Ordinarily no one could be in three places at once.  Yet last night HeyUGuys managed to bring you the sights, sounds and results of the Jameson Empire Awards 2010 and still find time to ping across town to the glamorous after-party.  For your award-scrutinising pleasure we have photos from the red carpet, interviews with the attendees and reactions to the night right here on site.  That’s the thing about HeyUGuys…

There’s nothing ordinary about us!

So, you’ve seen the pictures and watched the footage, now it’s time for the party.  Few stars risked the soggy dash from the Grosvenor House Hotel to Soho House – perhaps concerned the rain would extinguish their shine.  Those who braved the precipitation, however, were there to celebrate and a celebration is exactly what the night was.  The beauty of the Jameson Empire Awards is that they are more reflective of cinemagoers taste and last night there was a real consensus that some overlooked films had been given their moment in the spotlight.  There was genuine delight for both Let the Right One In and In the Loop in particular and the atmosphere in the chic interconnecting rooms of Soho House’s second floor was fizzing with expectation as party attendees waited for the award-goers to return.

While nominees’ friends and colleagues staked out the best people watching spots on the sofas bracketing the Circle Bar, drawing room and chill out room, we noticed one particularly lively party at our side.  It was the Sony/Lionsgate team proudly toasting their Harry Brown win.  We were impressed by their passion for the film and touched by their evident delight.  The uniform rows of Jameson cocktails standing to attention at the bars were soon disrupted (and swiftly replenished!) as a rustle of Empire goodie bags announced the arrival of the first winners.  We’ve included some pictures here but as most of the venue was plunged in fashionable pitch darkness we hope you’ll excuse their quality.

On the stairs HeyUGuys caught up with Done in 60 Seconds winner Mark Wong whose unique interpretation of Top Gun had entertained everyone at the Friday night shortlist party.  Mark, in his movie dress whites, was “completely overwhelmed” by the whole experience.  Indeed we can attest that the grin of sheer delight didn’t leave his face all night.  Lina (Let the Right One In) Leandersson too looked overwhelmed and not a little dazzled by it all as she circulated in her lovely flowery frock.

Armando Iannucci was modest but clearly chuffed in the wake of his In the Loop triumph.  Echoing our “about time too” he set the tone for pride in the British award recipients of 2010.  Although we were secretly hoping he would insult us with some custom Malcolm Tucker inspired expletives he was, in fact, charm itself.  Pity really!  Bionic Woman Michelle Ryan – soon to be seen in No Ordinary Trifle with Claire Forlani and Dougray Scott – made no secret of her support for her countrymen, counting Sir Ian McKellen’s speech and Ray Winstone’s win as her highlights of the night.  “It was great to see so many Brits win, really lovely.”  She did also confess a fondness for Avatar so had been happy to see James Cameron’s blue money monster take home the best of the rest.

Richard Coyle (The Libertine, Coupling) shared her sentiments telling us how happy he was at Ian McKellen’s win.  We also had a chance to talk to him about his recent experience on The Prince of Persia.  He confided that the contrast between the “tough, tough, desert shoot” and the “impressive final product” was “amazing”.  He had only recently seen the finished film and was blown away by how good it was and “proud, very proud” of his work on the film.

Potentially our favourite partygoers of the night were the Irish boys representing Done in 60 Seconds nominee Let There Be Less Blood (Tom Rowley, Dublin 8 ) they were having a whale of a time and relishing every moment of the experience.  The Jameson Empire after party was a truly enjoyable night and we loved seeing the sheer joy on the faces of the winners and their teams.  It felt good to be in the company of people who live and love film.  For all our coverage of the nights’ events you may click the links above or below.  After such a positive experience we look forward to seeing what the 2011 awards will bring!

Our thanks to Caroline Joy Watson for the Jameson photographs & Mauricio Samayoa

HeyUGuys are conflicted.  We exist because we love film and celebrate the artistry and endeavour of anyone who has the sack to commit pen to paper and scenes to celluloid but sometimes we despair of a world where originality has been overthrown by the banal, the safe and the (ick) reimagined.  As a rule we’d prefer not to revisit old ground but – as a wiser man than HUG once observed – it is the exception that proves the rule.

Empire and Jameson understand that wisdom well and, furnished with this knowledge, created the genius that is the Done in 60 Seconds project.  Done in 60 Seconds is a competition which encourages budding filmmakers and movie lovers worldwide to celebrate and encapsulate their favourite celluloid triumphs in one short minute of film.  The longlist of entries was assembled last autumn and, after careful consideration, reduced to a shortlist of twenty sixty second films which were presented to an illustrious judging panel and a motley crew of journalists (and biased friends) this evening at London’s 24 Club.

It would be impossible for us to accurately capture here the utter brilliance of the entries.  Suffice it to say, if you have never seen the Evil Dead story told entirely in plasticine, Top Gun recreated with slurs on $cientology or There Will Be Blood in its arcade game incarnation you should click the links and prepare to be bowled over!

Empire assembled a panel of judges, including Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’s Edgar Wright, to crop the list to a manageable five ahead of Sundays Jameson Empire Awards when the winner will be announced.  HeyUGuys will of course be on the red carpet and inside the after party to bring you the news as it happens but, in the meantime we have the Top Five 60 second movies for you and a wee word from Mr Wright himself.

The nominees, in no particular order, are:

Irish entry, There Will Be Less Blood (Tom Rowley, Dublin 8.)

Russian entry, True Lies

UK entries, Evil Dead (submitted by Lee Hardcastle), Top Gun (Mark Wong / produced by Chris Slaughter) and Who Framed Roger Rabbit (Michael Whaite)

When we exclusively caught up with Edgar Wright moments after the decision he told us the judges were fairly unanimous in their choices.  There were no dramatic battles over the nominees because the Top Five were clear to all three.  Despite appearing at the 24 Club on only two hours sleep, Edgar was gracious (and coherent) about the overwhelming reaction he has had to the newly released Scott Pilgrim trailer which debuted at Kick-Ass screenings around the country tonight.  He acknowledged finding the excitement over the 80 second trailer “weird” but had had “so much fun” on the judging panel that he was distracted from the hysteria.  On our journey home we also noted that Mr Wright had had the cheek to pinch one of HeyUGuys exclusive Twitter photos to share with his army of fans across the Twitterverse.  Ordinarily we’d cry foul but we’ll excuse one of the site’s favourite directors as long as Scott Pilgrim lives up to the promise of its trailer.

As for the HUG verdict: well, we had a bit of a soft spot for Seam Callanan’s condensed Inglourious Basterds and an amazingly clever clown take on District 9.  That aside, we rather agreed with the judges’ verdicts.  It will be interesting to see which film triumphs at Sundays Jameson Empire Awards and whether its creator goes on to greater (and longer) glory in the future.  For now we have had an amazing night at the mini-movies and we look forward to seeing what Sunday will bring…

With huge thanks to Empire, Jameson & Mauricio Samayoa at We Are Social!



Jason Isaacs is a man who has been in the movie business for a long time. He’s become a household face, if not name from appearing in movies such as The Patriot, The Harry Potter Franchise, Armageddon and Black Hawk Down. He was at the BAFTA awards (our photos here including a couple of Mr. Isaac’s himself) as one of the judges of the Best Newcomer nominations and now that is over, he turns his attention to the Jameson / Empire Film Awards where is is one of the judges.

Isaacs was interviewed by PA recently where he said how surprised he was about the quality of the videos that people have created. The award he is judging is called ‘Jameson Empire Awards’ Done In 60 Seconds’ which we promoted a while back here. Members of the public had to make a 60 second short film to be in with a change of winning the 2010 prize.

In the interview, Isaacs states how surprised he was at the quality of some of the entries.

“I was expecting there to be something rather patronising about it – that they would all be so entertainingly shoddily amateur, that it would be like when my kids put on a dance show for me every night. But in this instance I think there’s some really genuine talent here and I don’t know where or how they’ve trained or taught themselves how to do what they’re doing, but even the ones that aren’t technically proficient, the ones that have made it through to this stage in the competition have got real storytelling skills.”

You can see the full interview with Isaacs here and make sure you tune in to HeyUGuys’ coverage on Sunday 28th as we’ll be at the Jameson / Empire film awards bringing you as much as we can from the event. All the nominations can be seen in our previous post here.

Images: Getty Images.

Here’s another one for all budding film makers out there….. Edgar Wright has been announced as a judge of the Jameson Empire Awards, ‘Done in 60 Seconds competition. The idea is that you take a movie that you either love or hate and, in Edgar’s words, ‘boil it down into it’s most important points’, all in 60 seconds.

We’ve got a video which you can see below where Edgar gives you some ideas of how you can make you new movie which you can see below. To find out more information on the awards, visit Empireonline.com/awards2010. On that page, is also a video from Danny Boyle with advice about how you can make a video,

The top 20 entries will come to London for a semi-final event on 26 March, where the jury will select the final five nominees. These five will have the chance to rub shoulders with A-List stars at the Jameson Empire Awards on 28 March, where the winner will be announced.