Celebrating their 17th year at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel, Empire magazine’s annual awards ceremony took place last night before a star-studded crowd, which included Dexter Fletcher, Hayley Atwell and Danny DeVito.
Appropriately for the first day of English Summertime, London’s streets looked drab and grey, with the weather downturning as soon as the red carpet was rolled out. Hundreds of film fans laid siege to the Grosvenor’s gates, sweating in anticipation to see which of this year’s nominees would turn out for the event. They weren’t disappointed. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Attack The Block and Thor were amongst the major titles represented by their stars, although it was perhaps a little hopeful to think that Steven Spielberg would break from editing Lincoln to recognize his Best Director nomination (that said, he did edit Empire’s 20th Anniversary issue).
As evening settled in the accredited press were ushered into their pens (no, that’s literally what they’re called) and Hollywood’s elite took their seats in the Grosvenor’s incredible ballroom, recognizable as the stage for the annual Mercury Awards. The event itself, hosted by Empire’s Chris Hewitt and BBC6’s Lauren Laverne, was a vibrant affair, notable for the loose, tongue-in-cheek approach of its hosts, who make this a much more enjoyable ceremony than the po-faced BAFTA’s (let’s not knock that institution though). Following an awesome montage of 2011’s blockbusting best (Super 8 deserved more nods) the awards got underway…
The first award of the night was all-new for this year’s bash: The Art Of 3D. Naturally it celebrates the finest in Hollywood’s latest dime-squeezing tech (this reporter isn’t a fan), and the award went to Spielberg’s wonderful Hergé adaptation The Adventures Of Tintin: Secret Of The Unicorn. It was as deserving a winner as any in the category, as all were perfectly fine in their 2D incarnations and many were post-converted. In regards to The Bearded One, presenter Harry Hill quipped; “he’s in Nando’s in Croydon.” Seems that Lincoln cut might not be as big a priority as we’d imagined then…
First up in the acting categories were the awards for best male and female newcomers, which went to Tom Hiddleston and Felicity Jones. Sadly Like Crazy‘s Jones wasn’t around to receive her award, but Hiddleston accepted his with genuine surprise and excitement. Twelve months ago few could have put a name to the handsome Brit actor, but next month his image will be forever cemented, as audiences can see him square off against Marvel’s finest in the much-anticipated The Avengers.
Next up was the Done In 60 Seconds category, which awards the work of budding filmmakers tasked with sweding their favourite flicks in… you guessed it, 60 seconds. The entries this year were of an extremely high standard, but the winning short came from Kazakhstan’s Indira Suleimenova, for her inspired take on recent giallo horror Black Swan. The award was handed out by the category’s trio of judges: Chris O’Dowd, Alex Zane and Mark Dinning, Empire’s own editor-in-chief. Interestingly, this was only one of two foreign films to be nominated in any category, the other being Troll Hunter in Best Horror.
Perhaps the most interesting awards handed out were those relating to genre. Best Thriller went to Tinker Tailor Solider Spy (also the recipient of Best British Film), Best Comedy to The Inbetweeners Movie, Best Horror to Kill List (interesting category selection) and finally Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy was bagged by Thor, Kenneth Branagh’s much-underrated superhero epic. I’m pretty much behind all of these choices, and once again it must be noted that they’re all much more adventurous than those made by BAFTA.
Now onto the weightier awards. Best Director was perhaps the evening’s biggest surprise, as Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows Part 2 helmer David Yates walked away with the honour. Gary Oldman and Olivia Coleman took home Best Actor and Actress respectively, again righting so many wrongs done to them throughout the awards season; they delivered two of the most exciting performances of last year, but were largely ignored for their work. Finally, reflecting Yates’ previous victory, Deathly Hallows 2 won Best Film, although considering its phenomenal box office success this was perhaps unsurprising.
The ceremony was brought to a close by three special, Empire-exclusive awards. Inspiration went to Ron Howard for his illustrious and varied career; Hero was collected by the inimitable Michael Fassbender, and the Legend award was presented by DeVito to his ex-Batman Returns director Tim Burton. These three speeches were perhaps the highlight of the event, with Ron Howard delivering some fine one-liners to remind us just how funny he can (and used to) be, and DeVito making at least one reference to Fassbender’s “schlong.” Quite the night to remember then…
