BAFTA bonanza for King's Speech

TOP: Colin Firth has ticked off two majors; next stop, The Oscars?

THE BAFTA’S (British Academy, Film and Television Awards) last night rewarded Colin Firth and the King’s Speech, as the hit movie picked up seven gongs.  Having been nominated for 14 awards, many experts tipped the movie to dominate at the ceremony at the Royal Opera House last night and that is exactly what it did.  The question on the lips of many now is will award-winning Firth, a winner at last month’s prestigious Golden Globes ceremony continue his storming of the film ceremonies at the Oscars in a fortnight.

The unprecedented success of the King’s Speech at the Box Office made it a shoe-in for many of the awards.  In the process, Firth made some nice history for himself, by becoming only the second individual to win the Best Actor category at the BAFTA’s for two consecutive years.  Despite the overwhelming success for himself, Firth was keen to play down his genius role; “It is such a team success.  You get so close to one another whilst doing a movie and it doesn’t make sense for one of us to pick up all the awards and for another not to.”  As well as Firth picking up the Best Actor gong, they won Best Movie, Best Supporting Actor for Geoffrey Rush and Best Supporting Actress for Helena Bonham Carter.  It was an astounding performance for a top-class movie and hopefully, it will get the success it deserves at the Oscars.

The ceremony sponsored by telecommunications giant Orange saw the King’s Speech not the only winners.  Despite having never won a BAFTA before, the iconic Harry Potter series won an Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema award.  Natalie Portman took home a deserved Best Actress gong for her role in Black Swan, whilst The Social Network; a big Golden Globe winner, had to settle for just two wins, one of those going to David Fincher for Best Director.  Finally, 88-year old Christopher Lee, famous for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was overwhelmed to accept the BAFTA Academy Fellowship award; potentially the most established recognition you can possibly get in British film.

Despite the very damp, traditional British weather, which seemed to make the red carpet more like a soppy blanket, it was a prestigious night for the UK film industry and in particular, for one movie, which is threatening to clean-up all around them.