Our 2015 BAFTA Award Reactions
If the BAFTA’s are a sign of what’s going to happen at the Oscars then fans of Boyhood have a lot to look forward to. It may of not of swept the board but it took home the two biggest awards of the night winning best film with best director also going to Richard Linklater. Patricia Arquette also throughly deserves the BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress. Her performance grounded Boyhood giving it the emotional backbone that held the multiple strands of its story together.
Read: Full List of 2015 BAFTA Winners
I predicted that The Theory of Everything would win best film but whilst it may have missed out on that award it went on to take Outstanding British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Eddie Redmayne (who else was going to win it) picked up the BAFTA for Best Actor. With Steven Hawking in the audience the awards for The Theory of Everything also gave the academy to excuse to celebrate a British Icon. It was also stronger film than The Imitation Game and deserved to win the battle of the biopics.
It would have been a travesty had J.K. Simmons not one Best Supporting Actor for his performance and thankfully there was no disappointments on that front. Whiplash also went on to win Best Editing which was well deserved, if surprising to me, along with the more predictable Best Sound award.
There clearly is a lot of love in the UK for The Grand Budapest Hotel and it was one of the most successful films of the night. Wes Anderson’s film won a whole host of awards including Production Design, Costume Design, Best Original Music and Screenplay. Those of you who read Way Too Indie’s 2014 Best of the Year feature will know I am a big fan of the film and it was pleasant surprise to see the film walk away with so many awards. Losing out to The Grand Budapest Hotel marked a disappointing night for Birdman. The fact that it only picked up best Cinematography and may lead to some to predict that it will lose out to Boyhood at the Oscars.
Read: Our 2015 BAFTA Predictions
Elsewhere Ida was a predictable winner for best Foreign Language film, even if I felt that the academy might go for Leviathan. Coming from Nottingham myself I was proud to see Jack O’Connell win the Rising Star Ward and referencing the Television Workshop in the city as a key to his success. Although I was disappointed however to see 71’, starring O’Connell miss out on best debut film. However, given the success of the film director Yann Demange will hopefully have more opportunities to win awards in the future.
The BAFTA’s as it always has been was a rather tame awards ceremony. Stephen Fry was on auto-pilot and his jokes were painfully bad. It left you wondering whether the awards could do with a new presenter to liven the show, especially considering Tina Fey and Amy Poehler’s performance at the Golden Globes. The highlight of the night came from Mike Leigh who came to collect BAFTA Fellowship award and gave a brilliant speech on the importance of independent film. Leigh thanked those who had financed his films throughout his career. Yet, with his typical dry sense of humour, he also thanked those who had not describing them as ‘boneheads, Philistines and skinflints’, who could all ‘rot in hell’. Celebrating such an influential British director is what the BAFTA’s is all about and it almost made up for Mr. Turner picking up no awards at the ceremony.