Too bad you were cut off, that sounded like an awfully great speech! :-)

I liked the jab at Hollywood's need to remake an entire foreign film to get around that horrible nuisance (ahem) of subtitles, though you're perhaps lucky Fincher wasn't there!



Was thrilled to see you in that last minute 'lesser awards' montage at the end of the broadcast, though I hate both that you don't see the ENTIRE show (what's wrong with the technical awards?!), and also the cynicism in leaving the actors until after the directors, who should, really, come towards the end! Directors are not as unsung as the organisers think, are they? I sure hope not.

Dear Mark,



Have you ever considered running some wittertainment awards, voted for by your dedicated listeners? Would either be a compliment to your opinions or a wonderful reason to rant at us all.



Jack

I caught most of the BAFTAs the other night, and it was great to see you presenting an award Dr. K, even if you were bunged in at the end with the "non-important" awards, which is a concept that always annoys me.



Why does a film not being in English mean that it has to run in a seperate category? I understand that it exists to give more recognition to foreign language films (although apparently not on TV as it only flashes up for two quiff-filled seconds of screen time right at the end), but it just seems to say: "These films weren't in English and therefore can't possibly be better than those that were". I'm not really sure of the ins-and-outs of it, but are those films even eligible for the "Best Film" category in the first place?

Mark - when will you be presenting the Kermode Awards for 2010? Or have I missed that already?

Barftastic

You'll be happy to know that both the producer that you named AND the director are Danish. Swedes don't have æ and ø in their alphabet. I should know, I'm Norwegian.

Don't worry, Empire Online live blogged what you said ad I agree entirely. And another thing, presenting an Award at a BBC televised awards show, hosted by Jonathan Ross does indeed make you mainstream. Cue sad face, :(

succinct.

The look of childish glee on your face as you went through all your souvenirs was more entertaining than the entire ceremony.

SIR Paul McCartney?

I know you think you know why you made that disgruntled face, Kermode, and you made a whole blog to explain why you made that face, but I ASSURE you that it was because you had to give the award to what is probably one of the worst films of the past three years.

Those BAFTA goodies/souvenirs were interesting to see!

How sweet! We're getting to see star struck and excited Dr K. Bless you, with your party invites and wristbands, and the name dropping! That was such a joy to behold :D

You're right, I didn't notice or hear you read out the names that you took time to learn properly beforehand. Nevermind, we all enjoyed your banter on the red carpet before the ceremony, and the bored expression on your face when the talk turned to fashion!

Will you do a little film regarding your thoughts on the winners and losers? I hope so.

It would also be quite interesting to know how the voting works.

Do your votes get picked up from your home? do all the judges have to gather together in one room to vote? do you know the results before the ceremony?

Well done Dr K!

Let me echo iwasclaudio's request for the Wittertainment Awards. We could all vote on-line via some interactive poll. Films can be nominated by anyone, the only criteria being that they were released somewhere on planet earth between the 1st of Jan - 31st December (the awards could take place in Jan or Feb of the following year).



The actual awards themselves could be something like the Bafta's masks, but they have quiffed hair, and you could personally present them to the winners (which gives you a good excuse to have more cool people on the radio show). And there'll be no need for this "Best Foreign Language" award - everyone gets to compete equally.



Best of all, it could run parallel with the Kermode awards, so you'll be able to tell us how wrong we all are, and how right you are.



(And if presenting award makes you mainstream, please let that mean you'll take over Film 2011 from Claudia Winkleman ... nothing against her personally, you're just better. Nuff said.)

Trinkets from the dark side? Really Dr K, let's just hope you don't end up 'more machine now than man' shuffling forward from your black slab-like surgical table, fists clenched in desperation and screaming in anger "Noooooooooooooooooooooo!!"



Nice. Keep up the faith.

Oh and @iwasclaudio I LIKE your idea!

@ #16:



Darth Mark? lol :P

Dr K.

I don't see why you were so worried about pronouncing the names wrong, following Rosamund Pike pronunciation dosen't seem like such a big deal. It was a shame you were shoved into the end i thought that best film not in the english language was a pretty important catagory.

How to accept a British Academy of Film and Television Award: in person. Off the top of my head, there were FIVE no-show winners - all of whom '...couldn't be there' (read couldn't be bothered to turn up).



You can bet your bottom dollar they'll all be present-and-correct at the forthcoming, and more prestigious, Oscars!

Great stash to keep and treasure Dr K. Sadly we no longer get the BAFTAs screened on the box here in Oz. Live streaming is the only way to watch the majority of awards nowadays (except for the Oscars).



I am so pleased you took the time to learn the pronunciations of all the producers names of the nominees, just in case. Not many people have the dedication that you do. I'm sure you would have done them the justice they deserve.



I too am heartily sick that a great number of awards are no longer presented at the main ceremonies. How "second class" it must make the nominees feel to not be included in the main event, because they are classed as 'technical'.



Can't wait for this year's Kermode awards.

Did you ask Paul McCartney to have a jam in your skiffle band i heard he was in one once...

Just be thankful that Danny Dyer hadn't released an acclaimed Spanish-speaking film in the last year - I think you'd rather have been stumbling over foreign pronunciation than presenting him with an award!

Nice blog Dr. K, reminded me of your blog two years ago when you were complaining about the Kit-Kats at Cannes.



What did you make of Rosamund Pike fluffing her speech? So much for her being a brilliant actress - as soon as the autocue broke (apparently), she stood there as if she'd forgotten how to speak. When she started to open the envelope without reading the nominees, I did wonder whether we'd have a repeat of the 1985 Oscars, when a frail Lord Olivier wandered up to present Best Picture, said "Amadeus" and then shuffled off (as he would do again four years later - sorry, couldn't resist).



BTW, I hope that if you met Sir Paul you would at least have used the opportunity to reiterate your opinions on The Beatles. Or was it another one of your 'Helen Mirren handbag' moments? I'm guessing the latter.

@ KubrickandScott



You realise so many actors like acting because they're not very good at playing themselves? This shouldn't be a new observation to you.

It's a safe bet that if you hadn't learned the correct pronunciation, there would have been deathly silence while you struggled to read the names, desperately trying not to sound like the muppet Swedish chef.

Dr. K: Given that Aaron Sorkin was overawed by Sir Paul, he must really look up to you now.



I was a bit dismayed that the "foreign" film award was shunted into the closing montage, I should think a "best film" that happens not to be in English should rate a bit higher.



I did feel sorry for Rosamund Pike, and felt she made the best of a bad situation, although given that she was presenting a writing award, it was sad that no one pointed out that she was the victim of what happens to actors when they're not given anything to say. (and she is a very good actress, she made the horribly lumpen middleclasswomensolidaritywithworkingclasswomen authors messagey speech in Made in Dagenham quite affecting).

@TheConciseStatement:



Fair point. I guess what I meant was that I expected her to perform better in the absence of an autocue. Not that I expect that of all actors - [cough] Jessica Alba

That was a great speech Mark, your best one yet. Hahaha!!! Loved it.

And talking about speeches... After 63 years of BAFTA and 82 years of Oscars (and everything else in between), It must be really hard for awarded people to come up with an acceptance speech that is original, succinct, sharp, witty, but most importantly memorable.

Sam Leiht’s hit the nail right on the head: “better embarrassed than forgotten”. Last thing you want to do is to give a lousy speech: and yet there are still those who end up just making long list of boring names nobody knows anything about, or those who read from cue-cards!

For crying out-loud people: you’re actors!! Act! Remember your lines!! And perform for your audience!

I am not necessarily saying you have to do what Roberto Benigni did at the Oscars in ’99 (though that was pretty awesome.. and definitely memorable!), jumping up and down and shouting “I want to make love with all of you”, but I’m sure you could do better than just thanking your mom and your agent or your beautiful husband/wife.

That Bafta show last night was on the whole pretty lame, in my view, and the only real memorable speech was the one from Helena Bonham Carter (mainly because for some reason she was allowed to break the rule and to go on for a lot longer than she was allowed to).

In their defense, it must be said that nowadays there are too many Movie Awards around and, if you are Colin Firth, from the King’s Speech, you know you’re going to have speak more than once: so what do you do in that case? Do you give the same one over and over again, do you give your best earlier on (maybe at the Golden Globes), or do you hold out for the Oscars (because let’s face it, that’s the one that gets remembered).

I really hope Colin Firth opted for the latter as the one from last night was pretty forgettable… in fact I can’t even remember what he said.

It’s all probably part of a bigger discussion on whether we really need all these awards…

Warren Beatty was right on his acceptance speech in ’76 when he said “We want to thank all of you for watching us congratulate ourselves tonight”, because that’s essentially what they all do. C’mon guys, be a bit more creative!



https://wp.me/p19wJ2-fR

Even the Oscars have the best Foreign Language Film award in the main part of the coverage.



So do Brits have shorter attention spans than Americans? Or are Brits more Xenophobic than Americans?



Congratulations on not saying "and the EAFTA goes to..."

All things considered, if Stammering was considered a foreign language, then The King's Speech would have won that, too. Them royals: all German, don't ye know...

If next year Colin Firth appears in a zero-budget Troma in which he plays a defrosting vegeburger that spends the entire movie sitting on a kitchen work surface and bemoaning it's own existence, he'll still probably win a Bafta.

@ BillPaxtonsSecondBiggestFan



If Colin Firth's existential Quorn-based melodrama ensures just one less screen devoted to Adam Sandler, then defrost away, Mr. Darcy.

@antimode - That is because Oscar's coverage lasts the best part of three or four days (and includes no word for fluffy).

Adam Sandler IS a defrosting vegeburger.

Hi Mark!

Actually it´s not swedish, the director i danish. The swedish equivalents for those letter are are Ö and Ä. The pronounciation is the same though and you did it perfect!

@ 34 iwasclaudio



loving the Blackadder reference hahahahaha



Dr K looking like a kid opening goody bag from a friends party haha I'd probably do the same though.



on a side note, very glad TGwtDT won.

Dear Dr. K.,

As some have already noted, the names and letters are both Danish. I'm Danish, so I would know. But surely you must have seen the "ø" before, as Susanne Biers "Brødre" contains it in the title? And you've mentioned that film on air a few times.



You did a valiant attempt at pronouncing the names. In case you like to know - when we write in English we normally change "ø" to "oe", æ to "ae" and å to "aa" so it doesn't become impossible for non-Danes to pronounce :-) On behalf of my people I apologize for our alphabet.



I wish a wonderful week to the good Doctor and my fellow Kermodians.

I am sure Mark has seen "Ø" before. He probably pronounces it as "minor flat five" or "half diminished". It's a bit of a hopeless task getting native English speakers to pronounce other languages correctly whatever representation you use so why not keep using the Unicode characters to represent the characters accurately and we might eventually catch on. You Danes need to put yourselves about a bit more like you used to in the times of King Alfred.



By the bye, I don't think many English language readers would be flummoxed by the ligature "&#xe6"as it's still sometimes used in print for words like d&#xe6mon, medi&#xe6val, arch&#xe6ology, Encyclop&#x00e6dia Britannica.



skol|skoal|skaal|sk&#xe1l|sk&#xe5l

oops! well it worked in preview. not my bad

Not sure why the last sentence of #39 didn't display properly when submitted. It worked when previewed. Trying once more without the encyclopaedia example. Sorry if it doesn't work again.



"... I don't think many English language readers would be flummoxed by the ligature '&#xe6' as it's still sometimes used in print for words like d&#xe6mon, medi&#xe6val, arch&#xe6ology



skol , skoal , skaal , sk&#x00e1l , sk&#xe5l "

doh! Never mind.



We need a delete option to be able to delete our own posts, please.

Very nice presentation !

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