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.

Golden Globe glory for Firth

GLORY: Colin Firth was the big winner at the Golden Globes

COLIN FIRTH celebrated Golden Globe glory at Sunday night’s award ceremony, picking up Best Actor for his role in ‘The King’s Speech.’

In Los Angeles, Firth was the best hope for British glory across the Atlantic and he duly delivered.  He looked shocked at the announcement and praised his fellow cast members that helped him achieve such a prestigious success.  At the ceremony, he said; “I own a very great debt to the supernaturally talent fellow cast members.”  However, for a film that has achieved great acclaim back home and also earnt itself 14 nominations this morning for the BAFTA film awards, Firth’s actor gong was the only award it picked out of seven; bound to be a severe disappointment.

The night belonged to ‘The Social Network.’  Having got six nominations on the shortlist, the film – which narrates the story of how Mark Zuckerberg set-up Facebook at University walked away with four awards, including the most prized asset at the Golden Globes of Best Film.  The other Brit to win a Globe was Christian Bale, scooping the award of Best Supporting Actor for his role in boxing movie ‘The Fighter.’  “Fantastic, we are being spoilt rotten over at that table, thank you so much,” Bale said when he picked up his award.  ‘The Fighter’ won two awards, with Melissa Leo taking the award for Best Supporting Actress.  

The ceremony was hosted by comedian Ricky Gervais for the second successive year, and as ever, he did spark some controversy with some of his introductions to those people who were giving out awards.  There was a lifetime achievement award for the highly respected Robert de Niro, Natalie Portman scooped the Best Actress Globe for her role Black Swan and the stunning Toy Story 3 claimed success in the Best Animated Film category.  There were also two awards in the TV section for the hit US musical drama, Glee. 

Despite not doing as well as expected, ‘The King’s Speech’ should do better at the BAFTA’s and the night well and truly belonged to Colin Firth.  Attention in the cinema world now starts to drift towards the Oscars next month.