Harry Potter and The King's Speech win big at the National Movie Awards

Awards season may have drawn to a close back in February with the Academy Awards but that hasn't stopped the National Movie Awards from announcing their winners at a star-studded ceremony held at Wembley Arena last night. Hosted by Christine Bleakley, the fourth NMAs saw The King's Speech pick up three awards (Best Drama, Performance of the Year and Special Recognition), while the Harry Potter franchise bagged two and Johnny Depp was named Screen Icon.

Take a look at the full list of winners (and nominees)...

Best Fantasy
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1
Gulliver's Travels
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Tron: Legacy

Best Drama
The King's Speech
127 Hours
Black Swan
The Social Network

Best Comedy
Paul
Due Date
Just Go With It
Little Fockers

Best Animation
Tangled
Despicable Me
Gnomeo & Juliet
Megamind

Must See Movie of the Summer
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
The Hangover Part II
X-Men: First Class

One to Watch: Brits Going Global
Jamie Campbell Bower
Henry Cavill
Luke Evans
Andrew Garfield
Tom Hardy
Felicity Jones
Alex Pettyfer
Andrea Riseborough
Ed Westwick

Performance of the Year
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Rupert Grint (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1)
Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1)
Emma Watson (Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1)
Jennifer Aniston (Just Go With It)
Ben Barnes (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Georgie Henley (The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader)
Nick Frost (Paul)
Simon Pegg (Paul)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Jeff Bridges (Tron: Legacy / True Grit)

Screen Icon - Johnny Depp

Special Recognition - The King's Speech

The King's Speech takes top honours at the Academy Awards

Awards season drew to a close for another year last night as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences honoured the very best in cinematic achievement from 2010 at the 83rd annual Academy Awards. Taking place at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, California, the ceremony was hosted by actors Anne Hathaway and James Franco, who was himself nominated for Best Actor for his performance in Danny Boyle's 127 Hours.

The King's Speech had led the pack going into the night with twelve nominations and picked up four awards in total - Best Picture, Best Director (Tom Hooper), Best Actor (Colin Firth) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler) - while Christopher Nolan's Inception also managed four awards, enjoying success in the technical categories of Visual Effects, Sound Mixing, Sound Editing and Cinematography.

Check out the full list of awards, with the winners highlighted in each category...

Best Picture
The Kids Are All Right (dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)
The Social Network (dir. David Fincher)
The King’s Speech (dir. Tom Hooper)
Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)
The Fighter (dir. David O. Russell)
Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
127 Hours (dir. Danny Boyle)
True Grit (dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Winter’s Bone (dir. Debra Granik)

Best Director
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Best Actor
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Best Actress
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)

Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Animated Feature
The Illusionist (dir. Sylvain Chomet)
Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)
How To Train Your Dragon (dir. Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders)

Best Original Screenplay
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
The King’s Speech (David Seidler)
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg)
The Fighter (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
True Grit (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
127 Hours (Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt)
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik and Anne Roselini)

Best Foreign Film
Dogtooth (Greece, dir. Giorgos Lanthimos)
Biutiful (Mexico, dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Incendies (Canada, dir. Denis Villeneuve)
In a Better World (Denmark, dir. Susanne Bier)
Outside the Law (Algeria, dir. Rachid Bouchareb)

Best Documentary
Exit Through the Gift Shop (dir. Banksy)
Gasland (dir. Josh Fox)
Restrepo (dir. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
Wasteland (dir. Lucy Walker and Karen Harley)
Inside Job (dir. Charles Ferguson)

Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland (Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan)
Inception (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat)
The King’s Speech (Eve Stewart, Judy Farr)
True Grit (Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh)

Cinematography
Black Swan (Matthew Libatique)
Inception (Wally Pfister)
The King’s Speech (Danny Cohen)
The Social Network (Jeff Cronenweth)
True Grit (Roger Deakins)

Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland (Colleen Atwood)
I Am Love (Antonella Cannarozzi)
The King’s Speech (Jenny Beavan)
The Tempest (Sandy Powell)
True Grit (Mary Zophres)

Film Editing
Black Swan (Andrew Weisblum)
The Fighter (Pamela Martin)
The King’s Speech (Tariq Anwar)
127 Hours (Jon Harris)
The Social Network (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter)

Makeup
Barney’s Version (Adrien Morot)
The Way Back (Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng)
The Wolfman (Rick Baker and Dave Elsey)

Original Score
How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Inception (Hans Zimmer)
The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat)
127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)

Original Song
“Coming Home” from Country Strong
“I See the Light” from Tangled
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3

Sound Editing
Inception (Richard King)
Toy Story 3 (Tom Myers and Michael Silvers)
Tron: Legacy (Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey)
Unstoppable (Mark P. Stoeckinger)

Sound Mixing
Inception (Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick)
The King’s Speech (Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley)
Salt (Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin)
The Social Network (Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland)

Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland (Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi)
Hereafter (Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell)
Inception (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb)
Iron Man 2 (Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick)

Best Animated Short Film
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage

Best Live Action Short Film
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Best Documentary Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

In addition to the winners above, film historian Kevin Brownlow, acclaimed filmmaker Jean-Luc Goddard and veteran actor Eli Wallach were recipients of Academy Honorary Awards, while legendary American filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola was presented with the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award, all of which were handed out back in November at the 2nd annual Governors Awards ceremony.

Results of our Best Picture poll...

We've been running a poll this past month asking for your pick for Best Picture and - after a grand total of 1138 votes (a new record!) - Inception proved to be the clear victor...

Inception - 32% (372 votes)
The King's Speech - 16% (187 votes)
The Social Network - 14% (164 votes)
Toy Story 3 - 13% (148 votes)
Black Swan - 9% (107 votes)
True Grit - 5% (57 votes)
127 Hours - 4% (46 votes)
The Fighter - 2% (32 votes)
Winter's Bone - 1% (15 votes)
The Kids Are All Right - 0% (10 votes)

The Last Airbender dominates the Golden Raspberry Awards

The 83rd Academy Awards takes place today and as Hollywood gears up for its big night there are those who would argue that the whole awards season is little more than an excuse for industry back-slapping and mutual appreciation. However one ceremony that could never be accused of that is the Razzies - which of course aims to celebrate the very worst in cinematic achievement from the past twelve months - and the 'winners' of 2010 were revealed last night as the 31st annual Golden Raspberry Awards were presented at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre, Hollywood.

It was a bad night (again) for M. Night Shyamalan as his latest waste of celluloid The Last Airbender picked up the awards for Worst Picture, Worst Director, Worst Screenplay, Worst Supporting Actor (Jackson Rathbone) and Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-use of 3D, while Sex and the City 2 followed behind with three awards: Worst Actress (Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristen Davis and Cynthia Nixon), Worst Screen Couple or Ensemble (the entire cast) and Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel.

Check out the full list of awards, with the winners highlighted in red...

Worst Picture
The Bounty Hunter
 (dir. Andy Tennant)
The Last Airbender
 (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Sex and the City 2
 (dir. Michael Patrick King)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
 (dir. David Slade)
Vampires Suck (dir. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer)

Worst Actor

Jack Black (Gulliver's Travels)

Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter)

Ashton Kutcher (Killers and Valentine's Day)

Taylor Lautner (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Valentine's Day)

Robert Pattinson (Remember Me and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Worst Actress

Jennifer Aniston (The Bounty Hunter and The Switch)

Miley Cyrus (The Last Song)
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City 2)
Megan Fox (Jonah Hex)
Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Worst Supporting Actor

Billy Ray Cyrus (The Spy Next Door)

George Lopez (Marmaduke, The Spy Next Door and Valentine's Day)

Dev Patel (The Last Airbender)
Jackson Rathbone (The Last Airbender and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Rob Schneider (Grown Ups)

Worst Supporting Actress

Jessica Alba (The Killer Inside Me, Little Fockers, Machete and Valentine's Day)

Cher (Burlesque)
Liza Minnelli (Sex and the City 2)
Nicola Peltz (The Last Airbender)
Barbra Streisand (Little Fockers)

Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D

Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore (dir. Brad Peyton)
Clash of the Titans (dir. Louis Leterrier)
The Last Airbender (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
The Nutcracker in 3-D (dir. Andrey Konchalovskiy)
Saw 3D (dir. Kevin Greutert)

Worst Screen Couple or Ensemble

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter)

Josh Brolin's Face and Megan Fox's Accent (Jonah Hex)
The Entire Cast of The Last Airbender
The Entire Cast of Sex and the City 2

The Entire Cast of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Worst Director

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Vampires Suck)

Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City 2)
M. Night Shyamalan (The Last Airbender)

David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)
Sylvester Stallone (The Expendables)

Worst Screenplay

M. Night Shyamalan (The Last Airbender
)
John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey (Little Fockers)

Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City 2)
Melissa Rosenberg (Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Vampires Suck)

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel

Clash Of The Titans (dir. Louis Leterrier)
The Last Airbender (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Sex and the City 2 (dir. Michael Patrick King)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (dir. David Slade)
Vampires Suck (dir. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer)

The King's Speech victorious at BAFTA's 64th British Academy Film Awards but David Fincher claims Best Director

The stars (well, some of them anyway) descended on the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden tonight for the biggest event in the British film calendar - BAFTA's 64th annual Orange British Academy Film Awards, which honoured outstanding cinematic achievement from 2010.

Historical drama The King's Speech led the way in terms of nominations with fourteen and was successful in seven categories, winning Best Film, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter), Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Best Original Screenplay, Best Original Score and Outstanding British Film.

David Fincher collected the Best Director gong for The Social Network, which was also recognised with the awards for Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Editing. Inception won three awards (Sound, Production Design and Special Visual Effects) and Alice in Wonderland two (Make-up and Hair, Costume Design), while there were also honours for True Grit, Black Swan, Four Lions, Toy Story 3 and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

The 64th British Academy Film Awards...

Academy Fellowship
Sir Christopher Lee

Best Film
Nominees are: Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network and True Grit.
And the BAFTA goes to: The King's Speech (Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin)

Best Actor
Nominees are: Javier Bardem (Biutiful), Jeff Bridges (True Grit), Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network), Colin Firth (The King's Speech) and James Franco (127 Hours).
And the BAFTA goes to: Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Best Actress
Nominees are: Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right), Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan), Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) and Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit).
And the BAFTA goes to: Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Director
Nominees are: Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Danny Boyle (127 Hours), David Fincher (The Social Network), Tom Hooper (The King's Speech) and Christopher Nolan (Inception)
And the BAFTA goes to: David Fincher (The Social Network)

Best Adapted Screenplay
Nominees are: 127 Hours (Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel), The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin), Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt) and True Grit (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen).
And the BAFTA goes to: The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)

Rising Star Award (public vote)
Nominees are: Gemma Arterton, Andrew Garfield, Tom Hardy, Aaron Johnson and Emma Stone.
And the BAFTA goes to: Tom Hardy

Best Animated Feature Film
Nominees are: Despicable Me (dir. Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin), How To Train Your Dragon (dir. Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois) and Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich).
And the BAFTA goes to: Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)

Outstanding British Contribution to Film
And the BAFTA goes to: The Harry Potter film series

Best Original Screenplay
Nominees are: Black Swan (Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin), The Fighter (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson), Inception (Christopher Nolan), The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg) and The King's Speech (David Seidler).
And the BAFTA goes to: The King's Speech (David Seidler)

Best Supporting Actor
Nominees are: Christian Bale (The Fighter), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Pete Postlethwaite (The Town), Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right) and Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech).
And the BAFTA goes to: Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Outstanding British Film
Nominees are: 127 Hours (dir. Danny Boyle), Another Year (dir. Mike Leigh), Four Lions (dir. Chris Morris), The King's Speech (dir. Tom Hooper) and Made in Dagenham (dir. Nigel Cole).
And the BAFTA goes to: The King's Speech

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Nominees are: The Arbor (Clio Barnard, Tracy O'Riordan), Exit Through The Gift Shop (Banksy, Jaimie D'Cruz), Four Lions (Chris Morris), Monsters (Gareth Edwards) and Skeletons (Nick Whitfield).
And the BAFTA goes to: Four Lions (dir. Chris Morris)

Best Supporting Actress
Nominees are: Amy Adams (The Fighter), Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech), Barbara Hershey (Black Swan), Lesley Manville (Another Year) and Miranda Richardson (Made in Dagenham).
And the BAFTA goes to: Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)

Special Visual Effects
Nominees are: Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, Inception and Toy Story 3.
And the BAFTA goes to: Tim Burke, John Richardson, Nicolas Aithadi, Christian Manz (Inception)

Best Original Score
Nominees are: 127 Hours, Alice in Wonderland, How To Train Your Dragon, Inception and The King's Speech.
And the BAFTA goes to: Alexandre Desplat (The King's Speech)

Best Foreign Language Film
Nominees are: Biutiful (Mexico/Spain), The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina), The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden), I Am Love (Italy) and Of Gods and Men (France).
And the BAFTA goes to: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (dir. Niels Arden Oplev)

Cinematography
Nominees are: 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech and True Grit.
And the BAFTA goes to: Roger Deakins (True Grit)

Production Design
Nominees are: Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech and True Grit.
And the BAFTA goes to: Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias, Doug Mowat (Inception)

Costume Design
Nominees are: Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan, The King's Speech, Made in Dagenham and True Grit.
And the BAFTA goes to: Colleen Atwood (Alice in Wonderland)

Sound
Nominees are: 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech and True Grit.
And the BAFTA goes to: Richard King, Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo, Ed Novick (Inception)

Make-up and Hair
Nominees are: Alice in Wonderland, Black Swan, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, The King's Speech and Made in Dagenham.
And the BAFTA goes to: Valli O'Reilly, Paul Gooch (Alice in Wonderland)

Editing
Nominees are: 127 Hours, Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech and The Social Network.
And the BAFTA goes to: Angus Wall, Kirk Baxter (The Social Network)

Short Animation
Nominees are: The Eagleman Stag, Matter Fisher and Thursday.
And the BAFTA goes to: The Eagleman Stag

Short Film
Nominees are: Connect, Lin, Rite, Turning and Until The River Runs Red.
And the BAFTA goes to: Until the River Runs Red

Preview...

Looking at the contenders, it could be a good night for Tom Hooper's acclaimed drama The King's Speech, which leads the field with a staggering fourteen nominations including Best Film, Best Director, Outstanding British Film, Best Actor (Colin Firth), Best Supporting Actor (Geoffrey Rush), Best Supporting Actress (Helena Bonham Carter) and Best Original Screenplay (David Seidler).

Psychological thriller Black Swan will also be hoping for glory with nominations in twelve categories including Best Film, Best Director (Darren Aronofsky), Best Actress (Natalie Portman), Best Supporting Actress (Barbara Hershey) and Best Original Screenplay (Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz and John McLaughli).

The King's Speech and Black Swan are joined by Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan), True Grit (dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen) and The Social Network (dir. David Fincher) for the prestigious Best Film Award, while the Coens lose out on a nomination in the Best Director field to Danny Boyle (127 Hours) - check out our filmmaker profiles on each of the Best Director nominees - Darren Aronofsky, Danny Boyle, David Fincher, Tom Hooper and Christopher Nolan.

Author J. K. Rowling and producer David Heyman are set receive the award for Outstanding British Contribution to cinema on behalf of the Harry Potter film series, which has seen its global gross surpass the $6b mark with latest release Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 and will draw to a close after a decade on screens when Part 2 arrives this coming July.

Screen legend Sir Christopher Lee will also be honoured with BAFTAs highest accolade, The Academy Fellowship, in recognition of an exceptional career that has seen him appear in over 200 films ranging from British classics such as Dracula and The Wicker Man to Hollywood blockbusters Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings [Five Essential Christopher Lee Villains].

Meanwhile the Orange Rising Star Award, which is decided by a public vote, is contested between Gemma Arterton (Clash of the Titans), Andrew Garfield (The Social Network), Tom Hardy (Inception), Aaron Johnson (Kick-Ass) and Emma Stone (Zombieland). Quite a superhero-centric field, what with Hardy joining The Dark Knight Rises as Bane and Garfield and Stone heading up the cast of the Untitled Spider-Man Reboot as Peter Parker and love interest Gwen Stacy.

See the full list of nominations, and check out all of our awards season coverage.

Christopher Lee to receive Academy Fellowship from BAFTA

Legendary British actor Christopher Lee will be presented with BAFTA’s Academy Fellowship at the Orange British Academy Film Awards ceremony this coming Sunday. Awarded annually, the Fellowship is the Academy’s highest accolade and recognises an outstanding and exceptional contribution to film. Lee – who has appeared in almost 200 films in a career spanning eight decades – will join a distinguished list of fellows that includes Charlie Chaplin, Alfred Hitchcock, Steven Spielberg, Sean Connery, Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Christie, John Barry, Stanley Kubrick, Anthony Hopkins, Terry Gilliam, Judi Dench and Vanessa Redgrave.

After his international breakthrough in Hammer Films’ The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula, Lee went on to star in a host of films such as The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes, The Wicker Man, The Man with the Golden Gun and Jinnah. In recent years he has made regular appearances for director Tim Burton, as well as villainous turns in blockbuster series such as Star Wars and The Lord of the Rings. Lee will appear later this year in Martin Scorsese’s Hugo Cabret alongside Jude Law, Chloe Moretz and Sacha Baron Cohen and is also scheduled to return to Middle-Earth for Peter Jackson’s two-part prequel The Hobbit.

The British Academy Film Awards takes place this Sunday and will be broadcast in the UK on BBC One.

Canada's Genie Awards announce their nominations

Barney's Version, starring Paul Giamatti, has been nominated in 11 categories in Canada's premiere film awards ceremony the Genie Awards. The tale of the unrestrained, precocious Barney also features Minnie Driver, Rosamund Pike and Dustin Hoffman.

Among the eleven nominations, the film has receieved nods in the Best Motion Picture category with Giamatti up for the Best Leading Actor gong. Based upon Canadian novelist Mordecai Richler's final novel of the same name, the film has been a praise magnet for critics and audiences in equal measures.

Barney's Version is trailed by Incendies, which has picked up ten nominations. The intense drama follows twins Jean and Simon (Mélissa Désormeaux and Maxim Gaudette respectively), as their dying mother asks them to travel to her homeland in the middle-east so that they might better understand their heritage.

Highlights of the nominations for the 31st Genie Awards...

Motion Picture
10½ (dir. Martin Dubreuil)
Les Amours imaginaires (dir. Xavier Dolan)
Barney's Version (dir. Richard J. Lewis)
Incendies (dir. Denis Villeneuve)
Splice (dir. Vincenzo Natali)

Actor in a leading role
Jay Baruchel (The Trotsky)
Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version)
Robert Naylor (10½)
Timothy Olyphant (High Life)
François Papineau (Route 132)

Actor in a supporting role
Martin Dubreuil (10½)
Dustin Hoffman (Barney's Version)
Alexis Martin (Route 132)
Callum Keith Rennie (Gunless)
Rossif Sutherland (High Life)

Actress in a leading role
Lubna Azabal (Incendies)
Tatiana Maslany (Grown Up Movie Star)
Molly Parker (Trigger)
Rosamund Pike (Barney's Version)
Tracy Wright (Trigger)

Actress in a supporting role
Sonja Bennett (Cole)
Anne-Elizabeth Bossé (Les Amours imaginaires)
Minnie Driver (Barney's Version)
Terra Hazelton (FUBAR 2)
Mary Walsh (Crackie)

Direction
Xavier Dolan (Les Amours imaginaires)
Richard J. Lewis (Barney's Version)
Vincenzo Natali (Splice)
Podz (10½)
Denis Villeneuve (Incendies)

Adapted Screenplay
Michael Konyves (Barney's Version)
Lee MacDougall (High Life)
Vic Sarin, Dennis Foon and Catherine Spear (A Shine of Rainbows)
Patrick Senécal (Les 7 jours du Talion)
Denis Villeneuve (Incendies)

Original Screenplay
Louis Bélanger and Alexis Martin (Route 132)
Claude Lalonde (10½)
Adriana Maggs (Grown Up Movie Star)
Peter Stebbings (Defendor)
Jacob Tierney (The Trotsky)

Best Documentary
La Belle Visite (dir. Jean-François Caissy)
In the Name of the Family (dir.Shelley Saywell)
Last Train Home (dir. Lixin Fan)
Leave Them Laughing (dir. John Zaritsky)
You Don't Like the Truth: 4 Days Inside Guantanamo (dir. Luc Côté and Patricio Henriquez)

Claude Jutra Award
Jephté Bastien (Sortie 67)

Golden Reel Award
Resident Evil: Afterlife (dir. Paul W. S. Anderson)

The 31st Genie Awards will be presented on March 10th.

Harry Potter films to receive BAFTA award for contribution to cinema

The organisers at BAFTA have announced today that the ‘Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema’ award will be presented to J.K. Rowling and David Heyman, on behalf of the Harry Potter film franchise.

The Harry Potter series has been a worldwide phenomenon since the first instalment in 2001. They are a great success story for British film, showcasing both the cream of acting talent in front of the camera and the expertise of the production team behind the scenes. So far, they have received 7 Oscar nominations and a massive 28 BAFTA nominations. The eighth and final film Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 will be released in July.

Daniel Radcliffe responded to news of the award by saying, “I am thrilled that the Harry Potter film series is being honoured with this award. I have loved every minute of making these films and to me the real heroes are the crew and the huge team of craftsmen that have made all eight of them possible - this award is a testament to their incredible work.”

The award will be presented at this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards on Sunday 13th February. Meanwhile Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 brings the saga to a close on July 15th and features an all star cast including Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint, Helena Bonham Carter, Tom Felton, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Alan Rickman, Imelda Staunton, David Thewlis and Bonnie Wright.

Black Swan, The Fighter, The King's Speech and Boardwalk Empire rule the SAG Awards

With awards season it full swing it seems a day doesn't go by without another ceremony to honour the very best in film from the past twelve months, and this weekend was no different as the 17th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards were presented on Sunday night from the Los Angeles Shrine Exposition Centre. The King's Speech star Colin Firth was honoured with the award for Outstanding Performance for a Male Actor in a Leading Role, while Black Swan leading lady Natalie Portman took home the award for Female Actor. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo received both supporting actor gongs for David O. Russell's The Fighter, while The King's Speech received the award for Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture and Boardwalk Empire enjoyed success in the television field.

Check out the complete list of winners...

THEATRICAL MOTION PICTURES

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Leading Role
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role
Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Outstanding Performance by a Cast in a Motion Picture
Anthony Andrews, Helena Bonham Carter, Jennifer Ehle, Colin Firth, Michael Gambon, Derek Jacobi, Guy Pearce, Geoffrey Rush and Timothy Spall (The King's Speech)

PRIMETIME TELEVISION

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Al Pacino (You Don't Know Jack)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
Claire Danes (Temple Grandin)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series
Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Drama Series
Julianna Marguiles (The Good Wife)

Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Comedy Series
Alec Baldwin (30 Rock)

Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Comedy Series
Betty White (Hot in Cleveland)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Drama Series
Greg Antonacci, Steve Buscemi, Dabney Coleman, Paz de la Heurta, Stephen Graham, Gretchen Mol, Aleksa Palladino, Vincent Piazza, Michael Pitt, Michael Shannon, Paul Sparks, Michael Stuhlbarg, Shea Whigham (Boardwalk Empire)

Outstanding Performance by an Ensemble in a Comedy Series
Julie Bowen, Ty Burrell, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Nolan Gould, Sarah Hyland, Ed O'Neill, Rico Rodriguez, Eric Stonestreet, Sofia VErgara, Ariel Winter (Modern Family)

SAG HONORS FOR STUNT ENSEMBLES

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Motion Picture
Inception

Outstanding Performance by a Stunt Ensemble in a Television Series
True Blood

LIFE ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

Screen Actors Guild Awards 47th Annual Life Achievement Award
Ernest Borgnine

The Screen Actor's Guild Awards are known to have an Oscar prediction rate of around 75%, and in terms of the four big acting awards I think they'll be 100% spot on this year. We'll find out when the Academy Awards are presented on February 27th.

Tom Hooper wins the DGA Award for The King's Speech

The Director's Guild of America announced the recipients of their awards last night, with English filmmaker Tom Hooper taking home the DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for his work on the acclaimed period drama The King's Speech.

It was believed that The Social Network's David Fincher was a strong favourite to receive the accolade, particularly after his success at the Golden Globes earlier this month, while Hooper also fended off competition from fellow nominees Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan), Christopher Nolan (Inception) and David O. Russell (The Fighter).

It is very rare that the winner of the DGA's top prize doesn't go on to claim the Best Director gong at the Academy Awards (in fact, it's only happened on six occasions to date), and Hooper must now be considered favourite to collect the Oscar. The King's Speech received the most nominations with twelve including Best Picture, and February 27th is starting to look like it could be a very successful night indeed for the British film.

Check out the full list of winners from last night's DGA Awards evening...

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film
Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Documentary
Charles Ferguson (Inside Job)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television and Mini-Series
Mick Jackson (Temple Grandin, HBO)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Dramatic Series
Martin Scorsese (Boardwalk Empire, HBO)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Comedy Series
Michael Spiller (Modern Family, “Halloween”, ABC)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Musical Variety
Glenn Weiss (64th Annual Tony Awards, CBS)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Reality Programs
Eytan Keller (The Next Iron Chef, “Episode #301”, Food Network)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Daytime Serials
Larry Carpenter (One Life to Live, “Episode #10,687”, ABC)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Children’s Programs
Eric Bross (The Boy Who Cried Werewolf, Nickelodeon)

Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Commercials
Stacy Wall (Imperial Woodpecker, Nike)

We are currently running an in-depth tw-part filmmaker's profile on the career of Tom Hooper, which you can read here.

Road to the Oscars: 83rd Academy Awards nominations revealed

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have today released the nominations for the 83rd Academy Awards. Honouring the very best in film from 2010, the contenders are led by British period drama The King’s Speech with nominations in twelve categories overall, closely followed by the Coen brothers’ Western remake True Grit with ten. In truth there are few surprises, although Christopher Nolan’s exclusion from the Best Director category may have raised a few eyebrows, along with Andrew Garfield’s failure to land a nomination in the Best Supporting Actor category for his work on The Social Network.

Anyway, without further ado, here are the nominees in full…

Best Picture
The Kids Are All Right (dir. Lisa Cholodenko)
Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)
The Social Network (dir. David Fincher)
The King’s Speech (dir. Tom Hooper)
Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)
The Fighter (dir. David O. Russell)
Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
127 Hours (dir. Danny Boyle)
True Grit (dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
Winter’s Bone (dir. Debra Granik)

Best Director
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Tom Hooper (The King’s Speech)
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen (True Grit)
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)

Best Actor
Colin Firth (The King’s Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)

Best Actress
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Jennifer Lawrence (Winter’s Bone)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine)
Nicole Kidman (Rabbit Hole)

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Geoffrey Rush (The King’s Speech)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
John Hawkes (Winter’s Bone)
Jeremy Renner (The Town)

Best Supporting Actress
Helena Bonham Carter (The King’s Speech)
Melissa Leo (The Fighter)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Jackie Weaver (Animal Kingdom)

Best Animated Feature
The Illusionist (dir. Sylvain Chomet)
Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)
How To Train Your Dragon (dir. Dean DeBlois and Chris Sanders)

Best Original Screenplay
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
The King’s Speech (David Seidler)
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg)
The Fighter (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy and Eric Johnson)
Another Year (Mike Leigh)

Best Adapted Screenplay
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
True Grit (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen)
127 Hours (Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt)
Winter’s Bone (Debra Granik and Anne Roselini)

Best Foreign Film
Dogtooth (Greece, dir. Giorgos Lanthimos)
Biutiful (Mexico, dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)
Incendies (Canada, dir. Denis Villeneuve)
In a Better World (Denmark, dir. Susanne Bier)
Outside the Law (Algeria, dir. Rachid Bouchareb)

Best Documentary
Exit Through the Gift Shop (dir. Banksy)
Gasland (dir. Josh Fox)
Restrepo (dir. Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Junger)
Wasteland (dir. Lucy Walker and Karen Harley)
Inside Job (dir. Charles Ferguson)

Art Direction
Alice in Wonderland (Robert Stromberg, Karen O’Hara)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan)
Inception (Guy Hendrix Dyas, Larry Dias and Doug Mowat)
The King’s Speech (Eve Stewart, Judy Farr)
True Grit (Jess Gonchor, Nancy Haigh)

Cinematography
Black Swan (Matthew Libatique)
Inception (Wally Pfister)
The King’s Speech (Danny Cohen)
The Social Network (Jeff Cronenweth)
True Grit (Roger Deakins)

Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland (Colleen Atwood)
I Am Love (Antonella Cannarozzi)
The King’s Speech (Jenny Beavan)
The Tempest (Sandy Powell)
True Grit (Mary Zophres)

Film Editing
Black Swan (Andrew Weisblum)
The Fighter (Pamela Martin)
The King’s Speech (Tariq Anwar)
127 Hours (Jon Harris)
The Social Network (Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter)

Makeup
Barney’s Version (Adrien Morot)
The Way Back (Edouard F. Henriques, Gregory Funk and Yolanda Toussieng)
The Wolfman (Rick Baker and Dave Elsey)

Original Score
How to Train Your Dragon (John Powell)
Inception (Hans Zimmer)
The King’s Speech (Alexandre Desplat)
127 Hours (A.R. Rahman)
The Social Network (Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross)

Original Song
“Coming Home” from Country Strong
“I See the Light” from Tangled
“If I Rise” from 127 Hours
“We Belong Together” from Toy Story 3

Sound Editing
Inception (Richard King)
Toy Story 3 (Tom Myers and Michael Silvers)
Tron: Legacy (Gwendolyn Yates Whittle and Addison Teague)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay and Craig Berkey)
Unstoppable (Mark P. Stoeckinger)

Sound Mixing
Inception (Lora Hirschberg, Gary A. Rizzo and Ed Novick)
The King’s Speech (Paul Hamblin, Martin Jensen and John Midgley)
Salt (Jeffrey J. Haboush, Greg P. Russell, Scott Millan and William Sarokin)
The Social Network (Ren Klyce, David Parker, Michael Semanick and Mark Weingarten)
True Grit (Skip Lievsay, Craig Berkey, Greg Orloff and Peter F. Kurland)

Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland (Ken Ralston, David Schaub, Carey Villegas and Sean Phillips)
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1 (Tim Burke, John Richardson, Christian Manz and Nicolas Aithadi)
Hereafter (Michael Owens, Bryan Grill, Stephan Trojanski and Joe Farrell)
Inception (Paul Franklin, Chris Corbould, Andrew Lockley and Peter Bebb)
Iron Man 2 (Janek Sirrs, Ben Snow, Ged Wright and Daniel Sudick)

Best Animated Short Film
Day & Night
The Gruffalo
Let’s Pollute
The Lost Thing
Madagascar, carnet de voyage

Best Live Action Short Film
The Confession
The Crush
God of Love
Na Wewe
Wish 143

Best Documentary Short Subject
Killing in the Name
Poster Girl
Strangers No More
Sun Come Up
The Warriors of Qiugang

The winners will of course be revealed at a star-studded ceremony hosted by Anne Hathaway and Best Actor nominee James Franco in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre on February 27th.

Never mind the Oscars, it's the nominees for the Golden Raspberry Awards

Hollywood is gearing up for the annoucement of the Academy Award nominations tomorrow, but as is customary on the eve of the big reveal the Golden Raspberry Awards (or Razzies for short) have delivered their contenders for the very worst cinematic offerings of 2010 and boy, is it a hell of a strong field.

While the Best Picture Oscar is likely to come down to Tom Hooper's The King's Speech and David Fincher's The Social Network, I honestly have no idea which film is most deserving of the Razzies' 'not-at-all-coveted' Worst Picture award.

Anyway, here is the full list of nominees for the 31st annual Golden Raspberry Awards...

Worst Picture
The Bounty Hunter
 (dir. Andy Tennant)
The Last Airbender
 (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Sex and the City 2
 (dir. Michael Patrick King)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse
 (dir. David Slade)
Vampires Suck (dir. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer)

Worst Actor

Jack Black (Gulliver's Travels)

Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter)

Ashton Kutcher (Killers and Valentine's Day)

Taylor Lautner (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse and Valentine's Day)

Robert Pattinson (Remember Me and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Worst Actress

Jennifer Aniston (The Bounty Hunter and The Switch)

Miley Cyrus (The Last Song)
Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattrall, Kristin Davis and Cynthia Nixon (Sex and the City 2)
Megan Fox (Jonah Hex)
Kristen Stewart (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Worst Supporting Actor

Billy Ray Cyrus (The Spy Next Door)

George Lopez (Marmaduke, The Spy Next Door and Valentine's Day)

Dev Patel (The Last Airbender)
Jackson Rathbone (The Last Airbender and The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Rob Schneider (Grown Ups)

Worst Supporting Actress

Jessica Alba (The Killer Inside Me, Little Fockers, Machete and Valentine's Day)

Cher (Burlesque)
Liza Minnelli (Sex and the City 2)
Nicola Peltz (The Last Airbender)
Barbra Streisand (Little Fockers)

Worst Eye-Gouging Mis-Use of 3D

Cats & Dogs: Revenge of Kitty Galore (dir. Brad Peyton)
Clash of the Titans (dir. Louis Leterrier)
The Last Airbender (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
The Nutcracker in 3-D (dir. Andrey Konchalovskiy)
Saw 3D (dir. Kevin Greutert)

Worst Screen Couple or Ensemble

Jennifer Aniston and Gerard Butler (The Bounty Hunter)

Josh Brolin's Face and Megan Fox's Accent (Jonah Hex)
The Entire Cast of The Last Airbender
The Entire Cast of Sex and the City 2

The Entire Cast of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse

Worst Director

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Vampires Suck)

Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City 2)
M. Night Shyamalan (The Last Airbender)

David Slade (The Twilight Saga: Eclipse)
Sylvester Stallone (The Expendables)

Worst Screenplay

M. Night Shyamalan (The Last Airbender
)
John Hamburg and Larry Stuckey (Little Fockers)

Michael Patrick King (Sex and the City 2)
Melissa Rosenberg (Twilight Saga: Eclipse)

Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer (Vampires Suck)

Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-Off or Sequel

Clash Of The Titans (dir. Louis Leterrier)
The Last Airbender (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Sex and the City 2 (dir. Michael Patrick King)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (dir. David Slade)
Vampires Suck (dir. Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer)

One final thought - isn't it about time they presented M. Night Shyamalan with a Lifetime Achievement Award???

The Razzies will be handed out on February 26th.

The King's Speech claims PGA Award, can it upset The Social Network at the Oscars?

Last night the Producers Guild of America rewarded Tom Hooper's acclaimed period drama The King's Speech with their top honour, The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer Of Theatrical Motion Pictures, ahead of a strong field of nominees including Oscar hopefuls such as Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky), Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan) and The Social Network (dir. David Fincher). Meanwhile Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich) took home the prize for Animated Theatrical Motion Picture, with other awards recipients including Waiting for Superman (Documentary Feature), Mad Men (Episodic TV Drama), Modern Family (Episodic TV Comedy), James Cameron (Milestone Award) and Tom Hanks and Gary Goetzman (Norman Lear Achievement Award In Television).



The Social Network was named Best Motion Picture - Drama at the Golden Globes this past Sunday and added a further three awards including Best Director, while The King's Speech managed just one (Colin Firth as Best Actor in the Drama category), leaving Fincher's Facebook drama as the likely favourite for Academy success. However in claiming the PGA Award, The King's Speech - which is produced by Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin - now finds itself with a strong chance of nabbing the Oscar for itself, especially given the PGA's track record of predicting two-thirds of all eventual Best Picture winners. Regardless, it now looks like a two horse race for the biggest prize of them all and I'd be very surprised if the Academy voters opted for any of the remaining eight nominees, who will of course be named this coming Tuesday.



Meanwhile The King's Speech also picked up fourteen nominations for the British Academy Film Awards earlier in the week and must surely be a certainty to pick up the Best Film award on home soil come February 13th.



The King's Speech - "A Speech at Wembley"...

BAFTA announce the nominees for the British Academy Film Awards

BAFTA have today announced the nominees for the 64th British Academy Film Awards, with Tom Hooper's acclaimed period drama The King's Speech leading the way with an impressive fourteen nominations overall including the coveted Best Picture award. Also competing for the top prize is Darren Aronofsky's psychological thriller Black Swan (which has garnered twelve nominations in total), along with Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan), The Social Network (dir. David Fincher) and True Grit (dir. Joel Coen and Ethan Coen). Elsewhere Colin Firth will be looking to repeat his Golden Globes success in the Best Actor category, while the recently departed Pete Postlethwaite also features in the Supporting Actor field for his role in Ben Affleck's The Town.

The 2011 BAFTA nominations in full...

Best Film
Black Swan (dir. Darren Aronofsky)
Inception (dir. Christopher Nolan)
The King's Speech (dir. Tom Hooper)
The Social Network (dir. David Fincher)
True Grit (dir. Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)

Best Director
Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
Danny Boyle (127 Hours)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
Christopher Nolan (Inception)

Best Actor
Javier Bardem (Biutiful)
Jeff Bridges (True Grit)
Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network)
Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
James Franco (127 Hours)

Best Actress
Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)
Julianne Moore (The Kids Are All Right)
Natalie Portman (Black Swan)
Noomi Rapace (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo)
Hailee Steinfeld (True Grit)

Best Supporting Actor
Christian Bale (The Fighter)
Andrew Garfield (The Social Network)
Pete Postlethwaite (The Town)
Mark Ruffalo (The Kids Are All Right)
Geoffrey Rush (The King's Speech)

Best Supporting Actress
Amy Adams (The Fighter)
Helena Bonham Carter (The King's Speech)
Barbara Hershey (Black Swan)
Lesley Manville (Another Year)
Miranda Richardson (Made in Dagenham)

Outstanding British Film
127 Hours (dir. Danny Boyle)
Another Year (dir. Mike Leigh)
Four Lions (dir. Chris Morris)
The King's Speech (dir. Tom Hooper)
Made in Dagenham (dir. Nigel Cole)

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
The Arbor (Clio Barnard, Tracy O'Riordan)
Exit Through The Gift Shop (Banksy, Jaimie D'Cruz)
Four Lions (Chris Morris)
Monsters (Gareth Edwards)
Skeletons (Nick Whitfield)

Best Foreign Language Film
Biutiful (Mexico/Spain)
The Secret in Their Eyes (Argentina)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Sweden)
I Am Love (Italy)
Of Gods and Men (France)

Best Animated Feature Film
Despicable Me (dir. Chris Renaud, Pierre Coffin)
How To Train Your Dragon (dir. Chris Sanders, Dean DeBlois)
Toy Story 3 (dir. Lee Unkrich)

Best Original Screenplay
Black Swan (Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin)
The Fighter (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson)
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
The Kids Are All Right (Lisa Cholodenko, Stuart Blumberg)
The King's Speech (David Seidler)

Best Adapted Screenplay
127 Hours (Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy)
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Rasmus Heisterberg, Nikolaj Arcel)
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
Toy Story 3 (Michael Arndt)
True Grit (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)

Best Original Score
127 Hours
Alice in Wonderland
How To Train Your Dragon
Inception
The King's Speech

Cinematography
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Editing
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
The Social Network

Production Design
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Costume Design
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
The King's Speech
Made in Dagenham
True Grit

Sound
127 Hours
Black Swan
Inception
The King's Speech
True Grit

Special Visual Effects
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part I
Inception
Toy Story 3

Make-up and Hair
Alice in Wonderland
Black Swan
Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows: Part I
The King's Speech
Made in Dagenham

Short Animation
The Eagleman Stag
Matter Fisher
Thursday

Short Film
Connect
Lin
Rite
Turning
Until The River Runs Red

Rising Star Award (public vote, previously announced)
Gemma Arterton
Andrew Garfield
Tom Hardy
Aaron Johnson
Emma Stone

The British Academy Film Awards will be held on 13th February 2011.

The Social Network and The Kids Are All Right bag top prizes at the Golden Globes

The 68th annual Golden Globe Awards took place last night at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, with David Fincher's The Social Network and Lisa Cholodenko's The Kids Are All Right taking home the Best Motion Picture awards in the Drama and Musical or Comedy categories respectively. It was a particularly good night for Fincher, who also claimed the Best Director gong, and he must now surely be a strong favourite for the same award when the Oscars are handed out on February 27th.

Meanwhile host Ricky Gervais seemed to upset a number of the Hollywood stars in attendance with his edgy and scathing humour (quite what the organisers expected when hiring him remains a mystery), while fellow Brit Colin Firth was named Best Actor for his turn as King George VI in Tom Hooper's period drama The King's Speech.

Check out the full list of winners...

Best Motion Picture
Drama - The Social Network
Musical or Comedy - The Kids Are All Right

Best Performance in a Motion Picture (Drama)
Actor - Colin Firth (The King's Speech)
Actress - Natalie Portman (Black Swan)

Best Performance in a Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy)
Actor - Paul Giamatti (Barney's Version)
Actress - Annette Bening (The Kids Are All Right)

Best Supporting Actor - Christian Bale (The Fighter)

Best Supporting Actress - Melissa Leo (The Fighter)

Best Director - David Fincher (The Social Network)

Best Screenplay - Aaron Sorkin (The Social Network)

Best Original Score - Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (The Social Network)

Best Original Song - You Haven't Seen the Last of Me (Burlesque)

Best Animated Feature Film - Toy Story 3

Best Foreign Language Film - In a Better World

Cecil B. DeMille Award - Robert De Niro

In the television section Boardwalk Empire put an end to Mad Men's run of three consecutive victories in the Best Series (Drama) category, while Glee was named Best Series (Musical or Comedy) for the second year running. Acting awards were also presented to Steve Buscemi (Boardwalk Empire), Katey Segal (Sons of Anarchy), Jim Parsons (The Big Bang Theory), Laura Linney (The Big C), Al Pacino (You Don't Know Jack), Claire Danes (Temple Grandin), Chris Colfer (Glee) and Jane Lynch (Glee), while Olivier Assayas' ambitious biopic Carlos was named Best mini-series or TV film.

Cast your vote for the 2011 BAFTA Rising Star Award

BAFTA have today announced their shortlist for the Orange Wednesdays Rising Star Award 2011, the only award at the British Academy Film Awards that is decided by the British public. Created in 2006 in honour of BAFTA-winning casting director Mary Selway, the prestigious honour looks to recognise young and emerging international talent who have captured the imagination of the public as a star in the making, with previous winners including Kristen Stewart (Twilight), Noel Clarke (Adulthood), Shia LaBeouf (Transformers), Eva Green (Casino Royale) and James McAvoy (The Last King of Scotland).

This year's nominees for the Rising Star Award are...

Gemma Arterton - First coming to attention with roles in St. Trinian's (2007), RocknRolla (2008) and Quantum of Solace (2008), the young British actress earned rave reviews for her turn in The Disappearance of Alice Creed (2009) and enjoyed a busy year in 2010, appearing in Clash of the Titans, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time and Tamara Drewe. She will next be seen alongside Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) in the fantasy comedy Hansel and Gretel: Witch Hunters (2011) and is set to reprise her role as Io in 2012's Wrath of the Titans.

Andrew Garfield - Anglo-American actor Andrew Garfield already has one BAFTA under his belt, receiving the Best Actor Television Award for Boy A (2007), and followed this up with roles in feature films Lions for Lambs (2007), The Other Boleyn Girl (2008) and The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009). Garfield has enjoyed a splendid 2010, earning a host of nominations for his work in David Fincher's The Social Network (including Best Supporting Actor at the Golden Globes), along with the acclaimed Brit drama Never Let Me Go, while he will next be seen as Peter Parker in Marc Webb's as-yet untitled Spider-Man reboot (2012).

Tom Hardy - Hardy began his career back in 2001 with parts in Black Hawk Down and Band of Brothers and went on to rack up a number of credits over the next few years including Star Trek Nemesis (2002), Layer Cake (2004), Sweeney Todd (2006), WΔZ (2007) and RocknRolla (2008). However, his real breakthrough came in 2009 with Bronson, and he followed that up in 2010 with a fine supporting role in Christopher Nolan's Inception. 2011 will see Hardy appear in MMA drama Warrior, action comedy This Means War and spy thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy, before he reunites with Nolan in 2012 for a villainous turn in The Dark Knight Rises.

Aaron Johnson - British actor Aaron Johnson began his career as a child star in the likes of Shanghai Knights (2003), The Thief Lord and The Illusionist (2006) before graduating to leading roles with a memorable performance as John Lennon in the 2009 biopic Nowhere Boy. 2010 saw Johnson go on to star in Matthew Vaughn's superhero comedy Kick-Ass, along with the Hideo Nakata's Brit thriller Chatroom, and he is currently filming the drama Albert Nobbs, which is set for release later this year.

Emma Stone - After a number of television roles including the short-lived drama series Drive (2007), American actress Emma Stone made her feature debut in Greg Mottola's hit comedy Superbad (2007) and went on to star in a number of films including The Rocker (2008), Ghosts of Girlfriends Past and Zombieland (both 2009). 2010 saw her appear in the teen comedy Easy A (along with voice work in the critically lambasted Marmaduke), while she has no fewer than four films set for release in 2011. Stone will also star alongside fellow nominee Andrew Garfield as love interest Gwen Stacy in Spider-Man.

Who would be your choice for the Rising Star Award? Head over to the Orange BAFTA site to cast your vote, with the winners annouced during the British Academy Film Awards ceremony on February 13th.

Aronofsky, Fincher, Hooper, Nolan and Russell to square off for the DGA Award

The Director's Guild of America have released the shortlist for their coveted DGA Award for Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Feature Film for 2010, which could give us some indication of the contenders for the Best Director Oscar when the Academy Award nominations are unveiled on January 25th. The nominees, presented in alphabetical order, are as follows...

Darren Aronofsky (Black Swan)
David Fincher (The Social Network)
Tom Hooper (The King's Speech)
Christopher Nolan (Inception)
David O. Russell (The Fighter)

So, no love from the DGA for Oscar hopefuls Danny Boyle (127 Hours) and Joel and Ethan Coen (True Grit), and although it's rare for the Director's Guild nominees to match up perfectly with the Academy Award shortlist, I think in this instance they could be right on the button. It's also typical that the winner of the DGA Award will go on to collect the Oscar, which was the case last year when Kathryn Bigelow became the first female director to take home the Academy Award for The Hurt Locker.

The DGA - which is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2011 - will announce the winner on Saturday, January 29th at the 63rd Annual DGA Awards Dinner in Hollywood, California.

Golden Raspberry Awards shortlist for the worst of 2010

With the Academy Awards fast approaching it seems you can't turn anywhere at the moment without being bombarded by an endless stream of awards shortlists, churning out the same familiar faces such as Black Swan, Inception, The King's Speech, The Social Network and True Grit. Well, one shortlist that everyone in Hollywood will be looking to avoid is the nominees for the 31st annual Golden Raspberry Awards, a.k.a. The Razzies, which of course celebrates the very worst in cinematic offerings from the past twelve months.

While the nominees won't be officially announced until January 24th, the longlist for the 'coveted' Worst Picture award has made its way onto the internet this week, along with details on some of the other categories and contenders...

Worst Picture nominees...

The Bounty Hunter (dir. Andy Tennant)
Clash of the Titans (dir. Louis Leterrier)
The Expendables (dir. Sylvester Stallone)
Grown Ups (dir. Dennis Dugan)
Jonah Hex (dir. Jimmy Hayward)
Killers (dir. Robert Luketic)
The Last Airbender (dir. M. Night Shyamalan)
Little Fockers (dir. Paul Weitz)
Sex and the City 2 (dir. Michael Patrick King)
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (dir. David Slade)
Vampires Suck (dir. Jason Friedberg, Aaron Seltzer)
Yogi Bear (dir. Eric Brevig)

Although it wasn't fortunate enough to secure a 'Worst Picture' nod, the critical abomination Burlesque pulled in a host of nominations including Worst Actress, with Christina Aguilera batting it out against the Golden Globe-nominated Angelina Jolie (The Tourist) for the gong. Meanwhile Jessica Alba gets FOUR cracks at Worst Supporting Actress (The Killer Inside Me, Little Fockers, Machete, Valentine's Day) with George Lopez one behind in the Worst Supporting Actor category (Marmaduke, The Spy Next Door, Valentine's Day). This year also sees the inauguration of the newly-created 'Worst Eye-Gouging Misuse of 3D' award, featuring the likes of Piranha 3D, The Nutcracker in 3D and Resident Evil: Afterlife.

The 31st Golden Raspberry Awards are scheduled to take place in Hollywood on February 26th, one day before the stars descend on the red carpet for the 83rd Academy Awards.

Road to the Oscars: Producers and Writers Guilds announce their nominees

Awards season is really heating up ahead of the 83rd Academy Awards on February 27th in Hollywood, California and today both the Producers Guild and the Writers Guild of America have announced the contenders for their forthcoming prizes...

2011 Producers Guild Awards nominees...

First up was the PGA, whose shortlist for their most prestigious honour - The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer Of Theatrical Motion Pictures - has few surprises and looks very similar to what we should expect when the nominees for Best Picture are announced at the back end of January (as it happens, this particular award is typically a strong indicator of the eventual winner of the Best Picture Oscar).

The Darryl F. Zanuck Award for Outstanding Producer Of Theatrical Motion Pictures

127 Hours (Danny Boyle, Christian Colson)
Black Swan (Scott Franklin, Mike Medavoy, Brian Oliver)
Inception (Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas)
The Fighter (David Hoberman, Todd Lieberman, Mark Wahlberg)
The Kids Are All Right (Gary Gilbert, Jeffrey Levy-Hinte, Celine Rattray)
The King’s Speech (Iain Canning, Emile Sherman, Gareth Unwin)
The Social Network (Dana Brunetti, Cean Chaffin, Michael De Luca, Scott Rudin)
The Town (Basil Iwanyk, Graham King)
Toy Story 3 (Darla K. Anderson)
True Grit (Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Scott Rudin)

The Award for Outstanding Producer Of Animated Theatrical Motion Pictures

Despicable Me (John Cohen, Janet Healy, Christopher Meledandri)
How To Train Your Dragon (Bonnie Arnold)
Toy Story 3 (Darla K. Anderson)

Meanwhile the nominees for the PGA's documentary category were also announced back in December and consist of Client 9: The Rise And Fall Of Eliot Spitzer, Earth Made Of Glass, Inside Job, Smash His Camera, The Tillman Story and Waiting for ‘Superman’, while honourary awards will be handed out to James Cameron (Milestone Award), Tom Hanks, Gary Goetzman (Norman Lear Achievement Award In Television), Scott Rudin (David O. Selznick Achievement Award In Theatrical Motion Pictures), Laura Ziskin (Visionary Award) and RealD (Vanguard Award).

2011 Writers Guild Awards nominees...

Unlike the PGA, the recipients of the Writers Guild Awards usually vary from the eventual Oscar winners due to stringent qualification criteria which has made a number of Academy Award hopefuls such as Toy Story 3, Blue Valentine, The King's Speech and Winter's Bone ineligible. Take a look at their shortlists...

Original Screenplay

Black Swan (Mark Heyman, Andres Heinz, John McLaughlin)
The Fighter (Scott Silver, Paul Tamasy, Eric Johnson, Keith Dorrington)
Inception (Christopher Nolan)
The Kids Are All Right (Stuart Blumberg, Lisa Cholodenko)
Please Give (Nicole Holofcener)

Adapted Screenplay

127 Hours (Danny Boyle, Simon Beaufoy)
I Love You Phillip Morris (John Requa, Glenn Ficarra)
The Social Network (Aaron Sorkin)
The Town (Ben Affleck, Peter Craig, Aaron Stockard)
True Grit (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen)

Documentary Screenplay

Enemies of the People (Rob Lemkin, Thet Sambath)
Freedom Riders (Stanley Nelson)
Gasland (Josh Fox)
Inside Job (Charles Ferguson, Chad Beck, Adam Bolt)
The Two Escobars (Michael Zimbalist, Jeff Zimbalist)
Who is Harry Nilsson (And Why is Everybody Talkin’ About Him?) (John Scheinfeld)

The Producers Guild Awards will be handed out on January 22nd with the Writers Guild Awards following on February 5th.