The BFBC Film Awards Winners!

An important film ceremony took place over the week-end. No, not just the Oscars, the first BFBC Film Awards, or British Film Bloggers Circle Film Awards. Taking place is pushing it a little as there was no physical ceremony, not quite yet anyway, next year there will most definitely be one. At the former Kodak theatre in Los Angeles. Or at a pub. Anyway, without further ado, the winners!


Actually a few comments first of all. The list does bear some similarities with the Baftas and the Oscars, but the point was never to purposefully snub those awards winners, rather, we all chose our favourites without any pressure either way. And as far as The Artist is concerned, it might have won big at every single award ceremony, but it was never a conventional Oscar bait, unlike something like War Horse. And there was no stopping the Jean Dujardin juggernaut, which we could not resist to. Interestingly he was won every single major acting award since Cannes EXCEPT for the French Oscars, or Cesars, which is ironic. And we could not bear to keep him separated from his acting partner Berenice Bejo, which was awarded a much deserved acting award too.

Elsewhere, it was nice to see Tilda Swinton being recognised, and of course, Drive, which, despite its rapturous critical reception has not won anything since its directing prize in Cannes. We had somehow predicted the original screenplay Oscar for Midnight in Paris by awarding it to Woody Allen's latest too. But to me the biggest surprise came from Best British Film, which went to Submarine, beating Shame and Tinker, tailor, soldier, spy.

So here is the list, with the winners in bold:

Best Film
Drive
Midnight in Paris
Shame
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
The Artist

Best Director
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Paddy Considine – Tyrannosaur
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Steve McQueen – Shame
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive

Best Actor
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame
Ryan Gosling – Drive
Peter Mullan – Tyrannosaur
Gary Oldman – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Michael Shannon – Take Shelter

Best Actress
Olivia Colman – Tyrannosaur
Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk about Kevin
Jeong-Hie Yun – Poetry
Michelle Williams – My Week with Marilyn

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale – The Fighter
Stefano Cassetti – Love Like Poison
Ezra Miller – We Need to Talk about Kevin
Corey Stoll – Midnight in Paris
Nick Nolte – Warrior

Best Supporting Actress
Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Jessica Chastain – Take Shelter
Charlotte Gainsbourg – Melancholia
Carey Mulligan – Drive
Carey Mulligan – Shame

Best Original Screenplay
Midnight in Paris (Woody Allen)
Take Shelter (Jeff Nichols)
The Artist (Michel Hazanavicius)
The Guard (John Michael McDonagh)
Tyrannosaur(Paddy Considine)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Coriolanus (John Logan, screenplay; William Shakespeare, play)
Drive (Hossein Amini, screenplay; James Sallis, book)
The Ides of March (George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon, screenplay; Beau Willimon, play)
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (Bridget O’Connor, Peter Straughan, screenplay; John Le Carre, novel)
True Grit (Joel & Ethan Coen, screenplay; Charles Portis, novel)
The Skin I Live In (Pedro & Augustin Almodovar, screenplay; Thierry Jonquin, novel)
We Need to Talk About Kevin (Lynne Ramsay, Rory Kinnear screenplay; Lionel Shriver novel)

Best film not in the English language
Incendies
Poetry
The Skin I Live In
Trollhunter
Tomboy

Best British Film
Shame
Submarine
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Tyrannosaur
We Need to Talk About Kevin

Best Breakthrough
Richard Ayoade, Submarine (Director, Writer)
Jessica Chastain, The Debt, The Tree of Life, Take Shelter, The Help, Coriolanus, Texas Killing Fields (Actress)
Tom Cullen, Weekend (Actor)
Andrew Haigh, Weekend (Director)
Tom Hiddleston, Thor, Deep Blue Sea, War Horse, Archipelago, Midnight in Paris (Actor)