fellowship Award has been presented to one outstanding achiever. The lifetime award is the highest honour bestowed by the Academy. The first winner was Alfred Hitchcock, last year it was awarded to Michael Palin. This year it will be presented to Dame Helen Mirren.

Mirren has one four previous BAFTA awards since she began acting in the 1970’s. Three of these are for her role as Jane Tennison in the ITV drama Prime Suspect and one was awarded for her role as Elizabeth II in The Queen. Elizabeth II is not the only Queen she has portrayed, Mirren has played five other Queens including Elizabeth I in The Queen and The Snow Queen in The Snow Queen.

Remember to join us from 8pm for coverage of the evening.