BAFTA success: but do two halves make a whole?

Two films with Danish connections triumphed in London last night

Feb 9, 2015

Two halves often don’t make a whole, and it would be technically incorrect to report that Denmark won a BAFTA award in London last night.

But it did have a strong claim to involvement in two winning films – 'Ida' and 'The Lego Movie', which won Best Foreign Language Film and Best Animated Film respectively – although neither acknowledged the country’s contribution in their acceptance speech.

New favourite for Oscar
Poland's entry ‘Ida’, which most international media describe as a Polish-Danish entry, saw off strong competition from Russian entry ‘Leviathan’, which last month took home the award at the Golden Globes.

Co-made by Danish producer Phoenix Film Investments with support from the Danish Film Institute, none of their representatives were among the four producers who accompanied director Paweł Pawlikowski at the podium.

'Ida' was second on most bookies’ lists for the Oscars prior to last night’s win, but is now a 11/17 red-hot favourite.

Revenge for Academy Award snub
'The Lego Movie' controversially won’t be at the Oscars, which might explain why it managed to see off several of the Academy Award frontrunners – in the same way Ben Affleck did a couple of years ago at the Globes and BAFTAs after being likewise snubbed for directing 'Argo'.

Nevertheless, while Lego might have expected some thanks in the acceptance speech, Denmark’s claim to a share of the glory is as flimsy as Britain claiming a win for ‘Shakespeare in Love’.