The London Film Critics Circle has dished out its nominations for the best of 2011, with the British film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and the American independent Drive each earning six nominations – both, as it happens, directed by Scandinavians.
Another British film, We Need To Talk About Kevin, picked up five nominations, as did the Iranian film A Separation.
Shame and the film with the most all-round momentum behind it, the silent movie The Artist, are just behind them with four each.
The latest adaptation of John Le Carré’s classic spy novel is up for the Film of the Year, British Film of the Year, Screenwriter of the Year, Actor of the Year (for Gary Oldman), British Actor of the Year (Gary Oldman) and the award for Technical Achievement (Production Design).
Drive is up against Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy in the contests for Film of the Year, Actor of the Year (Ryan Gosling) and Technical Achievement (Original Score), as well as earning nods for Director of the Year, Supporting Actor of the Year (Albert Brooks) and British Actress of the Year (Carey Mulligan).
Iran’s A Separation, which won the top prize at the Berlin Film Festival, is in the running for Foreign Language Film of the Year, as well as being nominated in the top Film of the Year category. It’s also up for Best Director, Screenwriter and Supporting Actress (Sareh Bayat).
We Need To Talk About Kevin failed to make it onto the Film of the Year shortlist, but in this typically parochial ceremony, it’s received a nod for the British Film of the Year contest. Similarly, Tilda Swinton is nominated for both the Actress of the Year and the British Actress of the Year – such categories often feeling like a ‘highest scoring loser’, giving an award to the people they really wanted to give awards to – but who weren’t really good enough. The film’s director, Lynne Ramsay, and the sound designer are also up for awards.
Like Kevin, Steve McQueen’s Shame makes it onto the British Film of the Year shortlist, but fails to secure a nomination for the top prize. The film’s star Michael Fassbender, like Gary Oldman, makes it onto both lists – Best Actor and Best British Actor. Fassbender’s Shame co-star Carey Mulligan gets another mention here in the Best British Actress category, as well as for her turn in Drive.
But all eyes – if not ears – will be on the silent film that’s got the critics talking, if not its own protagonists, The Artist. It’s up for Film of the Year. It’s writer and director Michel Hazanavicius is nominated in both categories. And it’s lead actor Jean Dujardin is also in the running.
Frustrating as it is to see nominations lists with British-only categories, as if the judges don’t think our films can compete in their own right on the international stage, it does at least justifiably iron out the odd omission. The Deep Blue Sea, which failed to receive a mention at the Golden Globes, is deservedly recognised here on the Best British Actress (Rachel Weisz) and Best Supporting Actor (Simon Russell Beale) lists.
That said, seeing the perfectly creditable The Guard make it onto the British Film of the Year shortlist, when it’s largely an Irish film, makes you wonder whether the British film industry was in fact so weak in 2011 that the London Film Critics couldn’t come up with five worthy British ones. This is not, after all, in a category for the International Co-Production of the Year. Likewise, Brendan Gleeson – up for British Actor of the Year – is Irish. Another nominee in that category, Michael Fassbender, is German-born to German and Irish parents. And Saoirse Ronan, whose role in Hanna sees her in the Young British Performer of the Year category, is an Irish-American.
The awards – voted for by a hundred and twenty UK critics – will be handed out on the 19 January at BFI Southbank.
The full nominations list is as follows:
FILM OF THE YEAR
The Artist
Drive
A Separation
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree of Life
BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR
The Guard
Kill List
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need to Talk About Kevin
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Mysteries of Lisbon
Poetry
Le Quattro Volte
A Separation
The Skin I Live In
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
Cave of Forgotten Dreams
Dreams of a Life
Pina
Project Nim
Senna
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Asghar Farhadi – A Separation
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Terrence Malick – The Tree of Life
Lynne Ramsay – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Nicolas Winding Refn – Drive
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Asghar Farhadi – A Separation
Michel Hazanavicius – The Artist
Kenneth Lonergan – Margaret
Bridget O’Connor & Peter Straughan – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon & Jim Rash – The Descendants
BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER
Richard Ayoade – Submarine
Paddy Considine – Tyrannosaur
Joe Cornish – Attack the Block
Andrew Haigh – Weekend
John Michael McDonagh – The Guard
ACTOR OF THE YEAR
George Clooney – The Descendants
Jean Dujardin – The Artist
Michael Fassbender – Shame
Ryan Gosling – Drive
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Kirsten Dunst – Melancholia
Anna Paquin – Margaret
Meryl Streep – The Iron Lady
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Michelle Williams – My Week With Marilyn
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Simon Russell Beale – The Deep Blue Sea
Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn
Albert Brooks – Drive
Christopher Plummer – Beginners
Michael Smiley – Kill List
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Sareh Bayat – A Separation
Jessica Chastain – The Help
Vanessa Redgrave – Coriolanus
Octavia Spencer – The Help
Jacki Weaver – Animal Kingdom
BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Tom Cullen – Weekend
Michael Fassbender – A Dangerous Method, Shame
Brendan Gleeson – The Guard
Peter Mullan – Tyrannosaur, War Horse
Gary Oldman – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Olivia Colman – The Iron Lady, Tyrannosaur
Carey Mulligan – Drive, Shame
Vanessa Redgrave – Anonymous, Coriolanus
Tilda Swinton – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Rachel Weisz – The Deep Blue Sea
YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR
John Boyega – Attack the Block
Jeremy Irvine – War Horse
Yasmin Paige – Submarine
Craig Roberts – Submarine
Saoirse Ronan – Hanna
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Manuel Alberto Claro, cinematography – Melancholia
Paul Davies, sound design – We Need to Talk About Kevin
Maria Djurkovic, production design – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Dante Ferretti, production design – Hugo
Alberto Iglesias, original score – The Skin I Live In
Chris King & Gregers Sall, editing – Senna
Joe Letteri, visual effects – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Cliff Martinez, original score – Drive
Robert Richardson, cinematography – Hugo
Robbie Ryan, cinematography – Wuthering Heights
THE DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM
Nicolas Roeg