BAFTA Doesn’t Understand What An “Animated Film” Is

All right, here we go. BAFTA (the British Oscars) are the last precursors to make their nominations known before AMPAS finally unveils their picks a week from today. Since there’s been an increasing amount of overlap between BAFTA and Academy members in the past couple decades, the BAFTAs allow us one last glimpse at what Oscar voters might be thinking. In recent years, the only warning we’ve had for some surprise Oscar nods were a last-minute showing on the BAFTA nominations, so these are worth some examination.

Particularly of note this year is the Supporting Actress category, which is definitely the most contentious race of the year. With Barbara Hershey, Lesley Manville and Miranda Richardson all popping up after a season of snubs, could one of them barge into the Oscar race ahead of other contenders like Mila Kunis or Jacki Weaver? Even more intriguing is BAFTA’s decision to nominate Hailee Steinfeld where she’s belonged all along, in the Lead Actress race. Is there room for her in that crowded category? Will there be voter confusion, leaving Steinfeld on the sidelines after all? It will be very, very interesting to see how that category turns out.

Meanwhile, kudos to BAFTA for thinking slightly outside the box and giving Javier Bardem some love for “Biutiful,” and for nominating Banksy in the best debut category. And the Supporting Actor nod for Pete Postlethwaite in “The Town” clearly only came around out of sentimentality, but the recently departed actor had somehow NEVER received a BAFTA nomination before now, so at least they got that fixed. That’s unfortunately about where the praise ends, as BAFTA members made such lame-brained moves as nominating “Despicable Me” over “The Illusionist” (a British film, even), ignoring Mike Leigh yet again for Original Screenplay, and giving “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” 3 nods while completely snubbing “Winter’s Bone.”

And then there are the technical awards. The problem with the BAFTAs and the below-the-line categories, as always, presumably stemmed from their idiotic voting rules. Instead of having the members of a specific branch (say, the visual effects people) vote on the nominees for their own category and then open up voting for the winners to the organization at large (as the Academy does), BAFTA does the exact opposite. Meaning people who have absolutely no idea how visual effects work vote for the nominees, and end up just filling their ballots with whatever pops into their heads. Which is how you get shit like “Toy Story 3” appearing in the Best Visual Effects category while “TRON: Legacy” sits out. Nominating an animated movie for that category completely misses the point, guys. THE ENTIRE MOVIE IS VISUAL EFFECTS. You already have a category for movies like that. It’s called BEST ANIMATED FILM.

That’s also how you end up with ‘The King’s Speech” (which unsurprisingly led the list with 14 nods, and has a 99.999999% chance of taking home the big prize) getting nominated in Best Sound. And “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” in Adapted Screenplay. Someone save me from these people. Here’s the full list of nominations:

Best Film:

• Black Swan
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• The Social Network
• True Grit

Best British Film:

• Another Year
• Four Lions
• The King’s Speech
• Made in Dagenham
• 127 Hours

Best Director:

• Darren Aronofsky, “Black Swan”
• Christopher Nolan, “Inception”
• Tom Hooper, “The King’s Speech”
• Danny Boyle, “127 Hours”
• David Fincher, “The Social Network”

Best Actor:

• Javier Bardem, “Biutiful”
• Jeff Bridges, “True Grit”
• Jesse Eisenberg, “The Social Network”
• Colin Firth, “The King’s Speech”
• James Franco, “127 Hours”

Best Actress:

• Annette Bening, “The Kids Are All Right”
• Julianne Moore, “The Kids Are All Right”
• Natalie Portman, “Black Swan”
• Noomi Rapace, “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo”
• Hailee Steinfeld, “True Grit”

Best Supporting Actor:

• Andrew Garfield, “The Social Network”
• Christian Bale, “The Fighter”
• Pete Postlethwaite, “The Town”
• Geoffrey Rush, “The King’s Speech”
• Mark Ruffalo, “The Kids Are All Right”

Best Supporting Actress:

• Amy Adams, “The Fighter”
• Barbara Hershey, “Black Swan”
• Helena Bonham Carter, “The King’s Speech”
• Miranda Richardson, “Made in Dagenham”
• Lesley Manville, “Another Year”

Best Adapted Screenplay:

• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• 127 Hours
• The Social Network
• Toy Story 3
• True Grit

Best Original Screenplay:

• Black Swan
• The Fighter
• Inception
• The Kids Are All Right
• The King’s Speech

Best Foreign Language Film:

• Biutiful
• The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• I Am Love
• Of Gods and Men
• The Secret In Their Eyes

Best Animated Film:

• Despicable Me
• How to Train Your Dragon
• Toy Story 3

Best Cinematography:

• Black Swan
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• 127 Hours
• True Grit

Best Production Design:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Black Swan
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• True Grit

Best Costume Design:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Black Swan
• The King’s Speech
• Made in Dagenham
• True Grit

Best Editing:

• Black Swan
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• 127 Hours
• The Social Network

Best Make Up & Hair:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Black Swan
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• The King’s Speech
• Made in Dagenham

Best Original Music:

• Alice in Wonderland
• How to Train Your Dragon
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• 127 Hours

Best Sound:

• Black Swan
• Inception
• The King’s Speech
• 127 Hours
• True Grit

Best Special Visual Effects:

• Alice in Wonderland
• Black Swan
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
• Inception
• Toy Story 3

Rising Star Award:

• Gemma Arterton
• Andrew Garfield
• Tom Hardy
• Aaron Johnson
• Emma Stone

Carl Foreman Award (best debut by a British writer, director or producer):

• Clio Barnard, “The Arbor”
• Banksy and Jaime D’Cruz, “Exit Through the Gift Shop”
• Chris Morris, “Four Lines”
• Gareth Edwards, “Monsters”
• Nick Whitfield, “Skeletons”