The Lady K Academy Film Awards Day 11 - Best Lead

The Lady K Academy only has 4 awards left to give out and tonight is going to be another double awarder as we salute the Actor and Actress who literally lead the way in 2011.

Without further ado the award for Best Actor goes to...

Ryan Gosling for Drive* 

(*although he also gave very noteworthy performances in 

Blue Valentine, Crazy, Stupid, Love and The Ides Of March)

Ryan Gosling was on fire last year with 3 very different movies on general release within 3 months of each other. 1 romantic comedy, 1 crime thriller and 1 political drama. He also had romantic drama Blue Valentine out at the start of the year. Even if he's not your favourite actor you have to admit he's hard working! As I saw each of these films I can say without a doubt that he was fantastic in each of them, but the one which made me decide he was worthy of this award was Drive.

This is what my review had to say: "Despite being the main character, the driver not only has no name, he also has very few lines in the film, with most of his feelings being played out through looks in the rear view mirror. Having said that the performances of Gosling and all of the other actors involved are faultless."

To give you a taste of Ryan's performance in the film I have attached a video I found which is set entirely to a song from the film, no dialogue. I thought it was a good demonstration given the lack of dialogue for the driver in the film.

Please note this is a clip from an 18 certificate movie and does show violent scenes. If you haven't seen the film there are some spoilers.

We follow Ryan's stunning performance in Drive with our award for Best Actress.

This goes to... Viola Davis for The Help

I pretty much knew all along that my Best Supporting Actress and Best Actress were going to come from The Help, how could they not with such a wealth of female talent on display. But the confusion came when I had to pick one. Just one. Anyone who read my review of The Help will know that I have a huge girl crush on Emma Stone. Love her. She can do no wrong. But Viola was amazing. And so were Octavia, and Bryce, and Jessica. Hardest decision EVER. But as Viola's role really was the pivotal one, I went with my gut and chose Viola's portrayal of Aibileen Clark as the winner for this category.

For anyone who missed it, this is what my review had to say: "The characters are fantastic, even the ones you hate, you can't help but admire the actors potrayal. And the actors, or rather actresses as this is a predominantly female cast, were faultless. Every single one. I know I already mentioned my girl crush on Emma Stone but she is wonderful. But then so are Viola Davis, Bryce Dallas Howard, Octavia Spencer and Jessica Chastain. And the supporting cast is a dream, from the likes of Allison Janney (who can do no wrong in my eyes, I've loved her for years!) to Sissy Spacek and Mary Steenburgen. Fabulous one and all."

And here is a taster of Viola in The Help.

Much as I love Meryl, can you still tell me after watching that clip that Meryl deserved the Oscar? I don't think so!

Runners Up for Best Actor:

Matt Damon surprised me last year in both Hereafter and The Adjustment Bureau. 

Jake Gyllenhaal for Source Code. Yes he's my favourite actor, yes I've met him and am biased as hell but he was brilliant in Source Code, you know it and I know it.

Runners Up for Best Actress:

While Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine and My Week With Marilyn) and Natalie Portman (Black Swan, No Strings Attached and Your Highness) were both very busy ladies last year I think the two women who surprised me the most after Ms Davis were Kristen Wiig for Bridesmaids and Tilda Swinton for We Need To Talk About Kevin

So there you have it. My winners for Best Actor and Actress. Who were yours?