The Artist

The Artist, Black-and-white turned to gold as silent movie “The Artist” won seven British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards including best film at a ceremony in London on Sunday, raising expectations of a strong showing at the Academy Awards.

Meryl Streep clinched the leading actress prize for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher both as a politician at the height of her power and as a frail elderly lady suffering from dementia, in “The Iron Lady”.

The BAFTA awards are not always an accurate predictor of what is to come at the Oscars, but they are the most coveted film honours outside of the United States.

Meryl Streep clinched the leading actress prize for her portrayal of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Reuters

“That couldn’t be worse,” she said, having recovered her shoe, to laughter and cheers from the audience at the Royal Opera House in the popular Covent Garden area of London.

Apart from Streep, the undisputed star of the night was The Artist, a French-made romance set in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s. It had been nominated for 12 awards and walked away with the prizes for best film, leading actor, director, original screenplay, costumes, cinematography and music.

The film, which tells the story of a star of silent movies whose career is destroyed by the advent of “talkies”, had already done well at the Golden Globes and now has further momentum ahead of Oscar night in two weeks.

“I’m so proud that Brad Pitt pronounced my name so well,” said Michel Hazanavicius, the film’s director, as he accepted his award from the Hollywood heart-throb.

The film’s star, Jean Dujardin, was a surprise winner in the leading actor category. George Clooney had been the bookmakers’ favourite for his part as a man steering his family through troubled times while his wife is in a coma in “The Descendants”.

The Artist overshadowed the Cold War espionage thriller “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy”, which picked up only two prizes out of the 11 for which it had been nominated, outstanding British film and best adapted screenplay.

Peter Straughan, who created the script from a classic John Le Carre novel, brought both humour and emotion to the ceremony in his acceptance speech.

“I’d just like to thank The Artist for not being adapted from a book,” he said to laughter from the audience.

Straughan went on to pay homage to the co-winner of the award, his wife Bridget O’Connor, who died before the film was made.

“She wrote all the good bits and I made the coffee. So Bridget, I love you, I miss you, this is for you,” he said.

Streep, who has already won a Golden Globe for her turn as Thatcher, is heavily favoured to bag an Oscar for the role.

“The ambition of this film, The Iron Lady, was to look at the life of the iron lady from the inside out and to locate something real, maybe hidden, but truthful, in the life of someone that we’ve all decided we all know everything about already,” she said in her acceptance speech.

It was a second BAFTA win for Streep, who had received the 1981 leading actress prize for “The French Lieutenant’s Woman”.

While her performance in The Iron Lady has been well-received in Thatcher’s home country, the overall film has had lukewarm reviews.

The choice to dwell on the subject of Thatcher’s dementia has been criticised, not least by current British Prime Minister David Cameron, who like Thatcher is a Conservative.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy” and “My Week With Marilyn” lead the pack in the British Academy of Film and Television Arts’ longlists, which were released by BAFTA on Friday.

The longlists narrow the contenders to 15 in most of the categories for the Orange British Academy Film Awards, which will be handed out on February 12 in London.

Both “Tinker, Tailor” (left) and “Marilyn” received 16 longlist mentions, with “The Iron Lady” receiving 14, “The Artist” 13 and “Hugo” and “War Horse” 12.

“The Help,” “Marilyn” and “Tinker, Tailor” led the way in the acting categories, with five mentions each. Emma Stone, Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Jessica Chastain and Octavia Spencer were listed for “The Help”; Michelle Williams, Kenneth Branagh, Eddie Redmayne, Judi Dench and Zoe Wanamaker for “Marilyn”; and Gary Oldman, Benedict Cumberbatch, Colin Firth, John Hurt and Kathy Burke for “Tinker, Tailor.”

Some of the oddities of the list: The Best Film longlist included “The Iron Lady,” which received mixed reviews, but not “Shame” or “The Tree of Life.” In fact, that Terrence Malick movie received only a single mention, for cinematography.

And despite a remarkable performance in “Coriolanus,” Vanessa Redgrave was left off the Supporting Actress list, which included Alexandra Roach and Olivia Colman in “The Iron Lady,” Judi Dench and Zoe Wanamaker in “My Week With Marilyn” and Melissa McCarthy in “Bridesmaids.”

The Lead Actress category contains four performances that are being campaigned in the Supporting Actress category for the Oscars: Berenice Bejo for “The Artist,” Carey Mulligan for “Shame” and Jodie Foster and Kate Winslet for “Carnage.”

Mulligan was one of a number of actors who were mentioned for two different roles. In her case, she was listed in the lead category for “Shame” and in supporting for “Drive.” Olivia Colman was listed for both “Tyrannosaur” and “The Iron Lady,” Ryan Gosling for “Drive” and “The Ides of March,” and George Clooney for “The Descendants” and “The Ides of March.”

In a reverse of Oscar voting, all the chapters of the British Academy vote to select the shortlist and to determine the final nominations. Members of the individual chapters vote then to select the winners in their branch.

Asterisks in the lists below indicate the top choices of the chapter members in each specific field. Since the chapter voting doesn’t kick in until the final round, those asterisks don’t indicate the likeliest nominees, but they do point toward the possible winners.

The films that were the top chapter choices were “The Artist,” with nine, and “Tinker, Tailor” and “Hugo,” with eight.

Final nominations will be announced on Tuesday, January 17.