london film critics circle Tagged Articles at Cinematical

The only award Casino Royale picked up Sunday at the British Academy Awards (BAFTAs) was for Best Sound. It was nominated in nine categories -- ten if you count the publicly voted Rising Star Award, which did go to Casino Royale actress Eva Green. But it would have been very shocking if the 007 movie had beaten The Queen for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film. Oh wait; The Queen didn't win it either. Surprisingly, The Last King of Scotland won Best British Film, as well as Best Adapted Screenplay (for Jeremy Brock and Peter Morgan, who also wrote The Queen) and, of course, Best Actor for Forest Whitaker. The Queen did win for Best Film, though, and also took the obvious prize for Best Actress for Helen Mirren.

Some of the other unexpected wins were Paul Greengrass for the David Lean Award for Direction and Alan Arkin for Best Supporting Actor for Little Miss Sunshine, which won for Best Original Screenplay. Other prizes went to Pan's Labyrinth for Best Film Not in the English Language, Best Makeup & Hair and Best Costume Design, Children of Men for Best Cinematography and Best Production Design and Babel for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music. For the most part, the British Academy disagreed with last week's London Film Critics Circle Awards, which gave added honors to specifically British performers like Emily Blunt, Toby Jones, Michael Caine and Leslie Philips. However, Casino Royale fared badly with the critics' choices too.

The London Film Critics' Circle handed out its annual awards last night and, shock of shocks, they gave best picture to Brokeback Mountain, and best director to - guess who - Ang Lee. The award for best screenplay, though, went to Paul Haggis and Bobby Moresco for Crash, giving the film yet another boost heading into the Oscar ceremony.

Refreshingly, however, several of the Circle's other awards were given to people who have been largely ignored by American critical organizations. Though no one has yet seen fit to name King Kong best actor, his costar Naomi Watts took home the best actress award, while the consistently astounding German actor Bruno Ganz was recognized for his performance as Adolf Hitler in Downfall, which was also named best foreign film. Meanwhile, in the Brits Only! acting categories, The Constant Gardener costars Ralph Fiennes and Oscar nominee and Golden Globe-winner Rachel Weisz took home the trophies.