The BAFTA Awards

Completely agreed. Most of the papers today are talking as if it was the 'right' of the British nominees to win - As far as I'm aware most catagories are open to all nationalities and all nationalities should be judged on an equal basis. I haven't seen The Constant Gardener as yet, and I'm sure it is a magnificent film, it wouldn't have got the various Golden Globe, BAFTA, Oscar noms unless it was, but it certainly didn't have a god given right to win at the BAFTAS just because it was British.
 
The Baftas don't give awarRAB for British films - they are just chosen by the British Academy. So the most deserving films/actors should be rewarded regardless of nationality.

I would have liked to see The Constant Gardener win a couple more as it was an incredible film and I would've certainly picked it over Wallace and Gromit - but it should not have won more awarRAB simply for being British.
 
I don't think anyone on this thread has said the British should win. I'm just surprised at the earlier suggestion that the BAFTAs are notoriously 'pro-British'. I don't think the BAFTAs are about favouring a particular country at all.

However, the idea that the winner 'rises' above the others in the category by being the 'best' is rather simplistic and a bit daft, don't you think? The Best Film category, for example, draws together films of differing style and substance, with various messages, plots, themes and tensions. Determining the winner is a purely subjective thing in the end. It is certainly not, as far as it was explained last night, about trying to isolate the 'most deserving' from the pile of also-rans. Frankly, I don't think any one of those film choices was better than the others.

Clearly, tastes differ as to who the winners 'deserved' to be. You obviously think Wallace and Gromit was less deserving of an award than other films in the British Film category, and you're entitled to your opinion. But I think to describe a film of this calibre and class as 'stupid' is betraying a rather snotty attitude to film-making, British or otherwise. It might not be to your taste, but there is nothing 'stupid' about a film that exemplified so much talent, effort and total joy in the craft.
 
I wanted ziyi Zhang to win Reese's award but damn she beat her to it! I liked Reese's performance in Walk the Line, but Ziyi had that extra something for me. She was amazing in Geisha.
 
I am so pleased the magnificent Brokeback Mountain won over the dreary The Constant Gardener. Both were issue movies, but the former was, first and foremost, an emotional experience, while the latter was clumsy polemic.
 
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