'Happy-Go-Lucky' Gets Shafted Pre-BAFTAs
Filed under: Awards
A little positivity has gone a long way for Mike Leigh. Since Happy-Go-Lucky premiered at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2008, it's charmed audiences worldwide, and earned an impressive 94% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. It seemed destined to win it all, or at the very least -- a Best Film nod at this year's British Academy Film Awards (also known as the BAFTAs). Nope! Think again!The Hollywood Reporter posts that the film will not be in the running for a nomination in the Best Film category this year, nor will Mike Leigh be on the list for Best Director. A long list was sent to voting members, and while flicks like The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, The Wrestler, and The Dark Knight were present, Poppy's happy-go-lucky attitude was not. The small bone that the film will most likely get is a nod in the Best British film category. That's it.
We complain about all the Oscar rules, but man -- it's a lot more annoying when one of the most highly regarded British films this year couldn't even be on the long list for Best Film at a British awards ceremony. I would get all ranty about this, but that behavior is most certainly anti-Poppy. So, I'll just wish the powers that BAFTA be find themselves locked in a car with Scott sometime.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
1-08-2009 @ 1:45PM
NP said...
I don't know if this is true or not, but someone told me the film was actually not that well received in its home country.
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1-08-2009 @ 3:01PM
broadwayrock said...
Its true.
There were many people who found the character Poppy too irritating.
1-09-2009 @ 3:31AM
Ian said...
Yep, it's true. I normally like Mike Leigh films but I absolutely HATED this one and would've happily strangled Poppy, one of the most irritating characters to hit the screen in a very, very long time.
1-08-2009 @ 2:27PM
Bill said...
This was one of my favorite films of the year. Awards shows are becoming increasingly irrelevant. Happy-Go-Lucky was better than The Dark Knight. I would like to have seen Poppy get driving lessons from Christian Bale.
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1-18-2009 @ 4:46PM
babs said...
Makes one wonder about the stories resent the success of their own. Great film, great director, great star.....
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2-08-2009 @ 4:10AM
roguemovement.com said...
Poppy deserved to be shafted by the BAFTAs.... Happy Go Lucky is perhaps the worst film of 2008. Are Poppy and her little gang lesbian amphetamine addicts or escaped psychiatric patients, who knows? Certainly not the writer/director. It is an insult that it is in the running for best screenplay at the Oscars and any critic who rates it positively knows nothing about cinema. Mike Leigh should have aborted this one at the premise stage, if you'll excuse the pun; it does nothing to improve the reputation of British films.
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