Boyhood take home the awards for Best Film, Director and Supporting Actress.

Eddie Redmayne deservedly won the BAFTA for Best Actor with his ridiculously fantastic performance as astrophysicist, Professor Stephen Hawking in the moving The Theory of Everything. The film saw three awards on the night including Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay though The Grand Budapest Hotel claimed the most with prizes for its Original Music, Production Design, Makeup and Hair as well Original Screenplay.

Julianne Moore saw the only award for Still Alice as Best Leading Actress, whilst Whiplash claimed a statuette for three categories including Best Supporting Actor with J.K. Simmons, Sound and Editing. Meanwhile everything is awesome for The Lego Movie which took the title of Best Animated Film.

Check out a full list of the winners below and see all the nominations here and let me know who your winners would have been!

Best Film: Boyhood

Leading Actor: Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Leading Actress: Julianne Moore, Still Alice

Supporting Actor: J.K. Simmons, Whiplash

Supporting Actress: Patricia Arquette, Boyhood

Outstanding British Film: The Theory of Everything

Original Music: The Grand Budapest Hotel

British Short Animation: The Bigger Picture

British Short Film: 
Boogaloo And Graham

Documentary: 
Citizenfour

Editing :
 Whiplash

Production Design: 
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Makeup & Hair: 
The Grand Budapest Hotel

Sound: Whiplash

Animated Film: The Lego Movie

Special Visual Effects: Interstellar

Cinematography: Birdman

Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer: Stephen Beresford and David Livingstone, Pride

Original Screenplay: The Grand Budapest Hotel

Film Not in the English Language: Ida

Adapted Screenplay: The Theory of Everything


Costume Design: The Grand Budapest Hotel


The EE Rising Star Award: Jack O’Connell

Director: Richard Linklater, Boyhood

Original Music: The Grand Budapest Hotel

The post 2015 BAFTA Results appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

As predicted, there are many contenders whose nominations echo those of the Golden Globes: Winners Boyhood and The Grand Budapest Hotel, are joined by competition from The Imitation Game, The Theory of Everything, Foxcatcher and Selma, all of whom have been nominated for either the BAFTAS or the Golden Globes in the best film categories. However new to this particular pack of standout films, is Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, and Whiplash, which also sees J.K. Simmons nominated for Best Supporting Actor.

Credit: Daniel McFadden

Dominating the nominations for the 87^th annual Academy Awards are comedies, The Grand Budapest Hotel, and Birdman, who both have 9 nominations to their names, the latter of which sees Golden Globe winner, Michael Keaton, up for Best Actor again. Sadly Ralph Fiennes misses out at a chance for an Oscar for that esteemed category but in his place are Steve Carrell for Foxcatcher, Bradley Cooper for American Sniper, along with Golden Globe winner Eddie Redmayne for his outstanding performance as Stephen Hawking in The Theory of Everything and close rival Benedict Cumberbatch as Alan Turing in Imitation Game.

Steve Carrell, Foxcatcher. Credit: Scott Garfield

Eddie Redmayne is joined by co-star Felicity Jones who is nominated for Best Actress though sadly the film didn’t make it into the either the Best Director or Best Original Screenplay categories. Coming nail-bitingly close to sealing nominations in all five of the major categories is Birdman, narrowly missing out without a nomination in the run for Best Actress.

Michael Keaton, Birdman.

Finally, like with the BAFTAS, Marvel’s brilliantly made, Guardians of the Galaxy is only up for the same two awards of Best Make-up and Hair Styling, and Best Visual Effects. The lavish styling behind The Grand Budapest Hotel could be it’s biggest rival for the Make-up and Hair category and it’s going against it’s fellow Marvel brethren, X-Men: Days of Future Past and Captain America: Winter Soldier for Best VFX.

Credit: Me!

Below you’ll find all of this year’s outstanding Oscar nominations though as ever, it’s disheartening to see such a huge array of categories missing one very important role: the stills photographer! With the Oscars covering everything including acting, directing, writing, editing, make-up, costume and special effects, why is there still no category recognising the work of the photographers who capture those iconic moments that films are often remembered for? Even in the Key Art Awards, the photographer is often over looked, even if it’s their production still that makes it to the poster that goes on to win the award.

But anyway, that’s a rant for another blog….

Best Picture

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Selma
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Best Actor

• Steve Carell, Foxcatcher
• Bradley Cooper, American Sniper
• Benedict Cumberbatch, The Imitation Game
• Michael Keaton, Birdman
• Eddie Redmayne, The Theory of Everything

Best Actress

• Marion Cotillard, Two Days, One Night
• Felicity Jones, The Theory of Everything
• Julianne Moore, Still Alice
• Rosamund Pike, Gone Girl
• Reese Witherspoon, Wild

Best Supporting Actor

• Robert Duvall, The Judge
• Ethan Hawke, Boyhood
• Edward Norton, Birdman
• Mark Ruffalo, Foxcatcher
• J. K. Simmons, Whiplash

Best Supporting Actress

• Patricia Arquette, Boyhood
• Laura Dern, Wild
• Keira Knightley, The Imitation Game
• Emma Stone, Birdman
• Meryl Streep, Into the Woods

Best Cinematography

• Birdman
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Ida
• Mr. Turner
• Unbroken

Best Director

• Alejandro G. Iñárritu, Birdman
• Richard Linklater, Boyhood
• Bennett Miller, Foxcatcher
• Wes Anderson, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Morten Tyldum, The Imitation Game

Best Original Screenplay

• Boyhood
• Birdman
• Foxcatcher
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Nightcrawler

Best Adapted Screenplay

• American Sniper
• The Imitation Game
• Inherent Vice
• The Theory of Everything
• Whiplash

Best Foreign Language Film

• Ida, Poland
• Leviathan, Russia
• Tangerines, Estonia
• Timbuktu, Mauritania
• Wild Tales, Argentina

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

• Foxcatcher
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Guardians of the Galaxy

Best Original Score

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Interstellar
• Mr. Turner
• The Theory of Everything

Best Costume Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Inherent Vice
• Into the Woods
• Maleficent
• Mr. Turner

Best Documentary Feature

• Citizenfour
• Finding Vivian Maier
• Last Days in Vietnam
• Salt of the Earth
• Virunga

Best Documentary Short

• Crisis Hotline: Veterans Press 1
• Joanna
• Our Curse
• The Reaper
• White Earth

Best Film Editing

• American Sniper
• Boyhood
• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Whiplash

Best Animated Feature

• Big Hero 6
• The Boxtrolls
• How to Train Your Dragon 2
• Song of the Sea
• The Tale of Princess Kaguya

Best Original Song

• “Lost Stars,” Begin Again
• “Grateful,” Beyond the Lights
• “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me
• “Everything is Awesome,” The Lego Movie
• “Glory,” Selma

Best Production Design

• The Grand Budapest Hotel
• The Imitation Game
• Interstellar
• Into the Woods
• Mr. Turner

Best Animated Short Film

• The Bigger Picture
• The Dam Keeper
• Feast
• Me and My Moulton
• A Single Life

Best Live-Action Short Film

• Aya
• Boogaloo and Graham
• Butter Lamp
• Paraveneh
• The Phone Call

Best Sound Editing

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies
• Interstellar
• Unbroken

Best Sound Mixing

• American Sniper
• Birdman
• Interstellar
• Unbroken
• Whiplash

Best Visual Effects

• Captain America: The Winter Soldier
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
• Guardians of the Galaxy
• Interstellar
• X-Men: Days of Future Past

The post 2015 Oscar Nominations appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

As with the upcoming BAFTAS, Boyhood, saw 5 nominations from which it managed to secure 3 Golden Globes, including Best Motion Picture Drama, Best Director with Richard Linklater, and Best Supporting Actress for Patricia Arquette.

As hoped by myself, the incredibly talented Eddie Redmayne beat fellow Brit, Benedict Cumberbatch to the Best Actor (Drama) award. That’s not to say I don’t at all have a total ‘thing’ for Benedict who is a great performer in his own right, it’s just that quite frankly, Eddie Redmayne blows me away and I doubt anyone can fail to be impressed by his performance in The Theory of Everything.

Credit: Liam Daniels

Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel took the award for Best Motion Picture (Musical or Comedy) though its star, Ralph Fiennes, unfortunately couldn’t beat Michael Keaton’s performance in Birdman for the award for Best Actor in that genre.

As for TV, The Affair took both the Best Actress (Ruth Wilson) and the Best Drama Series awards, beating my favourite shows of all time; Game of Thrones and House of Cards, though Kevin Spacey deservedly won Best Actor in a Drama for his outstanding performance in the latter, conquering a seven-time losing streak.

Again, my favourite nomination for the Best Comedy Series, Orange is the New Black, didn’t quite make the grade and was beaten my Amazon original, Transparent which is arguably raising the bar for programming with its sincere look at sexual identity. The show’s star, Jeffrey Tambor also took the award for Best Actor in a Comedy or Musical and dedicated his win to the transgender community.

Another winner to give an emotional speech and to steer the Twittersphere into talking about serious issues rather than what the ladies were wearing as seems to be the key topic of discussion these days, was Downton Abbey’s Joanne Froggatt who took the award for Best Supporting Actress.

Check out the full list of nominees and winners below and let me know who your winners were! As ever, it will be interesting to see how BAFTAS winner will reflect those of the Golden Globe Awards!

Film:

Best Motion Picture – Drama
Boyhood – WINNER
Foxcatcher
The Imitation Game
Selma
The Theory of Everything

Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy
Birdman
The Grand Budapest Hotel – WINNER
Into the Woods
Pride
St Vincent

Best Director
Wes Anderson (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Ava DuVernay (Selma)
David Fincher (Gone Girl)
Alejandro González Iñárritu (Birdman)
Richard Linklater (Boyhood) – WINNER

Best Actress – Drama
Jennifer Aniston (Cake)
Felicity Jones (The Theory of Everything)
Julianne Moore (Still Alice) – WINNER
Rosamund Pike (Gone Girl)
Reese Witherspoon (Wild)

Best Actor – Drama
Steve Carrell (Foxcatcher)
Benedict Cumberbatch (The Imitation Game)
Jake Gyllenhaal (Nightcrawler)
David Oyelowo (Selma)
Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) – WINNER

Best Actress – Musical or Comedy
Amy Adams (Big Eyes) – WINNER
Emily Blunt (Into The Woods)
Helen Mirren (The Hundred-Foot Journey)
Julianne Moore (Maps to the Stars)
Quvenzhané Wallis (Annie)

Best Actor – Musical or Comedy
Ralph Fiennes (The Grand Budapest Hotel)
Michael Keaton (Birdman) – WINNER
Bill Murray (St. Vincent)
Joaquin Phoenix (Inherent Vice)
Christoph Waltz (Big Eyes)

Best Supporting Actress
Patricia Arquette (Boyhood) – WINNER
Jessica Chastain (A Most Violent Year)
Keira Knightley (The Imitation Game)
Emma Stone (Birdman)
Meryl Streep (Into The Woods)

Best Supporting Actor
Robert Duvall (The Judge)
Ethan Hawke (Boyhood)
Edward Norton (Birdman)
Mark Ruffalo (Foxcatcher)
JK Simmons (Whiplash) – WINNER

Best Screenplay
Gillian Flynn (Gone Girl)
Alejandro González Iñárritu, Nicolás Giacobone, Alexander Dinelaris, Armando Bo (Birdman) – WINNER
Richard Linklater (Boyhood)
Graham Moore (The Imitation Game)

Best Foreign Language Film
Force Majeure (Sweden)
Gett: The Trial of Vivian Amsalem (Israel)
Ida (Poland/Denmark)
Leviathan (Russia) – WINNER
Tangerines (Estonia)

Best Animated Feature
Big Hero Six
The Book of Life
The Boxtrolls
How to Train Your Dragon 2 – WINNER
The Lego Movie

Best Original Score
Alexandre Desplat (The Imitation Game)
Jóhann Jóhannsson (Theory of Everything) – WINNER
Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross (Gone Girl)
Antonio Sanchez (Birdman)
Hans Zimmer (Interstellar)

Best Original Song
Big Eyes (Big Eyes)
Glory (Selma) – WINNER
Mercy Is (Noah)
Opportunity (Annie)
Yellow Flicker Beat (The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1)

TV:

Best Drama Series
The Affair – WINNER
Downton Abbey
Game of Thrones
The Good Wife
House of Cards

Best Comedy Series
Girls
Jane the Virgin
Orange is the New Black
Silicon Valley
Transparent – WINNER

Best Miniseries or TV Movie
True Detective
Fargo – WINNER
The Normal Heart
Olive Kitteridge
The Missing

Best Actress in a Drama Series
Claire Danes (Homeland)
Viola Davis (How to Get Away with Murder)
Julianna Marguiles (The Good Wife)
Ruth Wilson (The Affair) – WINNER
Robin Wright (House Of Cards)

Best Actor in a Drama Series
Clive Owen (The Knick)
Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan)
Kevin Spacey (House of Cards) – WINNER
James Spader (The Blacklist)
Dominic West (The Affair)

Best Actress in a Comedy Series
Lena Dunham (Girls)
Edie Falco (Nurse Jackie)
Julia Louis-Dreyfus (Veep)
Gina Rodriguez (Jane the Virgin) – WINNER
Taylor Schilling (Orange is the New Black)

Best Actor in a Comedy Series
Louis CK (Louie)
Don Cheadle (House of Lies)
Ricky Gervais (Derek)
William H. Macy (Shameless)
Jeffrey Tambor (Transparent) – WINNER

Best Actor in a Limited Series
Martin Freeman (Fargo)
Woody Harrelson (True Detective)
Matthew McConaughey (True Detective)
Mark Ruffalo (The Normal Heart)
Billy Bob Thornton (Fargo) – WINNER

Best Actress in a Limited Series
Maggie Gyllenhaal (The Honorable Woman) – WINNER
Jessica Lange (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
Frances McDormand (Olive Kitteridge)
Frances O’Connor (The Missing)
Allison Tolman (Fargo)

Best Supporting Actress
Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black)
Kathy Bates (American Horror Story: Freak Show)
Joanne Froggatt (Downton Abbey) – WINNER
Allison Janney (Mom)
Michelle Monaghan (True Detective)

Best Supporting Actor
Matt Bomer, “The Normal Heart”
Alan Cumming, “The Good Wife”
Colin Hanks, “Fargo”
Bill Murray, “Olive Kitteridge”
Jon Voight, “Ray Donovan”

The post 2015 Golden Globe Awards Winners appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.

The Key Art Awards is entertainment’s most recognised competition for advertising and communications across every medium you can think of. Everything from the more obvious forms of advertising such as trailers and poster art/one-sheets, to creative social, TV spot and display campaigns – everything that goes into attracting an audience. Without the creative minds behind the marketing campaigns, cinema would not be as successful as it is today, and it’s great to see this side of the creative process recognised.

You can check out the huge list of award winners across all of the categories here:

http://www.keyartaward.com/

Being a unit stills photographer and keen studio shooter, I was most interested in the 46 winners of the printed medium – the poster art. There are so many great winners this year but Godzilla was slightly ahead of the pack, being recognised for 4 awards. Paying homage to the Japanese origins of the story, many of the posters for Godzilla chose to take a graphic approach over a photographic one and give the one-sheets a style one might expect to see in a manga. Manga is something I’m recently discovering an appreciation for though more for the artwork than the story, so perhaps this is why I particularly like the middle image, which won ‘Best Theatrical Festival One-Sheet.’

Following closely behind Godzilla is The Hunger Games with 3 entries into the awards, and with its ‘District Heroes’ campaign taking gold in the Theatrical Domestic One-Sheet category. I personally really love the images put out for the Hunger Games and in fact think the concept behind the entire campaign is nothing short of genius. Each series of the one-sheets acts as a propaganda campaign ostensibly created by the opposing sides of Snow’s Capitol and the rebellion, with the latter having Katniss Everdeen as their poster girl.  Making it into the 2014 Key Art Awards for print are propagandist posters seemingly created by Snow, whose penchant for manipulation and indoctrination come through in an unsettling way as he appears to hail the citizens of Panem’s compartmentalised districts. Whereas we are normally introduced to films by a poster, trailer or other form of media directly telling us about it; the campaign behind The Hunger Games franchise completely removes the fourth wall and as a result is much more successful in drawing us in (I know I was at least). Lionsgate’s creative campaign strategy doesn’t however limit itself to posters – check out the huge array of propagandist videos, websites and installations that really give the impression that the war going on in the films, isn’t entirely fictitious.

Despite feeling the need to back my fellow photographers, the rest of the stand-out posters for me are from graphic artists, though saying that, I must tip my metaphorical hat to Giles Keyte for his excellent shot of a contemplative Brad Pitt against a foreboding sky for Fury. Definitely a film on my to-watch list.

Though it’s been a while since I’ve been an avid watcher of The Simpsons, its recent advertising campaigns have been nothing if not viral, at least in the US anyway. Making it into the Key Art Awards for print are two posters for the show which have clear fine art influences; as if to imply that the Simpsons have a modicum of culture between them. The juxtaposition of the characters’ often simple and slapstick humour being advertising through fine art inspirations is actually quite effective, and the family’s instantly recognisable colours and signature features seem to be the only thing we need to see to know what’s being advertised. That’s when you know a cartoon is successful. That and the fact that FXX have recently paid $750 million for exclusive rights to all 552 episodes, which it brag about with the campaign hashtag; #everysimpsonsever.  Below are the two images that took silver for being the best  bus shelter artwork.

Still looking at graphic art is Concept Arts’ one-sheet for The Mule, which successfully makes my stomach knot and makes it clear that the film is nothing to do with the equine version of its title. My morbid curiosity has certainly been piqued with this one and Concept Arts get a silver award for it in the category of Theatrical Festival One-Sheet.

With the show being centred on a war between humanity and angels, it’s no surprise to see the one-sheets for Dominion putting a modern, and seemingly sinful twist on paintings that look like they could have been crafted by Leonardo Da Vinci. It’s great imagery like this that makes me want to subscribe to the Syfy channel.

Finally, though not winning an award, there’s no surprise that the poster for Nurse 3D has been listed as a finalist; despite its lack of originality, everyone knows sex sells, and besides, what’s not to love about a hot latex-clad nurse straddling a phallic object? Effective but playing it decidedly safe as far as creativity goes.

Into marketing or just curious about what it takes to promote film productions and TV shows? Don’t forget to check out the plethora of other categories HERE and let me know which creative idea stands out most to you!

The post 2014 Key Art Awards appeared first on Aimee Spinks Photography.