Silence is golden as The Artist takes early BAFTA lead

* Silent movie The Artist nominated for 12 BAFTAs

* Spy drama Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy next with 11

* Meryl Streep expected to win for Thatcher role

LONDON (Reuters) - Black-and-white turned to gold again as silent movie 'The Artist' took an early lead at the BAFTA awards ceremony in London, with Martin Scorsese's 3-D family film on the magic of movie-making, 'Hugo,' also putting in a strong showing.

Still to come were the most prestigious categories including best actress, in which Meryl Streep was expected to triumph for her portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady.'

The Artist, a French-made romance in black-and-white set in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s, is up for 12 awards, British Cold War espionage thriller 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' has 11 nominations and 'Hugo' has nine.

The Artist quickly notched up three wins in the music, cinematography and costumes categories, while Hugo took the prizes for sound and production design.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards are not always an accurate predictor of what is to come at the Oscars, but they are the most coveted film honors outside of the United States.

'This has become a much bigger deal in the past 10 years or soably knowing today is the . It really helps films,' said George Clooney on the red carpet before the ceremony, which is taking place at the Royal Opera House in the popular Covent Garden area of London.

Clooney is the favorite to win the leading actor BAFTA for his role as a man steering his family through troubled times while his wife is in a coma in 'The Descendants.' He is also up for an adapted screenplay prize for 'The Ides of March.'

The Artist, the story of a star of silent movies whose career is destroyed by the advent of 'talkies,' has already won big at the Golden Globes and a good night at the BAFTAs would give it a further lift two weeks ahead of the Academy Awards.

Asked to account for the success of a silent movie in black and white, Berenice Bejo, the leading actress in the film and wife of the director Michel Hazanavicius, said: 'You don't need words to say I love you.'

Before the ceremony, bookmakers William Hill gave The Artist odds of 1/6 to win the best film BAFTA, far ahead of Tinker Tailorshortcuts' id='lw_1328890390_2'Saul. The other contenders are The Descendants, 'Drive' and 'The Help.'

MARGARET THATCHER VS MARILYN MONROE

Streep, who has already won a Golden Globe for her turn as Thatcher, was the 2/7 favorite to win the leading actress BAFTA, according to William Hill.

She was comfortably ahead of Viola Davis, her nearest rival, who plays a maid facing discrimination in The Help, a Civil Rights drama.

Streep has won plaudits in Britain for her portrayal of the country's first female prime minister, whom she plays both as a firebrand Conservative leader at the height of her power and as a frail elderly woman suffering from memory loss.

But reviews of The Iron Lady have been lukewarm in Thatcher's home countrylms are simply not known he. The choice to dwell on the subject of her dementia has been criticized, not least by current British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is also a Conservative.

Streep has a long history at the BAFTAs, having been nominated 14 times stretching back to 1979 efficient you just can't . She won once, for her role in 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' in 1981.

Completing the line-up in the actress category are Bejo as an up-and-coming actress in The Artist, Michelle Williams as Marilyn Monroe in 'My Week with Marilyn' and Tilda Swinton as the traumatized mother of a teenage killer in 'We Need To Talk About Kevin.'

My Week with Marilyn, set during the filming of the 1957 comedy 'The Prince and the Showgirl' starring Monroe and Laurence Olivier, is nominated for six awards including supporting actor for Kenneth Branagh, who plays Olivier.

On the red carpet, Branagh praised Williams's 'transcending performance' as a troubled but intoxicating Monroe/media/m/base/images/transparen. He also shared some advice he had received from Olivier after writing to the acting legend when considering an acting career.

'Just have a bash and hope for the best,' were the words of wisdom from Olivier, according to Branagh.

In the leading actor category, bookies' favorite Clooney faces a strong challenge from Gary Oldman, who plays the British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor, an adaptation of a classic thriller by novelist John Le Carrep inexplicably knowing today is the la. The other nominees are Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Brad Pitt ('Moneyball') and Michael Fassbender ('Shame').

As well as the nominations for his first family film, Hugo, Scorsese is also up for the documentary prize for 'George Harrison: Living in the Material World.'

However his two movies fare at the BAFTAs, Scorsese will not leave London empty-handed after the ceremony at the Royal Opera Housefilms that might otherwise struggle. He will receive a BAFTA Fellowship celebrating his life in cinema.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Streep set for BAFTA glory in home of "Iron Lady"

LONDON (Reuters) - The cinema spotlight shines on London for the BAFTA awards on Sunday, with silent movie-era romance 'The Artist' a hot favorite for best film and Meryl Streep's portrayal of Margaret Thatcher in 'The Iron Lady' poised to win leading actress.

The Artist, a French-made black-and-white film set in Hollywood in the 1920s and 30s, is up for 12 awards, British Cold War espionage thriller 'Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy' has 11 nominations and Martin Scorsese's 3-D adventure 'Hugo' has nine.

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards are not always an accurate predictor of what is to come at the Oscars, but they are the most coveted film honors outside of the United States.

The Artist, the story of a star of silent movies whose career is destroyed by the advent of 'talkies,' has already won big at the Golden Globes and a good night at the BAFTAs would give it a further lift two weeks ahead of the Academy Awards.

Bookmakers William Hill gave The Artist odds of 1/6 to win the best film BAFTA, far ahead of Tinker Tailor AMPAS also announced that Milla. The other contenders are 'The Descendants,' 'Drive' and 'The Help.'

British film 'My Week with Marilyn,' set during the filming of the 1957 comedy 'The Prince and the Showgirl' with Marilyn Monroe and Laurence Olivier, could make an impression.

It is nominated for six awards, including outstanding British film and best actress for Michelle Williams, who plays a troubled but intoxicating Monroe28736132_4'Halle Berry/span t. Kenneth Branagh, who plays Olivier, could win a supporting actor BAFTA.

CLOONEY VS OLDMAN

Streep was the 2/7 favorite in the leading actress category, comfortably ahead of Viola Davis, her nearest rival, who plays a maid facing discrimination in Civil Rights drama The Help.

Completing the line-up are Berenice Bejo as an up-and-coming actress in The Artist, Williams as Monroe in My Week with Marilyn and Tilda Swinton as the traumatized mother of a teenage killer in 'We Need To Talk About Kevin.'

With a Golden Globe already in the handbag, Streep has won plaudits for her portrayal of the former British prime minister, whom she plays both as a firebrand Conservative leader at the height of her power and as a frail elderly woman suffering from memory loss.

Reviews of The Iron Lady have been lukewarm in Thatcher's home countrycuts' id='lw_1328736132_1'Brad Pitt. The choice to dwell on the subject of her dementia has been criticized, not least by current British Prime Minister David Cameron, who is also a Conservative.

In the leading actor category, George Clooney is favored to win the BAFTA for his role as a man steering his family through troubled times while his wife is in a coma in 'The Descendants.'

Clooney faces a strong challenge from Gary Oldman, who plays the British spy George Smiley in Tinker Tailor, an adaptation of a classic thriller by novelist John Le Carreson to accompany her Oscar-nominated hus. The other nominees are Jean Dujardin (The Artist), Brad Pitt ('Moneyball') and Michael Fassbender ('Shame').

Hugo, which has done well on the U.Sed her brother, . awards circuit, is Scorsese's first family movieesmaids': Rose Byrne, Ellie K. Set in Paris at the turn of the 20th century, it explores the magic of the early days of movie-makingm/bt/api/res/1,2/BR62A. Scorsese is also nominated for his documentary 'George Harrison: Living in the Material World.'

However his two movies fare at the BAFTAs, Scorsese will not leave London empty-handed after the ceremony at the Royal Opera House added span class='yshortcuts' id='lw_. He will receive a BAFTA Fellowship celebrating his life in cinema.

(Editing by Paul Casciato)

Communist East Germany back in haunting new film

BERLIN (Reuters) - The oppressive world of Communist East Germany was brought back to life in a haunting new film called 'Barbara' at the Berlin Film Festival on Saturday, the first of three German productions in the main competition.

A fictional tale of a young doctor banished to the East German provinces because she requested to move to West Germany, the film set in 1980 is a sedate portrait of the Communist country nine years before it imploded when the Berlin Wall fell.

The film by Berlinale veteran director Christian Petzold, teaming up with actress Nina Hoss for a fifth time after she won Berlin's Silver Bear best actress award for 'Yella' in 2007, has none of the stirring moments or heart-breaking scenes as in other films about East Germany such as 'The Lives of Others.'

But 'Barbara' nevertheless gave the festival's audience a harrowing reminder of what life was like two decades earlier behind the Iron Curtain and Berlin Wall that stood just a few meters to the east of theatres where the Berlinale is based.

'It was a tremendous challenge for me to try recreate that East German atmosphere of 1980,' said Hoss, 36m about the last two. 'I didn't grow up in East Germany and didn't know how it felt to always be on guard like that, to always be mistrustful of other people.'

The heavy-handed Stasi security police in East Germany with a myriad of informants kept close watch on the country's 17 million people, especially the many thousands who applied to leave to the West or were otherwise deemed enemies of the state.

The film by Petzold, whose parents fled East Germany to West Germany, shows how suffocating that world was where people had to deal with the omnipresent fear their neighbors, co-workers, friends and even spouses might betray them to the Stasi.

'It's not a film about East Germany, it's a film about how people survive in a country that was on its way out,' said Petzold, who added that he, like many other Germans, are fascinated by stories about East Germany.

The doctor played by Hoss is a target of Stasi persecution, including regular body cavity searches, because she wants to leave the East to be with her West German loveraid she was honored to be ch. But while preparing to flee via the Baltic, she starts to fall in love with an East German doctor whom she is not sure she can trust.

The other two German films competing for Golden Bears in Berlin are 'Was bleibt' (Home for the Weekend), a family drama by Hans-Christian Schmid, and 'Gnade' (Mercy), a drama set in Norway by Matthias Glasner.

(Reporting By Erik Kirschbaum)

"Phantom Menace" racks up $1.1 million in midnight shows

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - Not even Jar Jar Binks could keep 'Star Wars' fans from the 3D re-release of 'The Phantom Menace.'

The 'force' was still with George Lucas, as the first part in the six-episode fantasy series racked up $1.1 million in midnight showings on Friday.

The film, considered the weakest by fans of the franchise, is nevertheless on track to have a strong weekend million on December 21, It . It debuted in 1,300 screens in its late night showings and will expand to 2,655 locations.

'The Phantom Menace' will likely fall short of the more than $30 million generated by the 3D re-release of 'The Lion King' last fall, but it should gross north of $20 million over the weekend.

Also showing some muscle, and appealing to slightly different chromosomes, was 'The Vow.' The romantic drama grossed $700,000 in midnight shows.

Starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, the Sony film should generate over $30 million this weekend.

Not to be outdone, Denzel Washington's latest thriller 'Safe House' debuted at midnight to a solid $543,000 at 1,034 locationslw_1328650815_5'Girl With the Dragon Tat. It too should find itself north of the $20 million mark when the weekend ends.

A few more weekends like this and last winter's horrific box office slump will seem like it took place in a galaxy far, far away.

(Editing By Zorianna Kit)

"Extremely Loud" director wants more 9/11 films

BERLIN (Reuters) - Stephen Daldry, whose 'Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close' retells the deadly events of Sept 11, 2001 through the eyes of a New York boy, believes there should be more films about the attacks and their consequences.

His movie, which was released in U.Stcuts' id='lw_1328650815_4'Daniel Craig/spa. theatres in December, has divided critics and public opinion, and Daldry, who was presenting the picture at the Berlin film festival on Friday, conceded that some people believed it came out too soon.

The Briton said he approached 'Extremely Loud' 'with the honest awareness that some people would still find it was too soon, too much or too little, but in the end you have to trust your own instincts about what you think is appropriate.'

The film stars Tom Hanks as a father killed in New York's World Trade Center on 9/11, Sandra Bullock as his widow, newcomer Thomas Horn as his son and Max von Sydow as a mysterious old man who becomes close to the traumatized boy.

The movie features reconstructions of people falling from the towers and the final phone messages left by the father who was trapped inside the buildings after the planes struck.

Based on Jonathan Safran Foer's 2005 novel of the same name, 'Extremely Loud' is not the first feature film based on the 9/11 attacks.

But by focusing on the grief of a single American family, and in particular on the impact the attack had on a young and troubled boy, it has been seen by some as controversial.

Daldry said he consulted with families who lost relatives in the attacks and taken their comments to heart and mind.

The director of 'Billy Elliot' and 'The Reader' also expressed surprise at how few movies had been made about the attacks, which happened more than 10 years ago.

'It amazes me that more films aren't made about 9/11,' he told reporters at in Berlin including Japan, . 'I don't just mean the stories in New York, I mean stories from around the world about not just what happened and why it happened or who it happened to, but the consequences of what happened and how those consequences still reverberate in all our lives.

'This particular story is focused on one family and the consequences for that one family.

'Do I think there should be (more) films made about the consequences of what happened in Iraq and what continues to happen in Afghanistan? Yes, I do think that's true.'

Reviews of 'Extremely Loud' have been middling to poor, with the Rolling Stone opining: 'Solidly crafted, impeccably acted and self-important in the way that Oscar loves, 'Extremely Loud' is also incredibly close to exploitation.'

Indeed, the movie was nominated for a best picture Academy Award to the surprise of some, while Swedish veteran von Sydow was shortlisted for a best supporting actor Oscar for his role as an old man who no longer talks.

His connection with the main character Oskar Schell, played by young newcomer Horn, is central to the film's plot as the boy goes on a seemingly impossible mission to find a lock he believes will reconnect him with his father.

Oskar appears to have some form of autism and, while bright and unable to stop talking, he also is an outcast who loses his one true friend when his father dies.

Horn told reporters that his only previous role had been as a grasshopper in a school play, but that he was now considering a career in acting.

Von Sydow was asked by Swedish reporters why he spent so little time in his native countryyshortcuts' id='lw_1328650815_5. One magazine mischievously pondered whether he had been kidnapped.

'No Max von Sydow is not kidnapped, he has just chosen to live in France, simple as that,' the 82-year-old said.

'Unfortunately the Swedes have a strange clause in their laws - you cannot have double citizenshipts before hearing the news of the P. After years and years in France, I decided I should really be a French citizen.'

(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)

Senegalese film celebrates last day of life

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BERLIN (Reuters) - 'Tey,' a Senegalese modern fairy-tale which premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on Friday, depicts a young man who wakes up inexplicably knowing today is the last day of his life.

'Tey,' meaning 'today' in the Wolof language, is one of three films in the competition set in Africa, which festival director Dieter Kosslick has described as 'an almost forgotten continent in film.'

Director Alain Gomis, the son of a French mother and Senegalese father, said 'Tey' was about coming to terms with death in order to better appreciate the present, the today.

'In Europe, death doesn't exist, we don't confront it, instead we try to forget it even exists,' he told Reuters.

'Through this film I confronted my own biggest fear, that of death, and now I have come to terms with it, it actually enriches every moment, every moment is magic,' said the softly spoken director with waist-length dreadlocks.

The main character Satche, played by U.S A: 'There's something (not qui. actor and musician Saul Stacey Williams, wanders through the bustling streets of his hometown in Senegal, meeting old friends and family and re-assessing his life, in attempt to gain closure before dying.

But if the whole community is involved, dialogue is sparse, reflecting the fact that this journey is an internal one.

'For me it was very scary getting into the character for this film because it operates off the premise of living every day as if it is your last day,' said Williams, who learnt Wolof and French on the setd='lw_1328695691_7'Weddin. 'I had a fear of dying.'

Gomis, 39, said the film was against this fear, showing the main character wage an internal war to overcome it.

There are joyous moments as Satche simply enjoys the moment, in town against the background of Senegalese drumming, or in the quiet intimacy of his home with his wife.

In one scene, his entire neighborhood celebrates his last day as he jauntily walks down the street, showering him with gifts of food and flowers, dancing and singing together.

FORGOTTEN CONTINENT

The Berlinale, which last year set Iranian drama 'A Separation' on the path to global fame, has a reputation for championing non-mainstream films that might otherwise struggle to find an international audience.

'Tey' director Gomis said films like his would simply become 'private projects made for friends' without the showcase of a major film festival like the Berlinale.

'The big festivals allow us to breathe a bit and to try to exist in this kind of huge conformist industry,' he said.

'For cinema and all artistic forms, by trying to be ever more efficient you just can't breathe anymore A: 'You never know how . And you take people for idiots and think that they cannot ..hortcuts' id='lw_1328695691_0'Woody Allen. get into a film that doesn't use motifs that are repeated a thousand times.'

'At the end of the day I love going to see a James Bond film but I don't want there to be only James Bond films,' he said.

Gomis said the Berlin film festival would benefit from its focus this year on African films, which are too often ignored.

'War Witch,' a sub-Saharan African drama about a girl's abduction by a rebel army, and 'Tabu,' a tale of love and crime set in Portugal and Mozambique, will premiere later in the week.

'Europe could enrich itself so much if it did not simply regard Africa with a sense of guilt or charity, but actually opened up to all this continent has to offer,' he said.

'One of the greatest directors of cinema, in my opinion, is a Senegalese director called Djibril Diop Mambety, but his films are simply not known here.'

'Tey' turns the usual story of Africans seeking to escape their own continent on its head, by showing a Senegalese man -- Satche -- who studied abroad and has returned home.

The tensions afflicting Senegal ahead of elections on February26 are also depicted in the film by protestors chanting in French 'Ca suffit' ('It's enough') in standoffs with the police.

(Additional Reporting by Tanya Wood, editing by Paul Casciato)

Naomi Watts takes Princess Diana role in new movie

(Reuters) - Actress Naomi Watts will play Britain's Princess Diana in a new feature film about the last two years of her glamorous life that ended in tragedy, Britain's Ecosse Films said on Thursday.

Called 'Caught in Flight', the movie is thought to be the first big screen film about Diana, whose death in a Paris car crash in 1997 has been chronicled in several, mostly U.S., television movies.

Watts, last seen in 'J.Edgar' and political movie 'Fair Game', who was born in Britain and raised in Australia, said she was honored to be chosen before hearing the news of the Pr. American newcomer Jessica Chastain ('The Help'), was previously attached to the project.

'It is such an honor to be able to play this iconic roleash leaves her with a head trauma that erases her . Princess Diana was loved across the world and I look forward to rising to the challenge of playing her on screen,' Watts, 43, said in a statement.

Ecosse Films said the movie would chronicle the last two years of Diana's life and 'how finding true personal happiness for the first time allowed her to achieve her defining successes evolving into a major international campaigner and humanitarian.'

Media reports have said the movie will focus on Diana's secret two year affair with heart surgeon Hasnat Khan following her estrangement, and later divorce, from British heir to the throne, Prince Charles.

'Caught in Flight' will be directed by Oliver Hirschbiegel, who directed the 2004 movie 'Downfall' about Hitler's last days will go, Reading the script, I loved th. Production will start in Britain later this year.

At least one other feature movie about Diana is in the worksome sense of hope that these people might find. Preliminary titled 'Diana', that film has been in development for some months and is based on accounts of Diana's life as a member of the royal family by her longtime bodyguard Ken Wharfeclass='yshortcuts' id='lw_1328695691_. No casting has been announced.

Diana, formally known as the Princess of Wales, was just 36 years-old when she died in August 1997, causing an outpouring of worldwide grief.

(Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte)