BAFTA Goes for THE ARTIST, ASC for THE TREE OF LIFE

There were two major motion picture awards yesterday, Sunday, February 12th. First, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) gave out their Orange Awards, and the American Society of Cinematographers presented their ASC Awards.

1. First, the BAFTA Awards. The French Motion Picture, THE ARTIST, received the most awards, seven: best feature film; actor, JEAN DUJARDIN; director and screenplay, MIKEL HAZANAVICIUS; original music, LUDOVIC BOURCE; cinematography, GUILLAUME SCHIFFMAN; and costume design, Mark Bridges.

THE IRON LADY's Meryl Streep was named best actress and THE IRON LADY received the award for best hair and makeup. No surprise in either. OCTAVIA SPENCER (The Help), and CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER (Beginners), were honored as supporting actors.

The Spanish motion picture produced by the Almodóvar brothers from Spain, Pedro and Agustin. THE SKIN I LIVE IN, received the nod for best motion picture not in the English language, directed by Pedro and produced by both. Spain did not submit this motion picture for Oscar consideration  in the Best Foreign Language Film Category.

The best documentary award went to SENNA, a documentary about Brazilian Formula One racing driver Ayrton Senna, who won the Formula1 world championship three times before his death at age 34. It also won the BAFTA for best editing.

The outstanding British feature was TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY, which also won the best adapted screenplay. TINKER stars Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Tom Hardy and John Hurt.

                                                                                   The best animated motion picture was RANGO (voiced by Johnny Depp).  Concerning RANGO, on 2/2, I Tweeted (@mimifink), "Last week, International Animated Society #AnnieAwards picked RANGO with Johnny Depp best for 2011." Those two awards elevate RANGO to the top of the Oscar speculation list for best animated feature.

If you are interested in the Best Animated Short Film for 2011, you might do well to put Minkyu Lee's ADAM and DOG – from Warner Brothers and Pixar Animation Studios - on your speculation list. Two smaller companies were involved, I Tawt I Taw A Puddy Tat and La Luna. See Annie Awards.

For more about the BAFTA Awards, including the honorary awards and other winners, click the title of this post.

2. Also on Sunday, the 26th Annual American Society of Cinematographers (ASC) Awards were presented in the Hollywood and Highland Grand Ballroom.

WINNER: Emmanuel Lubezki for THE TREE OF LIFE.

Winners of the ASC award go on to win an Oscar about 50% of the time. The BAFTA went to Guillaume Schiffman for THE ARTIST. If statistics hold, ladies and gentlemen, the 84th Academy Award will go to one of these two. The awards are not yet posted on the ASC Official Website, so go to Reuters for more.

 UPCOMING AWARDS THIS WEEK

Friday, February 17th -  43rd Annual NAACP Image Awards, which celebrate people of color in the arts and individuals who promote social justice. THE HELP has eight nominations.
 

Saturday, February 18, 2012 -  The 62nd Annual American Cinema Editors' (ACE) Eddie Awards will be presented at the Beverly Hilton. The Eddie Awards honor editors working in motion pictures and television.

Sunday, February 19th - Writers Guild Awards at the Hollywood Palladium. See their Website.

UP Wins Annie Award

Actor William Shatner hosted the 37th Annual Annie Awards on Saturday, 6 February 2010, at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, CA. The awards are sponsored by the International Animated Film Society, ASIFA - Hollywood, and this year they honored the best in animation in 2009. With only two exceptions, the Annie winner for Best Animated Feature has also won the Best Animated Motion Picture Oscar® for the same year.

Last year and 2007 were exceptions. Last year, the Society went with a sweep for KUNG FU PANDA, but WALL-E was the member-favorite of AMPAS® and it took home the Oscar. In 2007, the Annie went to CARS, but AMPAS members preferred HAPPY FEET.

 Last night, UP won the top two awards, Best Animated Feature and Best Director for Pete Docter, another feather in the cap of Pixar Animation Studios and, perhaps, a portend of an Oscar win in both categories. Laika's CORALINE and Disney's THE PRINCESS AND THE FROG each won three awards. Disney also won three for its television series, PREP AND LANDING. The Annie Awards ceremony will also be Webcast on www.annieawards.org beginning Tuesday, 9 February.

The list of awards not only includes movies, but television and some specialized technical awards. I'm taking a shortcut here sticking with motion pictures. If you do not see the category that interests you, click the title of this post to go to their Official Website to see the entire list.

Here are the nominees for selected categories with winners in red:

Best Animated Feature Film
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Sony Pictures Animation
Coraline - Laika
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 20th Century Fox
The Princess and the Frog - Walt Disney Animation Studios
The Secret of Kells - Cartoon Saloon
Up - Pixar Animation Studios

Directing in a Feature Production
Wes Anderson "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - 20th Century Fox
Pete Docter "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Christopher Miller, Phil Lord "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - Sony Pictures Animation
Hayao Miyazaki "Ponyo" - Studio Ghibli
Henry Selick "Coraline" - Laika

Character Design in a Feature Production
Daniel Lopez Munoz "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Shane Prigmore "Coraline" - Laika
Shannon Tindle "Coraline" - Laika

Character Animation in a Feature Production
Andreas Deja "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Eric Goldberg "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Travis Knight "Coraline" - Laika
Daniel Nguyen "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Bruce Smith "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Music in a Feature Production
Bruno Coulais "Coraline" - Laika
Michael Giacchino "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Joe Hisaishi "Ponyo" - Studio Ghibli
John Powell "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - Blue Sky Studios

Production Design in a Feature Production
Christopher Appelhans "Coraline" - Laika
Ian Gooding "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Tadahiro Uesugi "Coraline" - Laika
Christophe Vacher "9" - 9 L.L.C.

Voice Acting in a Feature Production
Jen Cody - Voice of Charlotte - "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios
Dawn French - Voice of Miss Forcible - "Coraline" - Laika
Hugh Laurie - Voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. - "Monsters vs. Aliens" - DreamWorks Animation
John Leguizamo - Voice of Sid - "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" - Blue Sky Studios
Jenifer Lewis - Voice of Mama Odie - "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

Writing in a Feature Production
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach - "Fantastic Mr. Fox" - 20th Century Fox
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy - "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Timothy Hyde Harris and David Bowers - "Astro Boy" - Imagi Studios
Christopher Miller and Phil Lord - "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - Sony Pictures Animation

Animated Effects
Scott Cegielski "Monsters vs. Aliens" - DreamWorks Animation
Alexander Feigin "9" - 9 L.L.C.
Eric Froemling "Up" - Pixar Animation Studios
Tom Kluyskens "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" - Sony Pictures Animation
James Mansfield "The Princess and the Frog" - Walt Disney Animation Studios

ASIFA is a non-profit organization, founded by a group of animators in 1957, and chartered by UNESCO in 1960. ASIFA encourages the art of animation and furthers international understanding and goodwill through the medium. Today, there are about thirty chapters of ASIFA all over the globe. ASIFA is a French acronym,  "Association Internationale du Film D'Animation".

ASIFA Announces Annie Nominations

The International Animated Film Society, ASIFA-Hollywood, announced the 37th Annual Annie Award nominees last week. Animation award recipients will claim their trophies at the 37th Annual Annie Awards scheduled for Saturday, 6 February 2010 at UCLA's Royce Hall in Los Angeles, California. The 2009 recipients of the Winsor McCay Award were also announced. They are: Tim Burton, Bruce Timm and Jeffrey Katzenberg. They, too, will claim their awards 6 February.

In the interest of full disclosure, before I comment, I must disclose that the producer of CORALINE, Bill Mechanic, and actor Ed Asner (UP) are long-time acquaintances of mine.

Annie Award winners do exceptionally well in the Oscar® race for Best Animated Feature, with the Annie winner usually winning the Oscar, but not always. Here are highlights of the Annie nominations:

Best Animated Feature:
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Sony
Coraline - Laika
Fantastic Mr. Fox - 20th Century Fox
The Princess and the Frog - Walt Disney
The Secret of Kells - Cartoon Saloon
Up - Pixar

Directing in a Feature Production:
Wes Anderson for Fantastic Mr. Fox - 20th Century Fox
Pete Docter for Up - Pixar
Christopher Miller, Phil Lord for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Sony
Hayao Miyazaki, for Ponyo - Studio Ghibli
Henry Selick for Coraline - Laika

Writing in a Feature Production:
Wes Anderson and Noah Baumbach for Fantastic Mr. Fox - 20th Century Fox
Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, Tom McCarthy for Up - Pixar
Timothy Hyde Harris and David Bowers for Astro Boy - Imagi
Christopher Miller and Phil Lord for Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs - Sony

Voice Acting in a Feature Production
Jen Cody - Voice of Charlotte in The Princess and the Frog - Walt Disney
Dawn French - Voice of Miss Forcible in Coraline - Laika
Hugh Laurie - Voice of Dr. Cockroach Ph.D. in Monsters vs. Aliens - DreamWorks Animation
John Leguizamo - Voice of Sid in Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaur — Blue Sky
Jenifer Lewis - Voice of Mama Odie in The Princess and the Frog - Walt Disney

Best Animated Short Subject:
Pups of Liberty - Picnic Pictures
Robot Chicken: Star Wars 2.5 - ShadowMachine
Santa, The Fascist Years - Plymptoons
The Rooster, The Crocodile and The Night Sky - Barley Films
The Story of Walls - Badmash Animation

Best Animated Television Production for Children:
Mickey Mouse Clubhouse - Disney
SpongeBob SquarePants - Nickelodeon
The Marvelous Misadventures of Flapjack - Cartoon Network
The Mighty B! - Nickelodeon/Polka Dot Pictures/Paper Kite Productions
The Penguins of Madagascar - Nickelodeon and DreamWorks Animation

There is a monkey wrench of sorts in the Annie nominations for Best Animated Feature. THE SECRET OF KELLS, an English-language, Irish movie, will not be released in the U.S. until March, and it is not nominated for an Annie in any other category. Somehow, it seems rather unjust that PONYO (Ponyo on a Cliff, Gake no ue no Ponyo) from awarding-winning Japanese director Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli, Japan, is not nominated in this category. He has won more than one Annie Award for his writing and directing, and his SPIRITED AWAY (Sen to Chihiro no kamikakushi) won an Annie and the Academy Award® for Best Animated Feature in 2001. PONYO was released months ago in the U.S., and Hayao Miyazaki is nominated in the directing category.

Miyazaki is not nominated in the writing category. ASTRO BOY is nominated in the writing and storyboarding categories. This type of split-nominating always muddies the waters when it comes to choosing the winners.

I cannot comment on the actual animation quality of THE SECRET OF KELLS as I have seen nothing of, or about, the movie. I have seen the others, or seen trailers and/or a number of clips, and I definitely concur to every nomination for the other five, as well as the nominations they received in other categories. I am, however, disappointed that no voice actor from UP received a nomination, and that PONYO was not nominated in the top category.

The winners of the Annie Awards will not be announced until 6 February. The 82nd Academy Awards nominations will be announced prior to that on 2 February. The final Oscar voting polls close 2 March. Thus, the Annie winner will not influence the Oscar nominations for animation, but could influence the Oscar winner in the Best Animated Feature category because the Annie winner will be announced well in advance of 2 March. Interesting to ponder.

For the full list of Annie nominees, click the title of this post. For bios of Burton, Timm and Katzenberg click here.