5 Things BAFTA Got Right That The Oscars Won’t (And 5 Things Oscar'll Do Better)

3. Whiplash Winning Technical Awards

Somewhat surprisingly, Damien Chazelle's Oscar wildcard Whiplash was one of the big winners last night, taking one (OK, not so surprisingly) for J.K. Simmons in Best Supporting Actor, as well as one for Best Sound and another for Best Editing. Anyone who's seen Whiplash will know it earned those technical awards (along with the award for Simmons, who's happily the current Oscar favourite for Best Supporting), but you can bet it won't even get a whiff of the technical categories at the Oscars. At the Oscars, campaigning is the name of the game. A lack of successful campaigning is why Selma was almost forgotten this year, while a big push for both American Sniper and The Imitation Game (backed by Oscar chieftains the Weinsteins) is the reason why these two fairly unremarkable films have infiltrated so many of the categories. Whiplash, in comparison, is a small film that no one really expected to make it to the Academy Awards this year at all, and it's up against stiff competition for tech awards. It'll be a big night for indie cinema if Whiplash takes three at the 2015 Oscars as it did at the BAFTAs, but don't count on the film overcoming the expensive campaigns put into action by Hollywood's surest producers.