It’s been a strong year for British films and British performers. The proof, says Daily Mail columnist Baz Bamigboye, is that the 2007 BAFTA Awards, set for Sunday, 2.11, will have a larger-than-usual amount of actual competing Brits. To make his point he starts by safely predicting “the Battle of the Dames” — Notes on a Scandal‘s Judi Dench vs. The Queen‘s Helen Mirren going head-to-head for the best actress crown. (Baz has seen Notes and says Dench “nails it.”) Dench’s costars in this film, Cate Blanchett and Bill Nighy (as Blanchett’s husband) will also be up for best supporting BAFTAs, he says. Little Children ‘s Kate Winslet will also be in the running, he claims, for her role in Todd Fields‘ Little Children. So will Toby Jones for his “cracking portrayal” of Truman Capote in Infamous…wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. There’s no heat for Jones on this side of the pond — Bamigboye is saying he’s a likely BAFTA nominee because he’s British? he’s also predicting that the Venus team — costars Peter O’Toole (of course), Leslie Phillips (really?), Jodie Whittaker (doubtful) and a “peerless” Vanessa Redgrave (maybe) — may be nominated for their work in Roger Michell ‘s smalllish low-budgeter. Bamigboye is further predicting that Jude Law and Martin Freeman will get BAFTA noms for their work in Breaking And Entering.

The column wasn’t very active today either, largely because the Bend Film Festival jury — myself and five other guys — sat down and mulled over which films will win the cash (including a $10,000 Best of Show” award) and non-cash prizes for a little more than four hours. We started around 11:15 this morning and finished at 3:20 pm. There were some differences of opinion but very little debating; everyone was more or less on the same page. The winners will be announced on Saturday night.

Bend Film Festival jurors during deliberative recess — (l. to r.) entertainment attorney Richard Roll, director Taggart Siegel (The Real Dirt on Farmer John), myself, critic/journalist/Movie City Indie editor Ray Pride, director-writer-actor Hank Rogerson (Shakespeare Behind Bars), filmmaker Rory Kelly (Sleep With Me, Some Girl); in a Wall Street storefront window, a board game for sale; the festival’s flagship venue is the Tower theatre, located on Wall Street in the center of downtown; ditto; haven

Three strongly worded reactions — an ecstatic rave, a thumbs-up and a pan — to David Fincher‘s Zodiac (Paramount, 1.17) went up on AICN today following Thursday night’s screening of a nearly-finished cut at Hollywood’s Arclight.

San Francisco’s Transamerica tower was built between ’69 and ’72; the Zodiac action mainly happens between ’69 and ’71.

You can discount the wows or choose to regard them as plants, but it sounds at the very least like an impressively detailed and workmanlike policier coming from an early ’70s Pakula-type place. Given the building consensus that fall-winter season is looking weaker and weaker as we go along, it seems as if a limited December release of Zodiac would fill at least a portion of the void.
The ecstasy guy said he was “blown away,” called it “easily the best film I’ve seen this year,” “an instant classic”, “a great piece of filmmaking [and] easily one of the best films about an investigation I’ve ever seen.” The moderate admirer “didn√ɬ¢√¢‚Äö¬¨√¢‚Äû¬¢t think it was quite as good as either Se7en or Fight Club” [but] says it operates in a kind of Pakula-type realm (All The President’s Men, Klute) and called it “a terrific film, one that I was long looking forward to…almost consistently compelling, suspenseful, and dramatically effective.”