Yesterday HeyUGuys joined BAFTA once again for an all-day event dedicated to this year’s Film Nominees. The Sessions which focused on different categories, exploring each discipline and discussing this year’s nominated films, highlighted the meticulous craftsmanship behind each and everyone of them.
We started the day with a rare chance to hear from this year’s nominees and world leading film practitioners from the Make Up and Hair category who were all more than happy to share their wisdom with us. Speakers at this session were Lizzie Yianni Georgiou, Make up and Hair Designer for Rocketman, Barrie Gower, Prosthetics co-designer, Rocketman and Tapio Salmi, Hair stylist/ Make up artist for Rocketman. Also present were Anne Morgan, Hair Department Head for Bombshell, Tristan Versluis, Prosthetics designer on 1917 and Nicki Ledermann, Makeup Department Head, Joker.
This first session saw some of the nominees talk passionately about their craft and the lengths they went into to achieve the director’s vision from start to finish. From creating looks to fit in with the three eras of Elton John in Rocktman, to working with prosthetics to turn Charlize Theron into Megyn Kelly in Bombshell, we got a real sense of the huge and painstaking work that goes into achieving these near-impossible tasks.
Elsewhere, Tristan Versluis talked about the challenges he faced working in a production famed for its one-take scenes, while Nicki Ledermann talked passionately about how challenging it was to create a look that could set her Joker aside from earlier incarnations.
Next up was the Costume Design category. Speakers present at this session were,
Jany Temime, Costume Designer for Judy, Christopher Peterson and the brilliant Sandy Powell who worked on Costumes for The Irishman, Arianne Phillips for Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood and Mayes C. Rubeo for Jojo Rabbit.
The biggest take from this session was hearing how the designers were able to recycle looks and creations from other productions to come up with new looks for their productions. It was also interesting to hear Once Upon a Time in Hollywood costume designer Arianne Phillips talk about how she was able to use some Sharon Tate’s own jewellery in scenes with Margot Robbie. Elsewhere, Jany Temime spoke passionately about working with a very small budget to create timeless looks for Renee Zellweger in Judy.
The next session saw 3 of the EE Rising Star nominees take their seats on stage and talk passionately about their dreams and aspirations for the future. Present at this session were Kelvin Harrison Jr. for Waves, Kaitlyn Dever for Booksmart and Micheal Ward for Blue Story.
The final session of the day featured this year’s nominees and world leading film practitioners from the Outstanding Debut category. Speakers at this session included Harry Wootliff, director of Only You, Mark Jenkin for Bait, Linn Waite and Kate Byers producer on Bait, Alex Holmes for his doc Maiden, Edward Watts for the outstanding Syrian war doc For Sama and Alvaro Delgado Aparicio for Retablo.
The highlight of the session was hearing Bait director Mark Jenkin speak so passionately and honestly about his craft whilst highlighting the need to carry on doing what makes you happy regardless of what others around you deemed the norm. All nominees spoke about the challenges they met on the way and their hopes for the future.
The EE British Academy Film Awards, will recognise the very best in film of the past year, will take place on Sunday 2 February at the Royal Albert Hall, London. The ceremony will be hosted by Graham Norton and will be broadcast exclusively on BBC One and BBC One HD in the UK and in all major territories around the world.
