Okay, so the BAFTA longlist came out a while ago, and here are my scattered thoughts on it. Yay. Some of these nominations are great; some are all fucked up. Also, I suck at predicting nominees...deal with it.
Best Picture
Babel, Bobby, Casino Royale, Children of Men, The Departed, The Devil Wears Prada, Flags of Our Fathers, The History Boys, Last King of Scotland, Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal, Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen, United 93, Volver
The best 5 nominees - The Departed, Children of Men, Pan's Labyrinth, Volver, Casino Royale
The likely nominees - The Queen, The Departed, The History Boys, Babel, Children of Men
WTF? - Bobby (it must have more support than everyone thinks), Flags of Our Fathers (Letters from Two Jima is fanfreakingtastic but not nominated, this is...eh), Notes on a Scandal (mediocre movie), no Dreamgirls WTF!!!
Best Director
Apocalypto, Babel, Bobby, Casino Royale, Children of Men, The Departed, Flags of Our Fathers, The History Boys, Last King of Scotland, Little Miss Sunshine, Notes on a Scandal, Pan's Labyrinth, The Queen, United 93, Volver
The Best 5 nominees - Scorsese (Departed), Cuaron (Children of Men), Greengrass (United 93), del Toro (Pan's Labyrinth), Almodovar (Volver) - Eastwood for Two Jima was actually better than him but w/e
The likely nominees - The Departed, Children of Men, The Queen, United 93, Babel
WTF? - Dear Bill Condon, stop being snubbed. Love, me. A lot of these movies don't have the best direction, either...or at least, not my choices for best direction. (ew, Mel Gibson.)
Best Actor
Cillian Murphy - The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Clive Owen - Children of Men
Daniel Craig - Casino Royale
Forest Whitaker - The Last King of Scotland
Greg Kinnear - Little Miss Sunshine
Johnny Depp - Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest
Leonardo DiCaprio - Blood Diamond
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Departed
Matt Damon - The Departed
Peter O'Toole - Venus
Richard Griffiths - The History Boys
Sacha Baron Cohen - Borat
Timothy Spall - Pierrepoint
Toby Jones - Infamous
Will Smith - The Pursuit of Happyness
The Best 5 nominees - Owen, DiCaprio (Departed!!!), Whittaker, Cohen, Damon
The likely nominees - DiCaprio (Departed), Craig, Smith, Whittaker, O'Toole
WTF? - Depp EWWW. Griffiths (understandable though). Spall (haven't even heard of that movie). Jones.
Best Actress
Annette Bening - Running with Scissors
Beyonce Knowles - Dreamgirls
Cate Blanchett - Notes on a Scandal
Emma Thompson - Stranger than Fiction
Eva Green - Casino Royale
Helen Mirren - The Queen
Ivana Baquero - Pan's Labyrinth
Jodie Whittaker - Venus
Judi Dench - Notes on a Scandal
Juliette Binoche - Breaking And Entering
Kate Winslet - Little Children
Kirsten Dunst - Marie Antoinette
Meryl Streep - The Devil Wears Prada
Penelope Cruz - Volver
Renee Zellweger - Miss Potter
The best 5 nominees - Streep, Dench, Winslet, Cruz, Mirren
The likely nominees - uh...see above! YAY!
WTF? - weird placement here. BAFTA, thank you for nominating Cate Blanchett where she belongs...but unfortunately, you'll fuck this up later with Anne Hathaway and the other weird placements here (Thompson, Green, Whittaker). It's nice to see some great performances that haven't gotten attention here, though (Thompson, Binoche, Dunst).
Best Supporting Actor
Alan Arkin - Little Miss Sunshine
Ben Affleck - Hollywoodland
Bill Nighy - Notes On A Scandal
Brad Pitt - Babel
Djimon Hounsou - Blood Diamond
Eddie Murphy - Dreamgirls
Gael Garcia Bernal - Babel
Jack Nicholson - The Departed
James McAvoy - The Last King of Scotland
Leslie Phillips - Venus
Mark Wahlberg - The Departed
Michael Caine - Children of Men
Michael Sheen - The Queen
Stanley Tucci - The Devil Wears Prada
Steve Carell - Little Miss Sunshine
The Best 5 nominees - Nicholson, Murphy, Affleck, Caine, Carell
The likely nominees - Nighy, Murphy, Nicholson, McAvoy, Sheen
WTF? - I really like Little Miss Sunshine but I still don't understand Arkin's hype. Bernal. MCAVOY IS A LEAD!!!, Tucci. It's nice to see Caine.
Best Supporting Actress
Abigail Breslin - Little Miss Sunshine
Adriana Barraza - Babel
Anne Hathaway - The Devil Wears Prada
Cate Blanchett - Babel
Diane Lane - Hollywoodland
Emily Blunt - The Devil Wears Prada
Emily Watson - Miss Potter
Frances de la Tour - The History Boys
Helen McCrory - The Queen
Jennifer Hudson - Dreamgirls
Judi Dench - Casino Royale
Rinko Kikuchi - Babel
Sharon Stone - Bobby
Sylvia Syms - The Queen
Toni Collette - Little Miss Sunshine
The Best 5 nominees - Hudson, Kikuchi, Collette, Barazza, Breslin (I'm boring)
Likely 5 - Hudson, Kikuchi, Barazza, Breslin, Blunt
WTF? - Emily Blunt's extreme supporters still make me scratch my head. Good, yes, but the most overrated performance of the year. And...WTF is Anne Hathaway doing in Supporting?!?!?!? She's clearly lead (oh, and terrible). That said, this is the most WTF?y category of all. Blanchett (sucked in Babel). Lane (great, but hasn't had any attention at all). Watson. De la Tour. McCrory, Syms (goddamn you, The Queen). Dench. You get it.
Overall? Good job, BAFTA. Except on that Anne Hathaway thing.
