The 2011 British Orange Film Awards were announced on Saturday evening in London and the big winner, as expected, was “The King’s Speech.”
The potential Oscar winner for best picture snagged seven statues including best picture, best British film (a rare double win), best actor (Colin Firth), best supporting actor (Geoffrey Rush), best supporting actress (Helena Bonham Carter), best original score (Alexandre Desplat) and best original screenplay (David Seidler). “Speech’s” biggest competitor, “The Social Network,” picked up three key awards: best director (David Fincher), best adapted screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and best editing. “Inception” won three awards including best sound, best visual effects and best production design. “Alice in Wonderland” took home best make up and costumes. “True Grit” left with best cinematography while Natalie Portman won best actress for “Black Swan.”
“The Kids Are All Right” and “The Fighter” came away with no statues.
A complete list of all this year’s winners are as follows:
BEST FILM
BLACK SWAN – Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver, Scott Franklin
INCEPTION – Emma Thomas, Christopher Nolan
THE KING”S SPEECH – Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin – WINNER
THE SOCIAL NETWORK – Scott Rudin, Dana Brunetti, Michael De Luca, Céan Chaffin
TRUE GRIT – Scott Rudin, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Lowdown: Losing both the editing and director trophies made this a little tense for the “Speech” team, but, as expected, the British Academy honored one of its own quality exports.
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
127 HOURS – Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy, Christian Colson, John Smithson
ANOTHER YEAR – Mike Leigh, Georgina Lowe
FOUR LIONS – Chris Morris, Jesse Armstrong, Sam Bain, Mark Herbert, Derrin Schlesinger
THE KING”S SPEECH – Tom Hooper, David Seidler, Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin – WINNER
MADE IN DAGENHAM – Nigel Cole, William Ivory, Elizabeth Karlsen, Stephen Woolley
Lowdown: Shocker! No, not really. Although some would have suspected “Another Year” would have gotten the love here. The problem is “127” is seen as American, “Made in Dagenham” just isn’t up to snuff, “Four Lions” is too edgy and “Year” just wasn’t loved enough.
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
THE ARBOR – Director, Producer – Clio Barnard, Tracy O”Riordan
EXIT THROUGH THE GIFT SHOP – Director, Producer – Banksy, Jaimie D”Cruz
FOUR LIONS – Director/Writer – Chris Morris – WINNER
MONSTERS – Director/Writer – Gareth Edwards
SKELETONS – Director/Writer – Nick Whitfield
Lowdown: This is something of a surprise as “Exit Through the Gift Shop” would have been the expected winner here. Still, nice coup for the flick that debuted at the 2010 Sundance Film Festival 2010. The awards force is strong in Park City these days.
DIRECTOR
127 HOURS – Danny Boyle
BLACK SWAN – Darren Aronofsky
INCEPTION – Christopher Nolan
THE KING”S SPEECH – Tom Hooper
THE SOCIAL NETWORK – David Fincher – WINNER
Lowdown: Unexpected. Perhaps Mr. Hooper is not as popular with his colleagues as we were led to believe?
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
BLACK SWAN – Mark Heyman, Andrés Heinz, John McLaughlin
THE FIGHTER – Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson
INCEPTION – Christopher Nolan
THE KIDS ARE ALL RIGHT – Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg
THE KING”S SPEECH – David Seidler – WINNER
Lowdown: Expect the result at the Oscars as the 84-year-old Seidler is the feel good story of the season.
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
127 HOURS – Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel
THE SOCIAL NETWORK – Aaron Sorkin – WINNER
TOY STORY 3 – Michael Arndt
TRUE GRIT – Joel Coen, Ethan Coen.
Lowdown: Little competition here. Might be different at the Oscars.
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
BIUTIFUL – Alejandro González Iñárritu, Jon Kilik, Fernando Bovaira
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO – Søren Stærmose, Niels Arden Oplev – WINNER
I AM LOVE – Luca Guadagnino, Francesco Melzi D”Eril, Marco Morabito, Massimiliano Violante
OF GODS AND MEN – Xavier Beauvois
THE SECRET IN THEIR EYES – Mariela Besuievsky, Juan José Campanella
Lowdown: Sort of a shocker, but it was a big, big hit in the U.K.
ANIMATED FILM
DESPICABLE ME – Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON – Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois
TOY STORY 3 – Lee Unkrich – WINNER
Lowdown: Shocker! Pixar wins again! Yawn.
LEADING ACTOR
JAVIER BARDEM – Biutiful
JEFF BRIDGES – True Grit
JESSE EISENBERG – The Social Network
COLIN FIRTH – The King”s Speech – WINNER
JAMES FRANCO – 127 Hours
Lowdown: The biggest lock of the night. Also, Firth’s second BAFTA in a row after winning for “A Single Man” last year.
LEADING ACTRESS
ANNETTE BENING – The Kids Are All Right
JULIANNE MOORE – The Kids Are All Right
NATALIE PORTMAN – Black Swan – WINNER
NOOMI RAPACE – The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
HAILEE STEINFELD – True Grit
Lowdown: She should be on her way to duplicating this feat at the Academy Awards.
SUPPORTING ACTOR
CHRISTIAN BALE – The Fighter
ANDREW GARFIELD – The Social Network
PETE POSTLETHWAITE – The Town
MARK RUFFALO – The Kids Are All Right
GEOFFREY RUSH – The King”s Speech – WINNER
Lowdown: In a battle of Aussie vs. Brit, Geoffrey Rush comes out on top over Bale. Considering the competition from expected Oscar winner Christian Bale, rising star Andrew Garfield and the love for the recently passed Pete Poslethwaite that’s impressive.
SUPPORTING ACTRESS
AMY ADAMS – The Fighter
HELENA BONHAM CARTER – The King”s Speech – WINNER
BARBARA HERSHEY – Black Swan
LESLEY MANVILLE – Another Year
MIRANDA RICHARDSON – Made in Dagenham
Lowdown: We can’t blame Melissa Leo’s rogue Academy ads on this one as she wasn’t nominated. It “appears” the Brits just love “The King’s Speech.”
ORIGINAL MUSIC
127 HOURS – AR Rahman
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Danny Elfman
HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON – John Powell
INCEPTION – Hans Zimmer
THE KING”S SPEECH – Alexandre Desplat – WINNER
CINEMATOGRAPHY
127 HOURS – Anthony Dod Mantle, Enrique Chediak
BLACK SWAN – Matthew Libatique
INCEPTION – Wally Pfister
THE KING”S SPEECH – Danny Cohen
TRUE GRIT – Roger Deakins – WINNER
Lowdown: Another surprise. Great win for Deakins, although money would have been on “King’s Speech” or “Inception.” Nice for “Grit” to get some Brit love.
EDITING
127 HOURS – Jon Harris
BLACK SWAN – Andrew Weisblum
INCEPTION – Lee Smith
THE KING”S SPEECH – Tariq Anwar
THE SOCIAL NETWORK – Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter – WINNER
Lowdown: Not necessarily a surprise, but a nice pick up for David Fincher’s drama.
PRODUCTION DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Robert Stromberg, Karen O”Hara
BLACK SWAN – Thérèse DePrez, Tora Peterson
INCEPTION – Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat – WINNER
THE KING”S SPEECH – Eve Stewart, Judy Farr
TRUE GRIT – Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh
Lowdown: As the announcer would say, “This is Guy Hendrix Dyas’ second nomination at the BAFTAs and his first win. He was previously nominated for ‘Elizabeth :The Golden Age’.”
COSTUME DESIGN
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Colleen Atwood – WINNER
BLACK SWAN – Amy Westcott
THE KING”S SPEECH – Jenny Beavan
MADE IN DAGENHAM – Louise Stjernsward
TRUE GRIT – Mary Zophres
Lowdown: Atwood is a legend. Not surprising and, honestly, deserved.
SOUND
127 HOURS – Glenn Freemantle, Ian Tapp, Richard Pryke, Steven C Laneri, Douglas Cameron
BLACK SWAN – Ken Ishii, Craig Henighan, Dominick Tavella
INCEPTION – Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A Rizzo, Ed Novick – WINNER
THE KING”S SPEECH – John Midgley, Lee Walpole, Paul Hamblin
TRUE GRIT – Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff, Peter F Kurland, Douglas Axtell
Lowdown: Deserved. Here’s hoping the team and their innovative work are rewarded at Oscar.
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – Nominees TBC
BLACK SWAN – Dan Schrecker
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 – Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Ait’Hadi, Christian Manz
INCEPTION – Chris Corbould, Paul Franklin, Andrew Lockley, Peter Bebb – WINNER
TOY STORY 3 – Nominees TBC
Lowdown: “Inception” is having quite a night in the below the line categories. This is a good sign for Oscar Sunday.
MAKE UP & HAIR
ALICE IN WONDERLAND – WINNER
BLACK SWAN – Judy Chin, Geordie Sheffer
HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 1 – Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin
THE KING”S SPEECH – Frances Hannon
MADE IN DAGENHAM – Lizzie Yianni Georgiou
Lowdown: Amazingly, none of these films made the Oscar cut.
SHORT ANIMATION
THE EAGLEMAN STAG – Michael Please – WINNER
MATTER FISHER – David Prosser
THURSDAY – Matthias Hoegg
SHORT FILM
CONNECT – Samuel Abrahams, Beau Gordon
LIN – Piers Thompson, Simon Hessel
RITE – Michael Pearce, Ross McKenzie
TURNING – Karni Arieli, Saul Freed, Alison Sterling, Kat Armour-Brown
UNTIL THE RIVER RUNS RED – Paul Wright, Poss Kondeatis – WINNER
ORANGE WEDNESDAYS RISING AWARD
GEMMA ARTERTON
ANDREW GARFIELD
TOM HARDY – WINNER
AARON JOHNSON
EMMA STONE
Lowdown: First real surprise of the night. Hardy would be an underdog here considering the online voting aspect to this award. Nice.