BAFTA Nominations Announced
Another day, another set of movie-awards nominations: Danny Boyle’s “Slumdog Millionaire†(pictured) and David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button†led the field in the nominations announced today for the British Academy Film Awards with 11 apiece. Full list here. Quick thoughts: 1) It’s silly to nominate “Milk” for Best Picture but not Gus Van Sant for Best Director; 2) “In Bruges” continues to feel the love from non-Americans (the Hollywood Foreign Press liked it, too, even awarding Colin Farrell a Golden Globe), but the flick won’t figure much into the Oscar derby; 3) Kate Winslet receiving two nominations in the Best Actress category isn’t a good harbinger for her Academy Award chances, because as LemonWade’s Rex Okpodu keeps reminding us, Academy nominators are free to disregard Harvey Weinstein’s absurd attempt to push her “Reader” performance into the Best Supporting category. (On the other hand, Steven Soderbergh received two Oscar noms for Directing in 2001, and he still won: when it’s your year, it’s your year.) Finally, BAFTA’s biggest omission is Viola Davis’s superlative performance in “Doubt.”