LONDON – For the second year running, it was a character called George who brought BAFTA glory for Colin Firth. Last year it was grieving college professor George Falconer, in Tom Ford’s American drama ‘A Single Man.’ This year it was stammering King George VI in Tom Hooper’s ‘The King’s Speech.’
The film won seven of its 14 nominations, and achieved the double whammy of winning both best film and outstanding British film. It also marked the triumph of old media over new. The ‘King’s Speech’ depicts a monarch’s struggle to address his people through the fledgling mass medium of radio on the eve of World War II.
Meanwhile, ‘The Social Network’ – about the formation of Facebook in 2004 – won three of its six nominations, including best director for David Fincher. The only other film to manage three wins was Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster-with-brains, ‘Inception.’
It had gone into the race with nine nominations, and emerged victorious for production design, sound and visual effects. Given BAFTA voters’ past love of royal stories, ‘The King’s Speech’ dominance was no big surprise.
In the 1990s there were wins for ‘The Madness of King George,’ ‘Mrs Brown’ (with Dame Judi Dench as Queen Victoria), and ‘Shakespeare in Love’ (with Dame Judi’s Elizabeth I). That same year in 1998 Cate Blanchett won for ‘Elizabeth.’ At the 2006 awards, Helen Mirren’s ‘The Queen’ took the BAFTA crown.
