Word: film
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Filmgoers have always loved a good redemption tale. Few things fill cinema seats faster than when the wooden puppet turns into a real boy, the quarreling couple falls in love or the plucky underdog becomes the hero. Which made it all the more poignant when, on Sunday night, a film about a young Indian boy's unlikely rise from slum dweller to millionaire received top prize at an awards show that, after so many years of being underappreciated, has finally come into...
...Complaining about the BAFTAs - the film awards that the British Academy of Film and Television Arts hands out each year - has become something of a national sport. If the Academy decides to honor plenty of British talent, it's criticized for being too parochial; if a bunch of Americans appear on the winners list, it's accused of being overly enamored with Hollywood. Damned if it does, damned if it doesn...
...that during the ceremony at London's Royal Opera House, Slumdog Millionaire picked up seven awards, including Best Film and Best Director for Danny Boyle, Winslet won the Leading Actress award for her role in The Reader, and the Original Screenplay prize went to the Irish hitman comedy In Bruges. Echoing the sentiments of their American brethren, the British Academy voters also gave Leading Actor kudos to comeback king Mickey Rourke for his role in The Wrestler (his expletive-sprinkled acceptance speech getting some of the night's biggest laughs), honored the late Heath Ledger's turn as The Joker...
...best actress - we'll never know. And France's I've Loved You So Long (starring British actress Kristin Scott Thomas, who speaks fluent French) raised a few eyebrows when it beat odds on Oscar favorite Waltz With Bashir and Italian Mafia flick Gomorrah to the foreign language film award. (See pictures of some of the greatest ever animated movies...
...truly unexpected event, though, came in the Outstanding British Film category. The inclusion of heavyweight Slumdog among the five nominees seemed almost unfair, as if Stephen Hawking were to show up at your local pub quiz. Everyone was so busy assuming that Slumdog would walk away with the prize, it took a moment to register when Sharon Stone announced that Man on Wire - the critically acclaimed documentary about Frenchman Philip Petit's 1974 high-wire walk between the Twin Towers - had actually nabbed the BAFTA. The film's director James Marsh was so unprepared that when he hopped onto...