Vicki Isitt reports on the 2010 National Movie Awards…
The National Movie Awards, aired on ITV and hosted by James Nesbitt, proved just how much the British population loves Twilight, even more so than Harry Potter. While Twilight and Potter nearly equalled on awards it was clear from the audience where the preference lay. While the categories seemed promising enough, the nominees and winners showed just how fan crazy the British public are.
Action/Thriller (presented by Chris Rock)
SHERLOCK HOLMES
Family (presented by Orlando Bloom)
HARRY POTTER AND THE HALF-BLOOD PRINCE
Fantasy (presented by Chris North)
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON
Most Anticipated Movie of the Summer (presented by Aaron Johnson)
THE TWILIGHT SAGA: ECLIPSE
Breakthrough Movie (presented by Simon Pegg)
THE TIME TRAVELER’S WIFE
Performance of the Year (presented by Dominic Cooper and James Corden)
ROBERT PATTINSON
Special Recognition (presented by Kylie Minogue)
HARRY POTTER
Screen Icon (presented by Gwyneth Paltrow)
TOM CRUISE
Tom Cruise as Screen Icon I can understand, his career has spanned thirty years and included a massively wide variety of roles. But Robert Pattinson as performance of the year? Although I’m not much of a Twilight fan myself I can understand its popularity and why it’s successful, but I cannot bring myself to believe that Robert Pattinson gave the best performance from any film from this entire year, which unfortunately, is the downside in letting the public vote. The Time Traveler’s Wife isn’t so much a breakthrough movie but more of a blockbuster in my opinion so I’m not sure how that film fell into that category, in competition with Coco Before Chanel and other more independent films.
I wouldn’t have necessarily put Sherlock Holmes in the Action/Thriller section, but as Guy Richie said, they’ll “take it where they can get it”. Although slightly biased in my enjoyment of Harry Potter I still feel in agreement with the Potter series taking the Special Recognition award. To paraphrase David Yates, they employ roughly 2000 people, some for short periods of time, and some for ten years, they have given roles to nearly every major British actor and actress and help British cinema (with the help of American dollar financing) stay on the map. Not many other film series can boast such accomplishments.
The after party was nearly as disappointing as hearing Robert Pattinson win the Best Performance award, which consisted of a five minute appearance of Gwyneth Paltrow and odd sightings of James Nesbitt. A good enough awards show, improved slightly by the 3D preview clip of Toy Story 3, but perhaps a wider nominee selection and a bit less of the Twilight next year.
Vicki Isitt