The BAFTAs

Obviously, this post was written much closer to the award ceremony but published on Yellow Bunting on Saturday.

The BAFTA television awards have just passed and while there were a few givens (Olivia Coleman won both awards she was nominated for and currently holds the title of Number One Person you want to sit and have a cup of tea with) the rest of the bunch was varied to say the least.

But how much of what was shown accurately reflects what we as viewers are tuning into week in week out? The BAFTAs are decided by critics rather than voted for by the public like ITV’s National television awards and therefore has that air of gravitas. This is high culture right here, the stuff we should be watching. But is it?

There was one single audience award comprised of Homeland, Game of Thrones, Call the Midwife, Strictly Come Dancing, The Great British Bake Off and the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. Surprisingly for some Game of Thrones took the prize (and delivered a very stilted acceptance speech) but some of those nominated were not recognised in any other category or they were in limited categories that don’t received as much attention or are not perceived of as important.

The one thing apart from that that all those shows have in common is they are labelled as ‘populist’, usually by those who use the word in a derogatory way. They draw in huge audience numbers (Sky Atalantic saw a 1700% increase in viewers for the Monday night slot when GoT series three debuted) and generate a load of interest from viewers but are not always critically acclaimed or if they are praised then there is an exception to them receiving wider acclaim and more nominations.

For example no one doubts the high quality and production values of GoT but it is often analysed within the parameters of genre since it is a fantasy show. Call the Midwife is Sunday Night Fluff, (Good Lord I hate the word “Fluff”) Bake Off is quaint Britishness, indicative of the twee WI wannabees sub-culture, Strictly is a guilty pleasure and Homeland is foreign so despite a British lead actor we can’t take credit for it and use it as a way to bemoan the lack of “slickness” on British TV.

In a way that can only be described as Hispster-esque, the word populist has negative connotation because of the idea that if something has mass appeal then it is automatically less deserving of our praise and conversely something is only praiseworthy is it has been seen by less than thirty people. 

After the Oscars

• Seth MacFarlane says he won't present again. Total Film have listed his best and worst lines from the night.
• For those who didn't see it: A complete list of all the winners
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• Bizarrely amusing alt-Oscars over at Film School Rejects

Personally I'm with Minnie Driver who, when interviewed outside the Vanity Fair Party by the BBC, said that she had wanted it to be more exciting.

A Rant of Sorts

I love film. That much should be evident. I love writing about film, reading about film, talking about film and obsessing over film but most of all I love watching film for without doing that I couldn't do any of those other things.

So what happens when I can't watch a film.

One of the films I have been dying to see this year is Cloud Atlas, released in the US in October 2012 and opening in the UK this Friday. On it's opening weekend it should be widely available right? Right!?

Picture from here

No. Firstly the shitty excuse for a cinema down the road isn't showing it at all. neither is the nearest large cinema, VUE, in Oxford. The VUE in Reading is only showing it at 3.00pm and 5.00pm during the week a tricky ask for people who are working all day.

Photo from here

This reflects how the film was marketed in the US too, little advertising and overall not pushed as much as the bigger budget Oscar contenders and it isn't unique to Cloud Atlas. Hollywood thrives on money and internal politics, often to the detriment of gorgeous pieces of work and this filters down to the audiences.

So don't expect a review of Cloud Atlas soon, it might take a while to find it.

For Your Consideration

Cross posted from Yellow Bunting

Awards season is upon us and as every film geek knows it is a grand celebration of all the achievements made in Western (okay mostly American) film over the past twelve months. Saying that, it’s also a chance for every aforementioned film geek plus critics and casual observers to gripe and whine about the various “snubs” and omissions and for the nausea inducing, sycophantic interviews that forms half all of the multi channel coverage, the other half being those horrific “let’s rip into these otherwise successful and beautiful women by making offensive comments about their appearance” shows.

I have a love/hate relationship with awards shows. On the one hand gets everyone talking about films and I have to own up to enjoying my fair share of glitz and glamour. On the other hand it gets people whinging about films and the complaints over who has been omitted can overshadow the glory of those who win.

The best example of this is how the word “snub” becomes the buzzword on everybody’s lips as soon as the first batch of nominations are out.

There is always outrage that XYZ didn’t make it in or if Film A was nominated why wasn’t the guy who directed it? This year for example, Skyfall didn’t receive any Oscar nominations for its lead actor or director and wasn’t nominated for best picture.  Even at our own BAFTAs Skyfall is trailing behind Lincoln (which hasn’t even been released in the UK yet, much to the consternation of many British film goers) which got 10 nominations. Director Steven Spielberg has been “snubbed” by both BAFTA and the Academy who have both left him out of the lists for Best Director. Add into the mix the same arguments about animation and foreign film that come back year after year and you start to wonder why anyone bothers. Of course money plays a huge part as does ego and the fact that many awards and nominations are politically motivated but there is also the fact that these are good films.

It isn’t helpful to dwell on the negatives and flinging the word “snub” around just diminishes the achievements made by those who did make it in to the nominations. So I for one resolve this year to approach awards season with an open mind and view it as a way to be introduced to new films and discovered new, thoroughly deserving, talent.

Full list of Academy Award nominees here

Full list of BAFTA nominees here