Well, it’s all over but the shouting.  (You think I'm kidding, the crowds were insane!) The winners have been declared for the Orange British Academy Film Awards for 2012 held tonight February 12 at the Royal Opera House in London.  Miss Piggy was a lovely and gracious hostess  and a welcome addition to the regular red-carpet personalities like Edith Bowman and  Fearne Cotton. Jon Hamm showed up just to class up the joint, as did presenter Penelope Cruz.

Sir Tom Jones kicked things off with a musical homage to 50 years of James Bond. It was a little difficult to discern the words, but he's still got the voice. Host Stephen Fry, was, as always witty, charming and erudite.

You’ll find the complete list below, but in case you haven’t heard yet, The Artist swept almost every category for which it was nominated. That’s not really all that surprising and it does pretty much seal the deal for the Oscars in two weeks time. If Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and its star Gary Oldman were going to pull any upsets, this would have been the place for that very British film to do it.  TTSS did win Best Adapted Screenplay (which was deserved. I thought it would. The writers are British, of course, but one of the cowriters, Peter Straughan’s wife Bridget O’Connor, died before seeing it produced) as well as Best British Film. 

So, needless to say, Oldman and Michael Fassbender were denied and Jean Dujardin is going home with the golden mask. (Although I would have liked to have seen Fassy get it, I thought surely the British Academy would see fit to reward Oldman. I do think, however, that Dujardin’s win puts the nail in Clooney’s Oscar coffin.)  George did show up of course, just in case. As did Brad Pitt. George was flying solo and Brad was sans Ange. He must have left her in Berlin. Love the pic of George and Colin Firth sharing a bro-hug. And only the beautiful Livia Firth could get away with that manly tux on the red carpet.

Ralph Fiennes (Coriolanus) was denied in favor of another first-time actor turned director Paddy Considine who was awarded the Best Debut by a British Director, Writer or Prducer prize for Tyrannosaur.  Ralph looked fantastic though and we all know that’s more important.

Meryl Streep glammed it up and put on the ritz as if she expected to win. Everyone predicted it was in the bag for her in Blighty and they were right.  (There were ads for The Iron Lady during the BBCAmerica telecast of the BAFTAs that emphasize the fact that it's been 29 years since she won an Oscar. Heavy-handed in my opinion.) Viola Davis lost out, but her costar Octavia Spencer continued her run and won Best Supporting Actress for The Help. (Who were those guys Spencer had with her? They look like bodyguards.) Poor Michelle Williams who seemed a front-runner at one point, has all but been forgotten. She looked good though. 

Kenneth Branagh lost out to Christopher Plummer, but I’m just glad he showed up (Plummer didn't). I can’t get enough of him. He’s still as adorable as he was in Henry V. (And can I just say that I freakin’ LOVE that his wife isn’t some waifish trophy?)  Although, I do have to say Gary Oldman always looks like someone just handed him the keys to the kingdom whenever you see him with his arm around wife no. 4, Alexandra Edenborough.

One category that was a surprise: the Orange Rising Star Award. Last year it was won by Tom Hardy, and in the five years before that it was won by the likes of Kristen Stewart, Noel Clarke, Shia Labeouf, Eva Green and James McAvoy. This year the nominees were Chris Hemsworth (Thor, The Avengers, Snow White and the Huntsman) who showed up with his gorgeous pregnant bride, Elsa Pataky, Eddie Redmayne, (My Week with Marilyn, Pillars of the Earth, Les Miserables), Tom Hiddleston (Thor, The Avengers, Deep Blue Sea, War Horse, Midnight in Paris), Chris O’Dowd (Bridesmaids for which he won an IFTA the night before, The Boat That Rocked, Friends with Kids) and Adam Deacon (Kidulthood, Adulthood). Guess who won? That’s right, the actor you’ve never heard of. I guess the other four don’t need a leg up, at least according to UK cinema-goers, who vote for the award. Deacon couldn't believe it either, calling it "surreal" before saying "Fank you".  Actually Adam Deacon appeared in a movie ten years ago with Gerard Butler. Deacon was in Shooters when he was just 16. I guess that’s a reason to watch it again. *coughlikeIneedonecough*

Martin Scorsese was given the British Academy Fellowship Award,sort of a 'lifetime achievement' award, presented to him by Max von Sydow. It was an oddly introduced tribute with only two taped testimonials, one by Robert De Niro and another by Christopher Lee (who appeared in Hugo this year). I guess  they couldn't given him this one and Best Director, so that went to Michel Hazanavicius for The Artist. (By the way, how does a movie with no dialogue win Best Original Screenplay?)

Some exciting news was leaked on the red carpet as well. Bond girls Naomie Harris and Berenice Marlohe, who both looked stunning, were in attendance and Harris revealed that Skyfall would include “a lot” of Daniel Craig nakedness. You read that right. She said “nakedness”.  Now, while I don’t expect Craig to go all ‘Fassbender’, another slow climb out of the sea, dripping wet in those tight blue trunks would be appreciated. Just sayin’.

The biggest surprise of the night, Hugh Jackman and Russell Crowe showed up to hand out the BAFTA for Best Picture…The Artist. (Since it was a suprise they didn't walk the red carpet. It would have exploded from the hotness.)

So here’s your complete list of winners as well as a lot of pretty pics of the pretty people.  Meet you back here in two weeks for the Oscars!

Outstanding British Contribution To Film

John Hurt

Best Original Screenplay

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Kristin Wiig, Annie Mumolo – Bridesmaids
John Michael McDonagh – The Guard
Abi Morgan – The Iron Lady
Woody Allen – Midnight In Paris

Best Supporting Actress

Carey Mulligan – Drive
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Judi Dench – My Week With Marilyn
Melissa McCarthy – Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer – The Help

Outstanding British Film

My Week With Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best Supporting Actor

Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Jim Broadbent – The Iron Lady
Jonah Hill – Moneyball
Philip Seymour Hoffman – The Ides of March
Christopher Plummer – Beginners

Best Production Design

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
War Horse

Best Debut by a British Director, Writer or Producer

Richard Ayoade – Submarine
Paddy Considine, Diarmid Scrimshaw – Tyrannosaur
Joe Cornish – Attack the Block
Ralph Fiennes – Coriolanus
Will Sharpe, Tom Kingsley, Sarah Brocklehurst – Black Pond

Best Film Not in the English Language

Incendies
Pina
Potiche
A Separation
The Skin I Live In

Best Costume Design

The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
My Week With Marilyn
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Makeup & Hair

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
The Iron Lady
My Week With Marilyn

Best Cinematography

The Artist
The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
War Horse

Best Film Editing

The Artist
Drive
Senna
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Sound

The Artist
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
War Horse

Best Original Music

Ludovic Bource – The Artist
Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross – The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
Howard Shore – Hugo
Alberto Iglesias – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
John Williams – War Horse

Best Visual Effects

The Adventures of Tintin
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Hugo
Rise of the Planet of the Apes
War Horse

Best Animated Short

Abuelas
Bobby Yeah
A Morning Stroll

Best Short Film

Chalk
Mwansa The Great
Only Sound Remains
Pitch Black Heist
Two And Two

Best Film

The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Help
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Director

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
Martin Scorsese – Hugo
Tomas Alfredson – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
Lynne Ramsay – We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best Actor

George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame
Brad Pitt – Moneyball
Gary Oldman – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Actress

Berenice Bejo – The Artist
Viola Davis – The Help
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton – We Need To Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn

Best Adapted Screenplay

Jim Rash, Nat Faxon, Alexander Payne – The Descendants
Tate Taylor – The Help
George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon – The Ides of March
Steve Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin - Moneyball
Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan – Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy

Best Animated Film

The Adventures of Tintin
Arthur Christmas
Rango

Best Documentary

George Harrison: Living In A Material World
Project Nim
Senna

Rising Star Award

Adam Deacon
Chris Hemsworth
Tom Hiddleston
Chris O'Dowd
Eddie Redmayne

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It’s Friday people, are you ready for another dose of your daily Fassbender?

The awards season carnival rolled into London last night, January 19, for a pre-BAFTA tease. Michael Fassbender and his Shame co-star Carey Mulligan (along with other assorted Brits) graced yet another red carpet, this time in front of the BFI Southbank Theater, for the London Critics Circle Film Awards. The group of more than 120 critics, broadcasters and writers from the U.K  moved their awards up a few weeks, from mid-February, to avoid being an irrelevant awards season afterthought.

Fassy was presented with the “British Actor of the Year” Award (for both Shame and A Dangerous Method), British Actress was Olivia Coleman from Tyrannosaur, Paddy Considine’s directorial debut that is getting raves, but has yet to hit America, as well as her role as Maggie Thatcher’s daughter Carol in The Iron Lady, while The Artist’s Jean Dujardin won Best Actor of the Year. Film of the Year was The Artist, picked up by Best Director, Michel Havanicius. All of which should make Harvey Weinstein very happy.

While Drive and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy led the nominations going into the prize-giving, TTSS came away with just one, Maria Djurkovic won a technical-achievement award for her production design.

Asghar Farhadi's A Separation earned awards in three categories: Foreign Language Film of the Year, Screenwriter of the Year (Farhadi) and Best Supporting Actress (Sareh Bayat).

Meryl Streep tied with Anna Paquin (Margaret) in the best-actress category for The Iron Lady.

Kenneth Branagh (I have adored that little rubber-faced Irishman since Henry V) earned Best Supporting Actor for his role as Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn. (And yet they went with Anna Paquin over Michelle Williams. Will BAFTA and Oscar look away as well? I think the buzz is gone from Williams’ performance, despite her semi-naked magazine covers)

Here is the complete list of winners:

FILM OF THE YEAR

The Artist

CRITICS' CIRCLE TOP 10 FILMS of 2011

1. The Artist

2. A Separation

3. Drive

4. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

5. The Tree of Life

6. We Need to Talk About Kevin

7. Melancholia

8. Shame

9. Margaret

10. The Descendants

The Attenborough Award: BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR

We Need to Talk About Kevin  (over TTSS? That’s a shocker. And I hope Coriolanus was somewhere on the list)

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR

A Separation

DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR

Senna

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist

SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR

Asghar Farhadi – A Separation

The Virgin Atlantic Award: BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER

Andrew Haigh – Weekend

ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Jean Dujardin – The Artist

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR (Tied)

Anna Paquin – Margaret

Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady

SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn

SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR

Sareh Bayat – A Separation

BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR

Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method, Shame

The Moët & Chandon Award: BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR

Olivia Colman – The Iron Lady, Tyrannosaur

YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR

Craig Roberts – Submarine

The Sky 3D Award: TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Maria Djurkovic, production design – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The Dilys Powell Award: EXCELLENCE IN FILM

Nicolas Roeg 

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Variety is reporting that Kate Winslet has signed on to star in Kenneth Branagh’s  The Potato Pie Society, an adaptation of “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel” by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows.

The book’s synopsis:

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb….

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet (Winslet) begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises, and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Shooting is set to begin in March on the film, which Branagh has described as "a beautiful romance, very touching and uplifting.”

Winslet previously played Ophelia to Branagh’s Hamlet in the latter’s acclaimed 1996 reimagining (and my very favorite film version of Shakespeare’s play). The Potato Pie Society has a script by Don Roos (The Opposite of Sex, Marley& Me, The Other Woman) and will be released by 20^th Century Fox.  Enjoy the pics of Kate and Kenneth from Hamlet!

Across the pond on Sunday Night (tis the season) the Moet British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs) were held at Old Billingsgate Market in London.  Now this is the one I would really have loved to have been invited to.  Celebrating the achievements of Ralph Fiennes and Kenneth Branagh were Chiwetel Ejiofor (swoon), Brendan Gleeson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Stephen Campbell-Moore, Chris O’Dowd, Dominic West, Dominic Cooper, Eddie Marsan, Hayley Atwell, Gemma Arterton, Jaime Winstone, Ruth Wilson, Rebecca “Homewrecker” Hall, Charles Dance and oh yeah…my current boyfriend, Michael Fassbender who walked away with the Best Actor prize for Shame.

Vanessa Redgrave (as expected) won Best Supporting Actress for her turn in Ralph Fiennes’ Coriolanus.

The following is a complete list of the winners:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM Sponsored by Moët & Chandon

TYRANNOSAUR

BEST DIRECTOR Sponsored by The Creative Partnership

Lynne Ramsay – WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR] Sponsored by 3 Mills Studios

Paddy Considine – TYRANNOSAUR

BEST SCREENPLAY Sponsored by BBC Films

Richard Ayoade – SUBMARINE

BEST ACTRESS Sponsored by M.A.C

Olivia Colman – TYRANNOSAUR

BEST ACTOR

Michael Fassbender – SHAME

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS

Vanessa Redgrave – CORIOLANUS

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR

Michael Smiley – KILL LIST

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER Sponsored by STUDIOCANAL

Tom Cullen – WEEKEND

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION Sponsored by Deluxe142

WEEKEND

THE RAINDANCE AWARD Sponsored by Exile Media

LEAVING BAGHDAD

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

Maria Djurkovic – Production Design – TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY

BEST DOCUMENTARY

SENNA

BEST BRITISH SHORT

CHALK

BEST FOREIGN INDEPENDENT FILM

A SEPARATION

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution by an actor to British Film)

Sponsored by Working Title

RALPH FIENNES

THE VARIETY AWARD

KENNETH BRANAGH

THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE

GRAHAM EASTON

Hosted this year by Chris O’Dowd, the Awards were created in 1998 to celebrate merit and achievement in independently funded British filmmaking, to honor new talent, and to promote British films and filmmaking to a wider public.

Kenneth Branagh as Sir Laurence Olivier, gets a dressing down from Dame Sybil Thorndike, played by Judi Dench, in this clip from My Week with Marilyn. I can not even imagine anyone talking to Sir Larry this way, but apparently if you’re a both a Dame and an esteemed lioness of the English theater, you can get away with it. He certainly looks abashed.  Dame Sybil is offering moral support to the perpetually tardy Marilyn Monroe (Michelle Williams pictured above with Dougray Scott as Arthur Miller) on the set of 1957’s The Prince and the Showgirl, a film which starred and was directed by Lord Olivier.  Apparently the experience so rattled him that he didn’t direct another film until 1970 (Chekov’s The Three Sisters).

My Week with Marilyn, directed by Simon Curtis is about Colin Clark (Eddie Redmayne), an employee of Sir Laurence Olivier's, who documents the tense interaction between Olivier and Marilyn Monroe during production of The Prince and the Showgirl, as well as his own relationship with the star.

Enjoy the clip, the film opens Wednesday November 23 in the US and Canada and Friday the 25^th in the UK.

I meant to post this yesterday and forgot all about it.  Geri Halliwell looks absolutely beautiful at the world premiere of ‘The Boat That Rocked’ in London, England.

Also at the premiere:  Sir Paul McCartney and his lady love Nancy Shevell, Jane Seymour, Tallulah Riley, Danny Jones and Tom Fletcher of McFly, Rhys Ifans, Tom Sturridge and the still handsome Kenneth Branagh.

imdb.com describes the plot as:   A period comedy about an illegal radio station in the North Sea in the 1960′s. 

Lots of pics after the break

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