Chinese Mandarin - Brit Oscars bow to Queen, Bond

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Brit Oscars bow to Queen, Bond

(E! Online)
Updated: 2007-01-14 14:23


Los Angeles - Would the so-called British Oscars snub Queen Elizabeth and
her loyal subject James Bond?

Not bloody well likely.

The royal-examining The Queen claimed 10 nominations, and the
007-relaunching Casino Royale nabbed nine to lead all comers as the field
for the Orange British Academy Film Awards was announced Friday.

The U.K.-centric nominations made the six nominations scored by the great
American tragedy United 93, heretofore a hit-and-miss awards-show
contender, all the more remarkable. Until, that is, one was reminded that
writer-director Paul Greengrass, nominated for Best Director and Original
Screenplay, is, like Queen Elizabeth and Bond, available for afternoon
tea, as it were.

Not every Brit, however, was a shoo-in. London-born, Cambridge-educated
Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat was nowhere to be found among the nominees.

Having better luck, despite their utter lack of Britishness: the Mexican
fable Pan's Labyrinth, up for eight awards; and the Hollywood hit The
Departed, and the dysfunctional-American-family comedy Little Miss
Sunshine, both up for six.

Informally known as the British Oscars, or the BAFTAs (for the
show-sponsoring British Academy of Film and Television Arts), the Orange
British Academy Film Awards are considered the most prestigious trophies
of trophy season not presented in Hollywood.

All of this means Helen Mirren now will have a chance to accept trophies
on two continents.

The Globe-nominated star of The Queen, having swept the U.S. critics
awards for her portrayal of Queen Elizabeth in crisis, will vie for
BAFTA's Best Actress trophy opposite Volver's Pen��lope Cruz, Notes on a
Scandal's Judi Dench, The Devil Wears Prada's Meryl Streep and Little
Children's Kate Winslet.

If that lineup doesn't look familiar, it will. Come Monday, all five
actors will be up for Golden Globes, although Streep will compete as a
comedy performer.

New James Bond Daniel Craig didn't win over Globe voters, but he did just
fine with BAFTA ones. His work in Casino Royale puts him in the
heavyweight Best Actor category with The Departed's Leonardo DiCaprio,
The History Boys' Richard Griffiths, Venus' Peter O'Toole and, per usual,
The Last King of Scotland's Forest Whitaker.

Dreamgirls, meanwhile, apparently didn't translate overseas. The
Oscar-contending musical, ostensibly about the rise of Detroit's Motown
Records, notched only two BAFTA nominations: one for Jennifer Hudson's
hard-to-ignore supporting turn as a spurned singer and one for composer
Henry Krieger's music.

Movies that got more love from BAFTA voters included Babel, The Departed,
The Last King of Scotland, Little Miss Sunshine and The Queen, all up for
Best Film.

A win for The Departed would be a win for BAFTA-approved producer Brad
Pitt, also a star of Babel. (As reported last week, Pitt likely won't be
up for an Academy Award for The Departed because the Producers Guild of
America has judged that only one of the film's three producers, Graham
King, should be deigned worthy of such an honor.)

Martin Scorsese, who knows about hard luck at the Oscars, will seek his
second BAFTA as Best Director for The Departed. His competition: United
93's Greengrass, Babel's Alejandro Gonz��lez I?��rritu, The Queen's
Stephen Frears and Little Miss Sunshine's Jonathan Dayton and Valerie
Faris. (No, no Clint Eastwood��again.)

Making a rare award-season cameo was Mel Gibson's Mayan-speaking
Apocalypto, nominated for Best Foreign-Language Film.

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