2006 BAFTA Nominations

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The British Academy of Film and Television Arts has just announced its nominees for 2005 motion-picture achievement. As the BAFTA nominees are announced literally a day before the Oscar-nomination process ends, these lists will not have much impact on the Final Fives that we´ll hear from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) on 31 January. However, this year´s BAFTA ceremony takes place on 19 February, and this year´s Oscar ceremony takes place on 5 March. This means that the BAFTAs have some chance of influencing the final outcomes at the Oscars this year. (For a long time, the BAFTAs took place after the Oscars, and most people outside of the United Kingdom treated it as an afterthought. When the Oscars moved to February during the past few years and the BAFTAs moved to dates before the Oscars, the BAFTAs became one of those important pit stops on the way to Oscar glory.)

Here are the nominations that have AMPAS counterparts:

Picture:
"Brokeback Mountain"
"Capote"
"The Constant Gardener"
"Crash"
"Good Night, and Good Luck"

Director:
Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
Bennett Miller, "Capote"
Fernando Meirelles, "The Constant Gardener"
Paul Haggis, "Crash"
George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck"

Actor:
David Straithairn, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
Heath Ledger, "Brokeback Mountain"
Joaquin Phoenix, "Walk the Line"
Philip Seymour Hoffman, "Capote"
Ralph Fiennes, "The Constant Gardener"

Actress:
Charlize Theron, "North Country"
Judi Dench, "Mrs. Henderson Presents"
Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
Reese Witherspoon, "Walk the Line"
Ziyi Zhang, "Memoirs Of A Geisha"

Supporting Actor:
Don Cheadle, "Crash"
George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck"
George Clooney, "Syriana"
Jake Gyllenhaal, "Brokeback Mountain"
Matt Dillon, "Crash"

Supporting Actress:
Brenda Blethyn, "Pride & Prejudice"
Catherine Keener, "Capote"
Frances McDormand, "North Country"
Michelle Williams, "Brokeback Mountain"
Thandie Newton, "Crash"

Original Screenplay:
"Cinderella Man", Cliff Hollingsworth/Akiva Goldsman
"Crash", Paul Haggis/Bobby Moresco
"Good Night, and Good Luck", George Clooney/Grant Heslov
"Hotel Rwanda", Keir Pearson/Terry George
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", Martin Sherman

Adapated Screenplay:
"Brokeback Mountain", Larry Mcmurtry/Diana Ossana
"Capote", Dan Futterman
"The Constant Gardener", Jeffrey Caine
"A History of Violence", Josh Olson
"Pride & Prejudice", Deborah Moggach

Cinematography:
"Brokeback Mountain", Rodrigo Prieto
"The Constant Gardener", César Charlone
"Crash", J. Michael Muro
"March of the Penguins", Laurent Chalet/Jerôme Maison
"Memoirs of A Geisha", Dion Beebe

Editing:
"Brokeback Mountain", Geraldine Peroni/Dylan Tichenor
"The Constant Gardener", Claire Simpson
"Crash", Hughes Winborne
"Good Night, and Good Luck", Stephen Mirrione
"March of the Penguins", Sabine Emiliani

Production Design:
"Batman Begins", Nathan Crowley
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", Alex Mcdowell
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Stuart Craig
"King Kong", Grant Major
"Memoirs of a Geisha", John Myhre

Costume Design:
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", Gabriella Pescucci
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", Isis Mussenden
"Memoirs of a Geisha", Colleen Atwood
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", Sandy Powell
"Pride & Prejudice", Jacqueline Durran

Make-up:
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", Peter Owen/Ivana Primorac
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", Howard Berger/Gregory Nicotero/Nikki Gooley
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Nick Dudman/Amanda Knight/Eithne Fennell
"Memoirs of a Geisha", Noriko Watanabe/Kate Biscoe/Lyndell Quiyou/Kelvin R Trahan
"Pride & Prejudice", Fae Hammond

Sound:
"Batman Begins", David G. Evans/Stefan Henrix/Peter Lindsay
"The Constant Gardener", Joakim Sundström/Stuart Wilson
"Crash", Richard Van Dyke/Sandy Gendler
"King Kong", Hammond Peek/Christopher Boyes/Mike Hopkins/Ethan Van Der Ryn
"Walk the Line", Paul Massey/D. M. Hemphill/Peter F. Kurland/Donald Sylvester

Music Score:
"Brokeback Mountain", Gustavo Santaolalla
"The Constant Gardener", Alberto Iglesias
"Memoirs of a Geisha", John Williams
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", George Fenton
"Walk the Line", T Bone Burnett

Visual Effects:
"Batman Begins", Janek Sirrs/Dan Glass/Chris Corbould
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", Nick Davis/John Thum/Chaz Jarrett/Joss Williams
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe", Dean Wright/Bill Westenhofer/Jim Berney/Scott Farrar
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", Jim Mitchell/John Richardson
"King Kong", Joe Letteri/Christian Rivers/Brian Van't Hul/Richard Taylor

Multiple-nominees:
"The Constant Gardener", 9 (+1 for a nom as Best British Film)
"Brokeback Mountain", 9
"Crash", 9
"Memoirs of a Geisha", 6
"Capote", 5
"Good Night, and Good Luck", 5
"Pride and Prejudice", 4 (+1 for a nom as Best British Film)
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", 4
"Mrs. Henderson Presents", 4
"Walk the Line", 4
"Batman Begins", 3
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe", 3
"Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", 3
"King Kong", 3
"March of the Penguins", 2
"North Country", 2

The BAFTAs gave the biggest Oscar push to "The Constant Gardener"; the movie is widely-admired by people in the movie industry and by critics, but its narrative structure requires undivided attention on the part of the viewer. The conventional wisdom has been that "The Constant Gardener" is more respected than loved, but nominations in several technical categories indicate that there is support for "The Constant Gardener" across the board.

This is an incredibly tight race for the top-three vote getters. "The Constant Gardener" looks like it has a slight edge for Best Picture, but its nomination for Best British Film will probably yield a win in that category so that the BAFTA can give Best Picture to "Brokeback Mountain". "Capote", "Crash", and "Good Night, and Good Luck" are about very specifically American issues, so that lack of international appeal may hurt their chances at winning Best Picture. Still, "Crash" and "Brokeback Mountain" are the only movies with three acting nominations, so "Crash" still has an edge over "Capote" and "Good Night, and Good Luck".

The BAFTA nominations are both a blessing and a curse for U.S.-based Focus Features. It is responsible for promoting both "The Constant Gardener" and "Brokeback Mountain", and when you throw in "Pride and Prejudice" as well, Focus has three movies with 22 (+2 for those Best British Film nods) nominations. Yet, if "The Constant Gardener" and "Brokeback Mountain" end up competing in too many categories for the Oscars, then the distributor will have to play favorites. This is easy when you have a movie that is clearly superior to the other (1993-1994, Universal upping "Schindler´s List" over "In the Name of the Father"), but this is difficult when you have two movies of roughly equal measure.

The Picture and Director nominees line up perfectly, which improves each movie and helmer´s chances at the Oscars while further solidifying the descent of "Walk the Line", which was seen as a stiff contender against the "Brokeback Mountain" juggernaut not too long ago. Weak support for "Walk the Line" also lessens Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon´s chances States-side, though Witherspoon still has an edge over Felicity Huffman ("Transamerica") because of the ingénue factor. "Walk the Line" may still make Oscar´s final five in the Picture category since the AMPAS likes to have at least one bona-fide box-office hit that crossed the $100-million-line as a big gun.

Given the BAFTA voters´ generally more-adventurous nature than the AMPAS voters´, there was surprisingly little love for "A History of Violence" (one nomination). Aside from "The Constant Gardener", there was also a lack of support for British fare considering that old favorites made "Mrs. Henderson Presents" and plenty of veterans and fast-rising newcomers made "Pride and Prejudice". On the other hand, big-budget crowd-pleasers that were shot with Commonwealth sensibilities like "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory", "Batman Begins", "The Chronicles of Narnia", "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire", and "King Kong" did better than big-budget crowd-pleasers that were shot with American sensibilities (i.e. zero nods for either "Star Wars: Episode 3" or "War of the Worlds").

George Clooney alone picked up four nominations--as the director of, as a co-writer of, and as a supporting actor in "Good Night, and Good Luck" as well as a supporting actor in "Syriana". Had Clooney picked up a producer´s credit for "Good Night, and Good Luck", then he would´ve had five nominations. It is rather odd that Clooney is not listed as one of the producers of "Good Night, and Good Luck" considering that he was the primary creative force that defined the project in so many ways.

At the BAFTAs, the two "Crash" nominees up for Supporting Actor might cancel each other out, George Clooney might split his own votes, and Jake Gyllenhaal could be the surprise beneficiary of being the lone man in his category. Still, without Paul Giamatti ("Cinderella Man") in the mix and with Jake Gyllenhaal being the weaker half of the "Brokeback Mountain" pairing, look for Clooney to take home the Supporting Actor prize, either for "Good Night, and Good Luck" or "Syriana". Also, at this point, Clooney might be the most-serious threat to Ang Lee as Best Director because the actors in AMPAS are numerous enough to swing votes to actors-turned-directors like Warren Beatty, Robert Redford, Kevin Costner, Clint Eastwood, and Mel Gibson.

Two snafus resulted in Steven Spielberg´s "Munich" being completely shut out of the BAFTAs, which is odd considering Spielberg´s successful track record with the UK group. A DVD lab in the United States accidentally processed Region 1 screeners instead of Region 2 versions. Therefore, "Munich" screeners could not be played by most BAFTA members. The screeners were also held up in customs. Even if BAFTA members were willing to track down DVD players that could play their "Munich" screeners, they could not see the movie in time for the first round of voting.

The BAFTA nomination process has two steps, first with a longlist of fifteen nominations in the "important" categories and then with a shortlist of five nominations per category. "Memoirs of a Geisha" actually lead the field when the longlists were announced, but its final nomination tally is six. Trends indicate that "Memoirs of a Geisha" will be this year´s "The Last Samurai" at the Oscars--a prestige big-studio production about Japan featuring actor Ken Watanabe meant as Oscar bait that will get technical nominations for being pretty but is found wanting in the primary artistic areas. BAFTA members adore Zhang Ziyi (they nominated her in the Supporting Actress category for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and in the Actress category for "House of Flying Daggers"), so it is feasible that Zhang will win a BAFTA very soon.

My BAFTA predictions:
Picture: "Brokeback Mountain", with "The Constant Gardener" taking Best British Film
Director: Ang Lee, "Brokeback Mountain"
Actor: Ralph Fiennes, "The Constant Gardener"
Actress: Rachel Weisz, "The Constant Gardener"
Supporting Actor: George Clooney, "Good Night, and Good Luck" or "Syriana"
Supporting Actress: Thandie Newton, "Crash" (she´s British)
Original Screenplay: "Crash"
Adapted Screenplay: "Brokeback Mountain"
Cinematography: "Brokeback Mountain"
Editing: "The Constant Gardener"
Production Design: "Batman Begins"
Costume Design: "Memoirs of a Geisha"
Make-up: "Memoirs of a Geisha"
Sound: "Batman Begins"
Music Score: "Memoirs of a Geisha"
Visual Effects: "King Kong"

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