BAFTA Awards: 'The King's Speech' is crowned with seven wins

 
It was no big surprise when the British period drama "The King's Speech" won seven Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday evening at the Royal Opera House in London.

The surprise came when Tom Hooper, the film's director and recent recipient of the Directors Guild of America Award, came up empty handed. It was David Fincher who won best director honors for "The Social Network."

Still, it was "The King's Speech's" night. The historical piece about George VI's attempts to rid himself of his stutter before becoming King of England, won outstanding film, outstanding British film, lead actor for Colin Firth (he won the award in this category last year for "A Simple Man"), original screenplay for David Seidler, supporting actor for Geoffrey Rush, supporting actress for Helena Bonham Carter and score for Alexandre Desplat.

"The King's Speech" is also nominated for 12 Academy Awards and is the favorite to take home Oscar's biggest prize.

Besides Fincher's win for best director, "The Social Network," the drama about the founding of Facebook, also won for Aaron Sorkin's adapted screenplay and editing.

"Toy Story 3" earned best animated film honors, and Roger Deakins took home the cinematography prize for "True Grit."

"Inception" won three awards for production design, visual effects and sound, while "Alice in Wonderland" won for costumes and makeup and hair.

Sweden's "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" won outstanding film not in the English language and writer-director Chris Norris of "Four Lions" won outstanding British debut by a writer-director or producer.

Outstanding short film went to "Until the River Runs Red," while "The Eagleman Stag" won for animated short.

Tom Hardy of "Inception" won the Rising Star honor and, as previously announced, the "Harry Potter" franchise was given the outstanding British contribution to the cinema honor. Veteran actor Christopher Lee won the British Academy of Film and Television Arts' Fellowship award, the organization's highest accolade.

— Susan King

Photo: Geoffrey Rush, left, Colin Firth and Derek Jacobi in "The King's Speech." Credit: The Weinstein Co.

American Society of Cinematographers nominate 'True Grit,' 'Inception' among others

 

Three of the nominees  for the American Society of Cinematographers' outstanding achievement awards in feature film are first-timers --Danny Cohen for "The King's Speech," Jeff Cronenweth for "The Social Network" and Matthew Libatique for "Black Swan."

Rounding out the list of five nominees for the 25th annual award  are Roger Deakins for "True Grit" and Wally Pfister for "Inception."

The nominations were announced Monday evening.

This is the ninth nomination for the veteran Deakins in the feature film category; he won the ASC award for 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption" and 2001's "The Man Who Wasn't There." He is also being honored by the ASC this year with the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pifster was previously nominated for 2005's "Batman Begins" and 2008's "The Dark Knight," which like "Inception" were directed by Christopher Nolan.

 

The winners will be announced at the ASC Awards celebration at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland on Feb. 13th.

For more information about the awards go to http://www.theasc.com

--Susan King

Photo: Jeff Bridges in "True Grit." Credit: Lorey Sebastian/AP

 

American Society of Cinematographers nominated 'True Grit,' 'Inception' among others

 

Three of the nominees for the American Society of Cinematographers Outstanding Achievement Awards in feature film are first-timers — Danny Cohen for "The King's Speech, " Jeff Cronenweth for "The Social Network" and Matthew Libatique for "Black Swan."

Rounding out the list of nominees for the 25th annual award are Roger Deakins for "True Grit" and Wally Pfister for "Inception."

The nominations were announced early Tuesday morning.

This is the ninth nomination for the veteran Deakins in the feature film category; he won the ASC award for 1994's "The Shawshank Redemption" and 2001's "The Man Who Wasn't There." He is also being honored by the ASC this year with the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pifster was nominated for 2005's "Batman Begins" and 2008's "The Dark Knight," which like "Inception" were directed by Christopher Nolan.

The winners will be announced at the ASC Awards celebration at the Grand Ballroom at Hollywood and Highland on Feb. 13.

For more information about the awards go to http://www.theasc.com

— Susan King

Photo: Jeff Bridges in "True Grit." Credit: Lorey Sebastian/Associated Press.