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“Two men in a room” it may be, but Tom Hooper’s movie starring Colin Firth as King George VI overcoming a stammer looks unstoppable this awards season. Next and final stop: The Oscars. (via TIME)
The King’s Speech was always likely to do well at its home awards ceremony and it won exactly half of its 14 nominations, with its seven BAFTAs Sunday night equalling Slumdog Millionaire‘s tally from two years ago but falling slightly short of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid‘s record of nine, followed by The Killing Fields with eight.
(More on TIME.com: See pictures of the next member of the Royal Family, Kate Middleton.)
Not that records were on anyone’s minds on a typically wet night at London’s Royal Opera House, where NewsFeed braved the Red Carpet for you, dear reader. And The King’s Speech‘s producers and writers — a mixture of Brits and Americans — paid due reverence to the importance of Britain’s annual film awards, calling it “the one-two punch with Oscar.”
In addition to taking home Best Film and Outstanding British Film, the movie swept all the acting awards it was nominated for, starting with Best Supporting Actor/Actress for Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, and culminating in Colin Firth’s Best Actor. He started his acceptance speech with, simply, “I like it here,” no doubt a reference to his landmark back-to-back victory following A Single Man 12 months ago. Perhaps the only surprise was Hooper losing out to David Fincher (The Social Network) for Best Director.
Away from the monarchy and Best Actress followed the form guide to date, as Natalie Portman claimed it for her portrayal of Nina Sayers, the ballet dancer seemingly on the verge of a nervous breakdown, in Black Swan with similar favorite Toy Story 3 taking Best Animation. Best foreign film went to the original Swedish version of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. And while The Social Network only won three BAFTAs to The King’s Speech‘s seven, it rightly won Best Adapted Screenplay for Aaron Sorkin’s masterful script. “My father wouldn’t consider me a real writer until I won a BAFTA,” Sorkin told NewsFeed on the red carpet beforehand, “so I’m grateful to the British Academy for the nomination.” Sorkin dismissed the suggestion that he knew he had a hit on his hands, saying, “I don’t imagine anyone outside of my immediate family is going to care about anything I write.”
(More on TIME.com: See the top Hollywood remakes)
Sorkin and Fincher’s leading man, Jesse Eisenberg, was also in attendance and with it looking unlikely that Eisenberg would topple Firth on home turf, NewsFeed decided to ask him a different kind of question. What’s more fun: appearing with Mark Zuckerberg on Saturday Night Live or appearing in the pouring rain at the BAFTAs in London? “The weather was better indoors and Mark was really nice but otherwise this beats it.”
All concerned with The Social Network will be hoping for better weather — and results — at the Oscars in two weeks time.