Each year, there are several award ceremonies that take place before the Academy Awards. These ceremonies often give us a glimpse into who may be a favorite to win a coveted Oscar. Usually, the Golden Globes are considered a good indicator, but this does not always prove true. Adrien Brody, who was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Drama by the Foreign Press, lost to Jack Nicholson for About Schmidt. But, I think many people were surprised, including him, when he beat out four previous Oscar winners to take home the 2002 Oscar for Best Actor.
Another award ceremony that often gives us clues to the future Oscar winners is the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Awards (BAFTA). The BAFTAs are somewhat younger than the Academy Awards (the BAFTAs started in 1947 and the Academy Awards date back to 1929), but still a highly recognized and very desirable award.
This year’s BAFTAs were held last Sunday night. Who were the bigger winners? The Best Actor and Best Actress awards should come as a surprise to no one who has been keeping award show tabs. Forest Whitaker took home the Best Actor award for playing infamous Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in Last King of Scotland. He can add that the other awards he’s won this year for the same role : Golden Globe award, National Board of Review, U.S.A. award, Satellite award, Broadcast Film Critics Association, Screen Actors Guild, National Society of Film Critics award as well as Film Critics awards from the cities of Boston, Los Angeles, New York, Dallas-Fort Worth, Chicago, and Boston. Will he add an Oscar to those other trophies on February 25th? My money is on “Yes!” Forest has produced an outstanding array of work in his twenty-five year career and I hope he is finally recognized this year.
Who else is almost a shoe-in to receive an Oscar? Helen Mirren is annihilating the competition with her portrayal of England’s Queen Elizabeth in The Queen. She, like Forest, has swept almost every Best Actress award this year. She too won a BAFTA last Sunday (which she can add to her three previous BAFTA wins).
I hope the Academy finally sees fit to give Martin Scorsese a much over due Best Director award. Best Picture is not quite as clear-cut. The Queen won the BAFTA, but is not even nominated for an Oscar. Babel won the Golden Globe, but it does not seem to be an obvious favorite. Letters from Iwo Jima seems to the one of the favorites, but could The Departed sneak in and surprise everyone like Crash did last year? We will just have to watch February 25th to see!