The British Film Bloggers Circle Awards Nominations

With the British Film Bloggers Circle just freshly launched, one of the first ideas we had was to hold our very own film awards, dismayed as we were by some of the Oscar nominations, and especially the Baftas, who seemed to ignore the utter brilliance and variety of British cinema in 2011. I do appreciate there might be a whiff of arrogance in simply stating that our choices are "better than the Oscars and the Baftas" but this is not what this is all about. The whole point is the freedom to simply come up with our own choices, free from any kind of influence, only motivated by our passion for film.


The problem with academies such as the Oscars or the Baftas is that first of all, ageing members are not all that quick off the mark at picking up and celebrating emerging and promising new talents. Also, the sheer number of members mean that the law of average will never bring up some particularly bold nominations. Which is why having a list of nominations from a much smaller number of members was always going to wield some more interesting picks.

And having compiled the votes from all the members, a very interesting list took shape. It resisted the snobbery to ignore quality Oscar's favourites such as The Artist and Midnight in Paris, but it also prominently feature some of the best of British cinema of the last 12 months, as well as some seriously overlooked gems such as Drive and Shame (the latter which I did not like but respect nevertheless). It reserved a few surprises also. For example, I was pleased to see Corey Stoll getting a supporting acting nomination for his understated yet incredible turn as Ernest Hemingway.

Corey Stoll in Midnight in Paris

But without further ado, here comes the list. We are now busy voting for our favourites and the actual winners will be announced over the week end, since nothing important seems to be happening in the world of cinema. Or does it? Attempts to book the Kodak theatre for our ceremony have not got very far.

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)