It’s the BAFTA Film Awards on Sunday – here’s who our Film Editor Charles
Gant reckons will win
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges is favourite to win the Oscar for his washed-up country singer
in Crazy Heart, replacing early frontrunner George Clooney (Up In The Air).
Jeremy Renner as the crazy bomb disposal expert in The Hurt Locker gets my
vote, but I’m tipping a home-grown winner in this category: Colin Firth’s
grieving gay literature professor in A Single Man.
Best Actress
Oscar frontrunner Sandra Bullock wasn’t nominated for a BAFTA as her film
The Blind Side hasn’t been released in the UK yet, which theoretically hands
the prize to her chief Oscars opposition Meryl Streep (Julie And Julia). But
once again I think a Brit might sneak through at the BAFTAs: Carey Mulligan
for An Education
Best Supporting Actor
Like the Oscars, Christoph Waltz from Inglourious Basterds will win, and he
deserves to do so.
Best Supporting Actress
Again, like the Oscars, it’s surely a done deal for the amazing Mo’Nique
from Precious. Especially as the other nominees come in pairs – Vera Farmiga
and Anna Kendrick from Up In The Air, and Anne-Marie Duff and Kristin Scott
Thomas in Nowhere Boy. Fans of Up In The Air will split their votes; ditto
fans of Nowhere Boy.
Best Film
At the Oscars, this has been billed as a battle between Avatar and The Hurt
Locker, but here in the UK there is a lot of love for An Education. It’s the
only British film nominated – the other two are Up In The Air and Precious –
so it might just sneak through the middle.
Best Director
This one probably is more a battle between former spouses James Cameron
(Avatar) and Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker). My money’s on Kathryn.
Outstanding British Film
This one is decided by a jury of about 15 people, so it’s anyone’s guess,
but juries tend to be more maverick in their choices than whole voting
academies, so it’s by no means a walkover for An Education. In The Loop
might be dismissed as a frivolous comedy; Moon is sci-fi which handicaps it;
and Nowhere Boy is a nice family drama, but not quite special enough. So
hopefully the jury will have recognised the genius of gritty, original Fish
Tank, which scooped four prizes last night at the London Film Critics
Awards.