Tag Archives: Gravity

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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 Slave, Tom 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.

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A tie for Gravity and 12 Years A Slave at the 2014 PGAs

An image of Sandra Bullock at Comic Con 2013
An image of Sandra Bullock at Comic Con 2013

Star of Gravity, Sandra Bullock.

Last night, amid the hustle and bustle of awards season, the less popular, but equally revered among the film industry, Producers Guild Awards (PGAs) took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, in California.

While the fashion and A-list celebrity took a back seat this time around, the PGAs takes time out to celebrate the producers and visionaries responsible for bringing films from an idea to the big-screen.

The biggest news from last night was that for the first time in history there was a tie in the ‘Theatrical Motion Picture’ category. Both Gravity and 12 Years A Slave walked home with an award.

While that is great news to these producers, it throws a spanner in the works when it comes to predicting the Oscars which are announced in March.

Normally, around this time in the award season a front-runner has usually established itself, this year is the exception. Gravity has enjoyed huge oscar buzz since September, but has more recently lost out to 12 Years a Slave at the Golden Globes.

In the meantime, the hugely successful, American Hustle, directed by David O Russell was crowned winner at the Golden Globes (this time for Best Motion Picture (Comedy)) and also received the same award more recently at the Screen Actors Guild Awards.

All these awards including, The Golden Globes, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Producers Guild Awards and the Critics Choice Awards, are all an indicator to the most revered awards, The Academy Awards.

While in the past it can be seen that one film has dominated awards season all the way to the Oscars. But the big bash that takes place on 1 March this year, is sure the throw up some huge surprises.

What this means is that this year is the most exciting and unpredictable awards season.

To see the full list of winners click here.

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Celebrating niche awards

Pictured is Jennifer Westfeldt receiving an award.

Left is a black and gold award with a square glass top containing a 3D styalised gold soundwave. Right are several CDFA awards, silver statuettes of a female figure. Left are the World Soundtrack Awards and Right are the statuettes given at the Costume Designers Guild Awards

Following on from Tis’ the season: A look at Film Awards, we’ve compiled a few lesser known awards, the Costume Designers Guild Awards, The World Soundtrack Awards and the Visual Effects Awards. Three entirely different yet equally interesting celebrations.

The Costume Designers Guild Awards have honoured costume designers in film since 1999.

The guild which was founded in 1953 represents costume designers, assistant costume designers and costume illustrators. Today the CDG includes around 750 costume designers, stylists and illustrators, many of which are based in LA.

The trophy for the CDG Awards is a sterling silver statuette created by costume designer, David Le Vay and manufactured by Italian jewellery designer Bvlgari. The beautiful and intricate design takes the form of an abstract female figure standing 37 centimetres tall and each one takes around 50 hours to make.

Until 2012, an annual ‘hall of fame’ award was presented, celebrating career achievement. One of the first winners in 1999 was Edith Head, the costume designer who sparked inspiration for Edna Mode the fictional eccentric fashion designer and superhero costume creator from The Incredibles.

The 16th Costume Designers Guild Awards will be held on February 22nd this year. Nominations include Suzy Benzinger for Blue Jasmine, Ann Maskrey, Richard Taylor and Bob Buck, for The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug and Catherine Martin for The Great Gatsby.

The 12th annual Visual Effects Awards will be held this year. The ceremony honours outstanding visual effects from throughout the past year and the artists behind them.

With more than 2,800 members in over 32 countries, the Visual Effects Society represents a wide breadth of visual effects experts including artists, technologists and model makers. The VES Awards have been held since 2003 when they celebrated achievement in 2002. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers won eight awards in the first ceremony, including Best Visual Effects in a Driven Motion Picture.

This year’s Visual Effects Awards will be held on February 12th at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Nominations are yet to be announced but we predict that Gravity, The Hobbit: Desolation of Smaug and Star Trek into Darkness will do well.

Moving on to something quite different; the World Soundtrack Awards celebrate music in film. Partnered with the Film Festival Ghent, the awards have been celebrated alongside the festival since 2001.  The ceremony is held annually held each October in Belgium and awards include; Best Original Song Written for a Film, Best Original Soundtrack of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

The event often includes a performance from the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra which has strong ties with the Film Fest Ghent, regularly partnering for recordings and concerts. Dirk Brossé, the conductor of the BPO, composed the Emmy nominated score for BBC drama Parade’s End.

The statuette for the World Soundtrack Awards is based on a sine wave – a sound wave represented on a computer screen. The wave is cut down to one single stylised undulation, and is then looped five times creating the shape of a crown. In the glass top of the statuette the wave floats ‘as it is not subject to gravity’ and the base is black referencing Bakelite, an early plastic commonly used for radios.

The 2013 World Soundtrack Awards have already taken place. Skyfall was awarded the accolade of Best Original Song, and Life of Pi won both Best Original Film Score of the Year and Film Composer of the Year. The 2014 Awards will take place in October this year.