BAFTA done... Oscars next!

The BAFTA awards are done with. And hardly any surprises here. Argo took the Best Film award and Abraham Lincoln... oops! Daniel Day-Lewis was given the trophy for Best Actor. Best Actress went to Emmanuelle Riva for Armour and not the Golden Globe winner Jessica Chastain, so that category becomes interesting when the Oscars are announced. Anne Hathaway and Christoph Waltz took away more awards home for their supporting roles. And who else but Ben Affleck won the Best Director award that makes you again question, how the heck has he not even been nominated for the Oscars. Probably they thought that a four letter word cannot be a movie title and sidelined it thinking it all to be a practical joke. Poor Ben!  

So the countdown for the Oscars is on. And with most categories seeing unanimous winners, there should be a familiarity to it once the Oscars are unravelled. Or should there? I decided to get my detective tool kit out for this and scan the previous records to figure out whether a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award gets you the coveted Oscar after all. So to figure out this conundrum, I track back across the four major award categories awarded for the last five years and let’s see what the results showcase.

Here are the list of the Oscar winners and their performance in the Golden Globes and BAFTA. First tick / cross for win / loss in Golden Globes and the second one for BAFTA (hope your tired minds are not finding this too much to decode).

Best Picture

2012 – The Artist: Tick Tick 

2011 – The King's Speech: Cross Tick 

2010 – The Hurt Locker: Cross Tick 

2009 - Slumdog Millionaire: Tick Tick 

2008 - No Country for Old Men: Cross Cross

Best Director

2012 - Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist): Cross Tick 

2011 - Tom Hooper (The King's Speech): Cross Cross

2010 - Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker): Cross Tick

2009 - Danny Boyle (Slumdog Millionaire): Tick Tick

2008 - Ethan & Joel Coen (No Country for Old Men): Cross Tick

Best Actor

2012 - Jean Dujardin (The Artist): Tick Tick

2011 - Colin Firth (The King's Speech): Tick Tick

2010 - Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart): Tick Cross

2009 - Sean Penn (Milk): Cross Cross

2008 - Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood): Tick Tick

Best Actress

2012 - Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady): Tick Tick

2011 - Natalie Portman (Black Swan): Tick Tick

2010 - Sandra Bullock (The Blind Side): Tick Cross

2009 - Kate Winslet (The Reader): Tick Tick (Golden Globe was in Supporting category)

2008 - Marion Cotillard (La vie en Rose): Tick Tick

Interesting... so out of the above 20 Oscar winners, only 10 times have the winners been awarded both, Golden Globe and BAFTA as well. Kind of makes it neither here nor there. But to narrow down the Oscar winner for this year, note this, that only thrice have the Oscar winner won neither of the other two awards. Tom Hooper took the Best Director Oscar for The King's Speech when David Fincher was the overwhelming favourite for The Social Network. Sean Penn too stole the limelight in 2009 from Mickey Rourke (Wrestler) who had won the Golden Globe and BAFTA previously. And No Country for Old Men took the Best Picture Oscar in 2008 without winning either of the other two awards, though that was an year where there never seemed to be an overwhelming favourite.  

We are going to get another "Cross Cross" in the Best Director category this year as poor Ben will sit the Oscars out. Interestingly, that seems to be the category where no one is able to make their mind up (if having most "Cross"es is anything to go by), and this year too will continue the mystery. I'm doubting anyone will steal the thunder from Daniel Day-Lewis this year, and Argo should have its deserved moment with the Best Picture award. The Best Actress Category remains open for debate. And while we are on this topic, Christoph Waltz and Anne Hathaway should be seeing more trophies coming their way for their Supporting roles. 24 February... not that far away!