UK Film Network

Douglas McFarlane at the BAFTA Film Awards 2011

Today BAFTA announced the shortlist for the final round of voting.  If you're a film fan, I would recommend you look at the film trailers to ensure you don't waste your time and money, as there are a number of films which may be technically brilliant but fail to connect with some audiences.  The Artist, Tinker Tailor Solider Spy and Hugo didn't float my boat and Iron Lady was only worth watching for Meryl Streep's incredible performance. Being a Scotsman and from the shipbuilding town of Clydebank, she was a rather unpleasant character in my life. My Week With Marilyn was a more interesting and engaging story with Michelle Williams a very convincing Marilyn Monroe but I think Meryl will probably win more BAFTA/Oscar votes.

Normally I'm not a George Clooney fan, as his acting can be a bit stale but he does enough in The Descendents for voters to finally cut him some slack and reward his hard work over the years.  Brad Pitt is also an acquired taste, and while his acting in Moneyball does go beyond his normal bland performance, the film is about baseball. Yawn ! 

Scotsman Peter Mullan has more talent than most Hollywood actors, as witnessed in Tyrannosaur and Warhorse, but I don't see much publicity for him in the Hollywood Reporter or Variety magazine which is sent free to award voters and therefore very influential. He is sure to pickup a BAFTA Scotland award however and deservedly so.

Finally, on the documentary front, Senna is likely to win. I'm not a formula one fan, but this documentary was gripping to watch. We knew he only had a short ten year career but the vast amount of well-edited behind-the-scenes footage available, turns this into an incredible story of a down-to-earth young go-karter who faced an uphill battle in the political world of Formula One.

I'm looking forward to the film awards this year as I think there's going to be a lot of disappointed Hollywood A-Listers around. I'll try to get a few pictures of some glum faces even though it may be life threatening. I'm also curious to see if Martin Scorsese being awarded a fellowship will influence voters, bumping Hugo and his George Harrison documentary further up the nominations than they deserve.

http://www.ukfilmnetwork.com/magazine/read/orange-british-academy-film-awards-in-2012---nominations-announced_104.html

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Douglas McFarlane is Producer/Director of Making It In Hollywood, an award winning documentary about what it takes to be successful in the film industry.  http://tinyurl.com/hollywoodfilm