Colin Firth success The King’s Speech is the nation’s favourite to win big at this Sunday’s coming BAFTA awards ceremony, our poll of over 2,000 British adults has found. The period drama, which explores the story of King George VI’s stutter in the years leading up to World War Two, has been nominated for 12 categories (including Best Film and Best Director), and it seems that the British public is expecting victory.
- 65% say they think The King’s Speech will win the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) award for ‘Best Film’
- Leonardo DiCaprio blockbuster Inception comes next (4%), with psychological ballet thriller Black Swan, starring Natalie Portman, and ‘Facebook movie’ The Social Network coming in joint third (3%).
- Similarly, 63% think The King’s Speech will win ‘Outstanding Best British Film’, with real-life adventure film 127 Hours coming in second place (5%). 127 Hours is especially popular with those aged 18-24, with 12% thinking it will win compared to 3% of the over 55s.
- The public’s third favourite in the British category is Sally Hawkins’s equal pay story Made in Dagenham (3%).
The King’s Speech, which also stars Geoffrey Rush and Helena Bonham Carter, is on the favourite list for several prestigious awards, having most notably been nominated for several Golden Globes (while Firth himself bagged the Golden Globe for Best Actor ), as well as being nominated for 12 Academy Awards (Oscars) categories. It also won several gongs at the Screen Actors’ Guild awards late last month.
Stumbling success
In recent days, however, the film’s successful streak has suffered several small knockbacks this side of the Atlantic, with Colin Firth losing out to The Social Network and Never Let Me Go star Andrew Garfield at the Evening Standard awards, while The Social Network garnered four gongs to The King’s Speech’s three at the London Film Critics’ Circle Awards (including a best actor win for Colin Firth).
Firth has said: ‘Films like this depend entirely on what people say about them’, and while the British public is predicting a win, it remains to be seen whether the drama’s erudite cast will be taking the stage and going home happy come Sunday night.
The BAFTAs are being held at the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London on Sunday 13th February, and will be shown live on BBC One from 9pm.
