The big bafta con

[bspoytomkin]

If This is England beat Atonement to the Best British Film award at the BAFTAS last night how can Atonement have won the Best Film BAFTA?

Surely logic dictates that if This is England is a better British film than Atonement then it must be a better film than Atonement.

Therefore This is England should also be named as and awarded with the BAFTA for Best Film.

smalltalk.blogs.allocine.co.uk/

[jill]

That is an anomoly isn't it. I suppose different groups of people draw up the short lists for each category? Personally I found it odd that Atonement won out against There Will Be Blood-though I admit I haven't seen the latter yet (not screening outside of London until Friday?), but it looks brilliant and has received massive praise just about everywhere-compared to Citizen Kane/Giant etc, etc. Atonement was a good film, but the best film of the year? Really?

[ladyd]

Do you know what? I am SO glad someone else brought this up. It has bugged me now for two straight days. I have questioned my own intellect, wondered if indeed this assumption was correct, even suspected my head might explode and now I have back-up in the form of you, bspoytomkin, I feel all validated and clever again *chuckles*

It makes no sense does it?

Surely if it's better than 'Atonement' in one category, it's better in them all??

I think we should eletronically beat BAFTA about the head and neck until they deliver the Best Pic gong to it's rightful owner..

[Dave]

There was another bonus Kermode podcast this week... a look back at the BAFTAs.

Anyway, they had an email from someone asking this very question. The answer basically seems to be that the Best British Film award and the Best Film award are selected by entirely different panels.

The emailer pointed out that not only was it weird for This Is England to beat Atonement for the Best British Film award and then for Atonement to win Best Film.... but they also went on to say that surely if This Is England triumphed over Atonement, then surely This Is England should have taken Atonement's place in the Best Film category!

[billywizz]

But isn't it like This is England winning the cup and then Atonement winning the league......then people saying that This Is England should be league champions because they knocked Atonement out of the cup...?

[salvador]

billywizz said:

But isn't it like This is England winning the cup and then Atonement winning the league......then people saying that This Is England should be league champions because they knocked Atonement out of the cup...?

Haha, I like that.

I understand why this thread is here because we are all Meadows fans and want the best but it happens every year. Last year Last King Of Scotland won Best British Film and The Queen won Best Film, they were both nominated in both categories too and no one batted an eyelid.

We won (well shane did) lets not turn into to power hungry glory seekers.

[Companero]

It's great that Shane and co got the recognition they deserve with the BAFTA win and although I prefer THIS IS ENGLAND, I really liked ATONEMENT; thought it was brilliant, in fact, so it's good that both were recognised.