BAFTA 2012 Picks & Predictions - The Artist To Clean Sweep (Almost)

The 2012 Orange BAFTA Awards ceremony takes place tonight at London's Royal Opera House, the biggest night on the British film calendar once again hosted by Stephen Fry. Going into the usual British bias/nepotism heavy show is the surprise that a French produced movie is odds on favourite to take the top prize. Michael Hazanavicius€™ delightful silent black-and-white movie is expected to take Best Film at the 65th BAFTA ceremony tonight, with George Clooney (The Descendants) and Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) favourites to win the best actor and best actress prizes. None of these people are British!! This is somewhat unprecedented as back in September when Tomas Alfredson€™s methodically paced adaptation of John Le Carre€™s spy thriller Tinker Tailor Solider Spy hit cinemas with an outstanding all British ensemble and an astonishing performance from the much loved and under-appreciated Gary Oldman, it was hard to see any film/performance coming close to beating Tinker, Tailor on a clean sweep. But after being snubbed by far too many awards ceremonies in recent months and criminally not awarded a Best Picture nomination, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is incredibly not expected to compete in these major awards categories. This is probably the only year that this could ever happen though I do suspect it will take a few scalps tonight. Surprisingly, as I'm usually very vocal about how wrong the BAFTA's are, I'm actually in agreement with many of the choices I expect them to make tonight. Here's how I think tonight will go down, my picks and predictions below; BEST FILM THE ARTIST (it should win and it will win... though I can't believe I am backing against a British movie at the BAFTAs and it could bite me in the ass) THE DESCENDANTS DRIVE THE HELP TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY DIRECTOR THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius (it should and will win) DRIVE Nicolas Winding Refn HUGO Martin Scorsese TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Tomas Alfredson WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN Lynne Ramsay OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM MY WEEK WITH MARILYN SENNA SHAME TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY (well it's definitely going to win this one and should) WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN LEADING ACTOR BRAD PITT Moneyball GARY OLDMAN Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy (he should win and will win.... he will get the Tinker Tailor sympathy from votes not picking the film as Best Picture. Clooney is odds on but I'm saying the Brit will triumph) GEORGE CLOONEY The Descendants JEAN DUJARDIN The Artist MICHAEL FASSBENDER Shame LEADING ACTRESS B‰R‰NICE BEJO The Artist MERYL STREEP The Iron Lady (you play Maggie Thatcher and you are bound to win... this one set in stone.) MICHELLE WILLIAMS My Week with Marilyn TILDA SWINTON We Need to Talk About Kevin (should win... thought Tilda was on another level here) VIOLA DAVIS The Help SUPPORTING ACTOR CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER Beginners (should and will win) JIM BROADBENT The Iron Lady JONAH HILL Moneyball KENNETH BRANAGH My Week with Marilyn PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN The Ides of March SUPPORTING ACTRESS CAREY MULLIGAN Drive JESSICA CHASTAIN The Help JUDI DENCH My Week with Marilyn MELISSA MCCARTHY Bridesmaids OCTAVIA SPENCER The Help (will win and probably should win in a week category) ORIGINAL MUSIC THE ARTIST Ludovic Bource (should and will win) THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross HUGO Howard Shore TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Alberto Iglesias WAR HORSE John Williams CINEMATOGRAPHY THE ARTIST Guillaume Schiffman (should and will win) THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO Jeff Cronenweth HUGO Robert Richardson TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Hoyte van Hoytema WAR HORSE Janusz Kaminski EDITING THE ARTIST Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius (should and will win) DRIVE Mat Newman HUGO Thelma Schoonmaker SENNA Gregers Sall, Chris King TINKER TAILOR SOLIDER SPY Dino Jonsater ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY THE ARTIST Michel Hazanavicius (should and will win) BRIDESMAIDS Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig THE GUARD John Michael McDonagh THE IRON LADY Abi Morgan MIDNIGHT IN PARIS Woody Allen ADAPTED SCREENPLAY THE DESCENDANTS Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash (should win for my money) THE HELP Tate Taylor THE IDES OF MARCH George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon MONEYBALL Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Bridget O€™Connor, Peter Straughan (will win) OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER ATTACK THE BLOCK Joe Cornish (Director/Writer) BLACK POND Will Sharpe (Director/Writer), Tom Kingsley (Director), Sarah Brocklehurst (Producer) CORIOLANUS Ralph Fiennes (Director) SUBMARINE Richard Ayoade (Director/Writer) TYRANNOSAUR Paddy Considine (Director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (Producer) (should and will win) FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE INCENDIES Denis Villeneuve, Luc Déry, Kim McGraw PINA Wim Wenders, Gian-Piero Ringel POTICHE François Ozon, Eric Altmayer, Nicolas Altmayer A SEPARATION Asghar Farhadi (will win and obviously should but I'll watch The Skin I Live In a thousand times over this) THE SKIN I LIVE IN Pedro Almodóvar, Agustin Almodóvar DOCUMENTARY GEORGE HARRISON: LIVING IN THE MATERIAL WORLD Martin Scorsese PROJECT NIM James Marsh, Simon Chinn (should and will win) SENNA Asif Kapadia ANIMATED FILM THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Steven Spielberg (should and will win in a year desperately missing a good Pixar) ARTHUR CHRISTMAS Sarah Smith RANGO Gore Verbinski PRODUCTION DESIGN THE ARTIST Laurence Bennett, Robert Gould HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS €“ PART 2 Stuart Craig, Stephenie McMillan (bound to give the last Harry Potter a BAFTA somewhere) HUGO Dante Ferretti, Francesca Lo Schiavo (should win) TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Maria Djurkovic, Tatiana MacDonald WAR HORSE Rick Carter, Lee Sandales COSTUME DESIGN THE ARTIST Mark Bridges HUGO Sandy Powell (Should win) JANE EYRE Michael O€™Connor MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jill Taylor TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY Jacqueline Durran (will win) MAKE UP & HAIR THE ARTIST Julie Hewett, Cydney Cornell HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS €“ PART 2 Amanda Knight, Lisa Tomblin HUGO Morag Ross, Jan Archibald THE IRON LADY Marese Langan (will win and probably should) MY WEEK WITH MARILYN Jenny Shircore SOUND THE ARTIST Nadine Muse, Gérard Lamps, Michael Krikorian (should and will win) HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS €“ PART 2 James Mather, Stuart Wilson, Stuart Hilliker, Mike Dowson, Adam Scrivener HUGO Philip Stockton, Eugene Gearty, Tom Fleischman, John Midgley TINKER TAILOR SOLDIER SPY John Casali, Howard Bargroff, Doug Cooper, Stephen Griffiths, Andy Shelley WAR HORSE Stuart Wilson, Gary Rydstrom, Andy Nelson, Tom Johnson, Richard Hymns SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS THE ADVENTURES OF TINTIN: THE SECRET OF THE UNICORN Joe Letteri HARRY POTTER AND THE DEATHLY HALLOWS €“ PART 2 Tim Burke, John Richardson, Greg Butler, David Vickery (will win) HUGO Rob Legato, Ben Grossman, Joss Williams RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, R. Christopher White (should win) WAR HORSE Ben Morris, Neil Corbould