Update: 3 BAFTA nominations (but no wins) for Mamma Mia!
February 8, 2009
Benny. Photo: Getty Images
The nominations are:
- – Best British Film
- – The Carl Foreman award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer for their first feature film – Judy Craymer (Producer)
- – Music – Benny Andersson, Björn Ulvaeus
The awards ceremony is Sunday 8 February, 2009 at the Royal Opera House in London.
Thanks to ABBA On TV‘s Sara Russell.
UPDATE 08 Feb 09: No wins for Mamma Mia! in the three categories for which it was nominated. Benny attended the ceremony and also the after-awards party at the Grosvenor House Hotel.
Fingers crossed for Judy as I think this is the only realistic category MM can win in.
Slumdog has to win the Best British film given the excitement building up about this film.
As far as music is concerned, I wonder if the fact that the music isn’t an original score will go against MM.
What does everyone else think?
J_ase
All I can say is Bjorn and Benny better win the music category for the film Mamma Mia! The fact that they’ve been nominated proves that they are perfectly eligible for this category. If they do not win this, then the award is worthless. With the phenomenal success of Mamma Mia! in the UK and the never ending popularity of ABBA’s music in this country and around the world, even scoring their first Billboard No. 1 in 2008, the others nominated for this award might as well stay at home! Surely it is a given. And rightfully their’s!
I’m curious about this "music" nomination. I can’t find any information on the BAFTA site on what makes a film eligible for this category (unlike the Oscars and other awards that have pages of rules).
The other films appear to be nominated for score, not songs. Even in Mamma Mia!’s score there’s not a single note of original music, just variations on ABBA songs, though some of them are near-unrecognisable.
fingers crossed . . .
perhaps the british will show more sense (and class, and style, and taste, etc)
x
The issue with these types of awards are they are not popularity awards. Unfortunately this may actually go against B&B especially given some of the critical assessments for some of the male vocal performances.
Obviously, I believe MM should walk away with this award, especially as some of the incidental music, arrangements etc are truly beautiful. I especially think TWTIA arrangement takes the song to a whole new dimension.
I hope I am simply being pessimistic, so I am with Andrew….. fingers crossed…..
Hi everyone ,,i think the film has won the real awards already by box affice smash,fastest and biggest selling dvd,biggest selling cd etc.I never thought the film would rightly be recognised by the industry itself and it would be great if it was,,but for me i dont care.Having said that ,good luck to all those involved with the film who are nominated,,you would all win hands down if it were up to me .
It isn’t long ago the UK cinema industry were crying out for a blockbuster to get people in to see a movie to make the industry some money.They got it in Mamma Mia but the pretentious critics didn’t like it,much how they didn’t like ABBA in the 1970’s and now love them.Ironic ‘Slumdog’ was going to be released straight to dvd originally.
I did see Benny signing autographs on the red carpet and also sat near Judy Craymer during tv coverage.
Darren said: "Ironic ‘Slumdog’ was going to be released straight to dvd originally."
That’s incredible! What a mistake that would have been! It’s an excellent film IMO.
"MM!" was fun, but it could never be classed as "excellent".
And the judges weren’t being pretentious in not awarding anything to "MM!". They were just being honest, that’s all.
Paul
No correct…. Mamma mia was not excellent but great music great actors witty plot and songs well fitted into the story and a feel good movie which reflects many people´s lives – what´s wrong with that? Who is the judge to judge which movie is excellent and which movie isn´t? Julie Walters was absolutely magnificent in this movie – among others! John
I am probably irelands biggest abba fan and have always been a proud fan since the age of six now 40 i have especially enjoyed the journey with all abba solo material love anthem from chess and i wish to nite could last forever from agnetha i think fridas best was here we stay would love to here a modern remix of this may be phil collins might remix this p.s also huge pc fan
personally for me mamma mia was super as my favourite holiday destination was always greece and abba was always my favourite group i was only disgusted that agnetha and frida didnt appear in some way in the movie because as great writers that b and b are i was more in to the girls voices than the actual material as a huge fan my biggest dream is abba creating even one final single in studio as a way of saluting their loyal fans around the world r do we have to keep buying the same songs over and over with different covers
I am sorry to say but I heard Björn said he liked the idea that ABBA is the group which never reunited…and that they want people to remember them as they were…and that they don´t want to make a cover of their own songs.. so sorry folks I do not think we will ever see them on stage again…but there are so many recorded songs to enjoy and check out ABBA the movie I think one of their happiest periods before the divorces and before their breakthrough…there is plenty of material to enjoy so I just say enjoy…. John