Enduring with a wry smile the loud, punctuated-by-gunfire announcements of which picture shows Americans would most like to toss in the back of their trucks, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts gently tapped the nearest teacup and haltingly named the films it would like to bestow awards upon, if it's not too great a bother. Interestingly, BAFTA gave the majority of its accolades this year to Lincoln, apparently relating to the film's raucous scenes of lawmakers using parliamentary procedure to insult each other, relishing any artwork where men wear proper frilly wigs, or perhaps just appreciating how it paints an America in disarray after that foolish revolution business.
Strangely, the movie that absolutely dominated the UK last year—right down to kicking the Queen out of a helicopter—didn't qualify for Best Film, though Skyfall did qualify for Best British Film, an honor that seems rather superfluous given that it already owns all British films ever. A similar fate befell fellow domestic hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, while the natural inclination toward polite humility even prevented BAFTA from nominating Britain's own Tom Hooper for Best Director, despite Les Miserables earning a Best Picture nod. (Though it bears noting that Steven Spielberg was similarly frozen out.)
All in all, BAFTA seemed distinctly in love with America this year, throwing a rare nomination for Best Director to Quentin Tarantino, and even becoming the first group to put Ben Affleck in the Best Actor category. Maybe last year's unabashed celebration of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy was deemed unseemly, and this is meant as sort of a polite redress. Or maybe it's just that AMERICA RULEZ.
BEST FILM
ARGO Grant Heslov, Ben Affleck, George Clooney
LES MISÉRABLES Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh
LIFE OF PI Gil Netter, Ang Lee, David Womark
LINCOLN Steven Spielberg, Kathleen Kennedy
ZERO DARK THIRTY Mark Boal, Kathryn Bigelow, Megan Ellison
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
ANNA KARENINA Joe Wright, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Paul Webster, Tom Stoppard
THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL John Madden, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin, Ol Parker
LES MISÉRABLES Tom Hooper, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, Debra Hayward, Cameron Mackintosh, William Nicholson, Alain Boublil, Claude-Michel Schönberg, Herbert Kretzmer
SEVEN PSYCHOPATHS Martin McDonagh, Graham Broadbent, Pete Czernin
SKYFALL Sam Mendes, Michael G. Wilson, Barbara Broccoli, Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, John Logan
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
BART LAYTON (Director), DIMITRI DOGANIS (Producer) The Imposter
DAVID MORRIS (Director), JACQUI MORRIS (Director/Producer) McCullin
DEXTER FLETCHER (Director/Writer), DANNY KING (Writer) Wild Bill
JAMES BOBIN (Director) The Muppets
TINA GHARAVI (Director/Writer) I Am Nasrine
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
AMOUR Michael Haneke, Margaret Ménégoz
HEADHUNTERS Morten Tyldum, Marianne Gray, Asle Vatn
THE HUNT Thomas Vinterberg, Sisse Graum Jørgensen, Morten Kaufmann
RUST AND BONE Jacques Audiard, Pascal Caucheteux
UNTOUCHABLE Eric Toledano, Olivier Nakache, Nicolas Duval Adassovsky, Yann Zenou, Laurent Zeitoun
DOCUMENTARY
THE IMPOSTER Bart Layton, Dimitri Doganis
MARLEY Kevin Macdonald, Steve Bing, Charles Steel
McCULLIN David Morris, Jacqui Morris
SEARCHING FOR SUGAR MAN Malik Bendjelloul, Simon Chinn
WEST OF MEMPHIS Amy Berg
ANIMATED FILM
BRAVE Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman
FRANKENWEENIE Tim Burton
PARANORMAN Sam Fell, Chris Butler