Missing from the list - as it is in the BAFTAs - is Best Movie of 2014 - Mr Turner. Well, I haven't yet seen the Hawking (looking forward to it) but surely Tim Spall deserved a nomination? Ditto Mike Leigh? If Cinematography doesn't win both BAFTA and OSCAR I'll be horrified.

I tend to think that all these awards ceremonies are utterly meaningless .... nominations chosen from a very small pool (usually the films that the studios have spent most money on !).

Then, behind the scenes, deals are done ... you "win" this award and we'll take that one .... that way they all have something (Winner of ....) to stick on their posters?

There's a lot of truth in that ITK - as I found out when producing The Brits. It was fine at first (the previous Sam Fox/Mick Fleetwood show had been such a disaster no executive wanted to come anywhere near my first show as producer). Then - after a successful 1990 show, they started to creep back but I succeeded in kicking them away. After the very big 1991 show however, the reality became apparent (I actually included some unsigned acts) and the most powerful Label/Corporate Chairmen exerted huge pressure (Seal, a Warners act, won far too many and it actually ruined his career) so, at the end of the 1992 show, I resigned (despite being offered a "life" contract at £250,000 a year for 2 months work).

Quote JK, "I resigned (despite being offered a "life" contract at £250,000 a year for 2 months work)."

That's a-tellin 'em dude. TRUE talent can't be bought, only SOLD!

As for 'Mr Turner'. If Leigh had trimmed the self-indulgent DIR-cut to
an audience digestible 2hrs max with no long-dying Turner, AND if Margate had looked less like the Lake District. Then Spall might have won a gong, even with limited London accent and a too-young Dad with West Country burr. Not to mention the coy, rear-shag scene with no butt-view of a gal in total disarray.

In The Know wrote:
I tend to think that all these awards ceremonies are utterly meaningless .... nominations chosen from a very small pool (usually the films that the studios have spent most money on !).

Then, behind the scenes, deals are done ... you "win" this award and we'll take that one .... that way they all have something (Winner of ....) to stick on their posters?

hardly. After The King's Speech my pal Emile Sherman went from a struggling producer to every movie firm on the planet battering down his door.

JK2006 wrote:
There's a lot of truth in that ITK -

Yes I thought that the music industry would be exactly the same.

Hard to know how to improve it though .... they need the "filtering" process to "push" certain things in the public's eye.

The only alternative would be to let word of mouth recommend really good music / films - but as the majority (of both artforms) never sees the mainstream that would be difficult)

It is hard wondering how to filter. I think the Oscars panel idea works generally pretty well; a system similar to our BAFTA one. The Brits did extend the voting to include many non industry types but that made it worse, not better. The public votes for what they think they like without realising they have been manipulated. My own method (fairly autocratic, like government) works if - and it's a huge if - you can find an honest and capable judge and, this is the crucial thing, they must be changed frequently and must know they have only limited tenure.