HURT LOCKER BLOWS AVATAR AWAY

I've not seen Hurt Locker, but I love Avatar. Anyway, my take is that Avatar is very New Age in its main concept... you become part of the Eywa when you die, as everyting else does... now that's New Age!

-----------------------------

BRITAIN'S love of the underdog triumphed on Sunday as intimate war drama The Hurt Locker beat 3D spectacular Avatar to take six prizes, including Best Film, at the British Academy Film Awards.

Kathryn Bigelow won the Best-Director battle with Avatar's James Cameron, her ex-husband - who cheered her on from the audience - for her intense depiction of a bomb-disposal squad in Iraq.

"It means so much that this film seems to be touching people's hearts and minds," Bigelow said.

Both films had eight nominations for the British awards, considered an indicator of possible success at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles next month. Avatar and The Hurt Locker each has nine Oscar nominations.

The Hurt Locker also took British prizes for original screenplay, cinematography, editing and sound.

Avatar won awards for production design and visual effects for its vivid vision of a distant moon populated by a blue-skinned species called the Na'vi.

Bigelow also paid tribute to soldiers serving in Iraq, and said the goal of the film was "putting a bit of a spotlight on a very, very difficult situation".

"I hope in some small way this film can begin a debate ... and bring closure to this conflict," she said.

The Avatar/Hurt Locker battle initially seemed like a David-and-Goliath story. Cameron's last feature, Titanic, won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director. Avatar is a global phenomenon that has taken more than US$2 billion ($2.8 billion) at the box office.

Hurt Locker has made about a hundredth that much.

British talent did not go home empty-handed, with Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth taking home the silverware. Mulligan won the Leading Actress award for her performance as an Oxford-bound schoolgirl seduced by an older man in An Education.

"I really didn't expect this at all. I was here a year ago and I just never imagined this in a million years," said the delighted 24-year-old, waving to her parents and brother in the Royal Opera House auditorium.

The newly-blonde Mulligan won fashion plaudits for her monochrome, flower-print dress by Vionnet. She turned the evening into a family affair, bringing her parents and brother to the ceremony. She likened the shock of her nominations to "being punched - nicely".

Firth won his first Bafta for A Single Man, in which he plays a grieving university professor. The actor said he almost declined the role, which has also earned him an Oscar nomination. Firth said he had been about to turn it down by email "when someone came to repair my fridge". He never sent the email.

"I would like to thank the fridge guy," Firth said. He added he has emerged from working with fashion designer-turned-director Tom Ford "better groomed, more fragrant and more nominated than one has ever been before".

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, already a hot Oscar favourite, won Best Supporting Actor for his turn as a chilling, charming Nazi colonel in Inglourious Basterds. The Supporting Actress award went to Mo'nique for Precious: Based on the Novel 'Push' by Sapphire.

Director Duncan Jones took the award for Outstanding British Debut for his lost-in-space drama Moon. The son of David Bowie credited his singer father with getting him "interested in the canon of sci-fi" at a young age.

"He is watching it live ... in New York," said Jones. "I turned my phone off, like I was told to, so I'm sure when I turn it back on, he will be trying to get through."

While the likes of Kate Winslet (in clinging Stella McCartney), Vera Farmiga (in Marchesa) and Audrey Tautou (who was nominated for her performance in a biopic of Coco Chanel but opted to wear Lanvin) posed on the red carpet, it was Prince William who raised the biggest screams from the crowds with his first official engagement as the new president of Bafta.

The prince was there to present a Bafta Fellowship to Vanessa Redgrave, who set aside her Republican leanings for the occasion.

She bestowed a kiss upon the prince and told him: "I would to say to Your Royal Highness how much I admire your father for his intelligence, humanity and kindness."

News that Redgrave was to accept an award from Prince William raised eyebrows. The actress was a leading light in the Marxist Workers' Revolutionary Party in the 1970s, and has a track record of making controversial speeches at awards ceremonies.

When she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 1977 for Julia, she used her speech to denounce the "Zionist hoodlums" who had criticised her support for the Palestinian cause.

The 73-year-old actress, a member of the Redgrave dynasty, was accompanied to the ceremony by her daughter, Joely Richardson. AGENCIES

From TODAY, Tuesday, 23-Feb-2010

----------

Related articles by Zemanta

• 'Hurt Locker' takes 6 prizes at UK film awards (huffingtonpost.com)
• 'Hurt Locker' the big winner at British film awards (thestar.com)
• Baftas 2010: curtseys, camping - and a fridge (guardian.co.uk)
• 'Hurt Locker,' 'Avatar' Face off at UK Film Awards (abcnews.go.com)
• 'Hurt Locker,' 'Avatar' face off at UK film awards (pbpulse.com)
• 'Hurt Locker,' 'Avatar' face off at UK film awards (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Colin Firth's BAFTA Awards Win (inquisitr.com)
• Vanessa Redgrave says acting helped her deal with death of Natasha Richardson (telegraph.co.uk)
• 'Hurt Locker' triumphs over 'Avatar' at BAFTAs (msnbc.msn.com)
• Bafta Winners 2010: Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth among winners (telegraph.co.uk)

Last Titanic survivor dies in England

AFP - Monday, June 1

Millvina Dean, pictured in 2002, the last remaining survivor of the Titanic, died Sunday at a care home in England, the BBC reported, citing a friend. She was 97.

LONDON (AFP) - - Millvina Dean, the last remaining survivor of the sinking of the Titanic in 1912, died in a care home in England, media reports said. She was 97.

Elizabeth Gladys Dean, known to friends as Millvina, was only nine weeks old when the liner hit an iceberg in the Atlantic Ocean on the night of April 14, 1912, and sank killing 1,500 people.

She survived after being bundled up in a sack and carried to safety. Her mother Georgette Eva and brother Bertram also made it, but her father, Bertram Frank, was among those who died.

Dean died in a private nursing home near Ashurst in the southern English county of Hampshire, according to the BBC and Britain's domestic Press Association news agency. Staff there refused to comment late Sunday.

Dean's family had boarded the Titanic at Southampton, heading for a new life in Kansas where her father hoped to open a tobacconist shop.

Born on February 12, 1912, Dean was the youngest passenger on board. At the time, RMS Titanic was the most luxurious, most technically advanced and largest passenger liner in the world.

She was dubbed "unsinkable", but it took just two hours and 40 minutes for her to disappear into the icy waters of the Atlantic after striking an iceberg at 11:40 pm on April 14.

Dean was taken back to Southampton with her family after the disaster and did not find out that she had been on board until she was eight years old and her mother was planning to remarry.

According to enthusiasts' website Encyclopedia Titanica (ET), Dean worked for the government as a cartographer during World War II and then for an engineering company.

She told reporters that it was not until the wreckage of the liner was found in 1985 that she suddenly became a celebrity, taking part in documentaries and giving media interviews.

Dean was invited to complete her family's ill-fated journey to the United States in 1997 aboard the QE2, and accepted, although she turned down an offer to attend the premier of the movie "Titanic" because it would be too upsetting.

She moved into a private nursing home in Hampshire after breaking her hip three years ago, and after struggling to pay the bills was forced to sell off some of her memorabilia.

At auction in October 2008 she raised 31,150 pounds (40,000 euros, 53,900 dollars), selling off rare prints of the liner signed by the artists as well as compensation letters sent to her mother by the Titanic Relief Fund.

Dean was also forced to sell a 100-year-old suitcase filled with clothes donated to her family by the people of New York when they arrived after being rescued.

In the wake of the auction, friends including members of the British Titanic Society and the Belfast Titanic Society -- the liner was built in Belfast in Northern Ireland-- set up a campaign to secure her future.

Among the donors to the Millvina Fund were Hollywood actors Kate Winslet and Leonardo DiCaprio, who starred in the 1997 "Titanic" film. The pair and the film's director, James Cameron, reportedly donated 30,000 US dollars in total.

The last remaining US survivor, Lillian Asplund, died in her home in May 2006 at the age of 99. She was just five years old when the Titanic went down.

From Yahoo! News; see the source article here.

Related articles by Zemanta

• The Last Living Survivor Of The Titanic Has Passed Away (dlisted.com)
• Last Titantic survivor dies at 97 (guardian.co.uk)
• Last Survivor of the Titanic Dies at 97 (nytimes.com)
• Millvina Dean, Titanic's Last Survivor, Dies at 97 (nytimes.com)
• Last Survivor Of The Titanic Dies Aged 97 (news.sky.com)
• Last survivor of Titanic dies aged 97 (telegraph.co.uk)
• Last Titanic survivor Millvina Dean dead at 97 (ctv.ca)
• Last Titanic survivor dies at 97 (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Last Titanic survivor dies at 97 (thestar.com)
• Last known Titanic survivor dies (cnn.com)