BAFTA 2010 Predictions

So BAFTA just released its nominations for the 2010 awards, and if you havent seen them yet, I suggest you go check them out at http://www.britfilms.tv/index.php?id=9740 and then head back here for my predictions. I am going to list both who I WANT to win each award, and who I honestly feel WILL win the Award, and you will see at the end the tallies for both of these scenarios.

Who do YOU think will win? Let me know in comments

Award	Want to Win	Think Will Win
Rising Star Award	Jesse Eisenburg	Carey Mulligan
Short Film	No opinion	No Opinion
Short Animation	Gruffalo	Gruffalo
Make up and hair	Coco Before Chanel	Coco Before Chanel
Special Visual Effects	Avatar	Avatar
Sound	Avatar	Hurt Locker
Costume Design	Coco Before Chanel	Coco Before Chanel
Editing	Up In The Air	The Hurt Locker
Cinematography	The Road	Avatar
Music	Up	Up
Supporting Actress	Anna Kendrick	Mo’nique
Supporting Actor	Christoph Waltz	Christoph Waltz
Leading Actress	Audrie Tautou	Carey Mulligan
Leading Actor	Sam Rockwell, but on the list George Clooney	Jeff Bridges
Animated Film	Up	Up
Foreign Language Film	Let the Right One In	Let the Right One In
Adapted Screenplay	District 9	District 9
Original Screenplay	Up	Inglorious Basterds
Director	James Cameron	Katheryn Bigelow
Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer	Duncan Jones	Duncan Jones
Best British Film	Moon	An Education
Best Film	Avatar	Avatar

WANT	THINK
Avatar: 4 Coco Before Chanel: 3 Up: 3 Up in the Air: 3 Moon: 2 District 9: 1 Gruffalo: 1 Inglorious Basterds: 1 Let The Right One In: 1 The Road: 1 An Education: 0 Crazy Heart: 0 Precious: 0 The Hurt Locker: 0	Avatar: 3 The Hurt Locker: 3 An Education: 2 Coco Before Chanel: 2 Up: 2 Crazy Heart: 1 District 9: 1 Gruffalo: 1 Inglorious Basterds: 2 Let the Right One In: 1 Moon: 1 Precious: 1 The Road: 0 Up in the Air: 0

Catching Fire Review

Possibly the most eagerly awaited Young Adult novel this year, Catching Fire, part two of Suzanne Collins' epic Hunger Games Trilogy, comes out on September 7th.

Picking up a few months after where book 1 left off, Katniss and Peeta are about to embark on their victory tour, having survived the Hunger Games, but all is not fine in Panem. President Snow is furious at the survival of two Tributes, and dissenters in the district are rising up - the rebellion against the Capitol is beginning, and the star-crossed lovers from District12 are its accidental figureheads.

From the opening page, I found myself enthralled, unable to put the book down, with twist after twist hitting you on an almost page by page basis. This is storytelling at it's very best, and frankly this book is so visual, its as if you are watching a movie unfold on the page.

Not in a long time has a book like this captured my imagination. For anyone who thought Hunger Games was powerful, this is just something else entirely, it takes the world of the Hunger Games, and makes it even more terrible.

We get to see the other districts, we get to really explore these other characters, who until now we have only seen as brief tableaux as we follow Katniss in The Hunger Games, in their full potency, and realise there is much more going on than what meets the eye.

If Book 3 is even half as good as this, this trilogy will go down as one of the great distopian stories of all time, and I for one, cannot wait, because Catching Fire is the best book, bar none, I've read this year.


James Gordon