Awards season is becoming increasingly mind numbing when the only thing people really care about is the Oscars. The Brits in particular are a perplexing bunch. Danny Boyle, a very fine director who picked up an Oscar in '09 for Slumdog Millionaire, is up in the Best Director category for 127 Hours, as is the film for... Best British Production. Evidently some of the money came from Film 4, but is that not a bit like calling Manchester Utd an Irish club when it was part owned by Dermott Desmond!?
Anyhow, an actual British production leads the way with 14 nominations, as The King's Speech looks to pick up more than just a Best Actor gong for Colin Firth - which is the way most other awards ceremonies are going. The late, great Pete Postlethwaite is nominated for The Town - for all of seven minutes screen time - while the brilliant Hailee Steinfeld picked up a Best Actress nod for the equally impressive True Grit. Nothing wrong with that other than she seems to have been submitted for the Best Supporting Actress category in most other awards shows - where the young actress probably stood her best chance of winning. Julianne Moore, Natalie Portman and Annette Benning will fight it out for Best Actress, really. Jennifer Lawrence not being nominated for Winter's Bone is just plain inexplicable, but BAFTA needed to make room for Lesley Manville in and Miranda Richardson for Another Year and Made in Dagenham in the Best Supporting category - thus Steinfeld was moved and Lawrence lost out. The Social Network picked up less than half of the nods that The King's Speech did, with just six, and it's best shot at a gong is probably Best Adapted Screenplay - with Chris Nolan and Boyle up for Best Director. Best Film will go to The King's Speech.
Regardless, they're pointless when it comes to the Oscars, which, again, is all most people care about. It also has the biggest knock-on effect in terms of box-office. For more of an indication of who'll win what in the Academy Awards, look at the Guild awards; acting, writing, directing and producing.