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THEORANGEBRITISH
THEORANGEBRITISH
ACADEMYFILMAWARDS
ACADEMYFILMAWARDS
Awards & Events
Almost exactly 51 years after they were first (and last) pre- sented at the Odeon Leicester Square, this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards returned to the heart of London’s West End with huge and enthusiastic crowds wildly acknowledging a bevy of interna- tional stars and film-makers.
Inside the extravagantly attired cine- ma, for a Sunday evening ceremony broadcast live on Sky Premier, American Beauty went one better than it had at the Oscars two weeks earlier winning no fewer than six BAFTAs, including Best Film, Best Actor (KEVIN SPACEY) and Best Actress (ANNETTE BENING).
But there were some audible gasps when its British director SAM MENDES and screenwriter ALAN BALL failed to add a BAFTA mask to their recent Academy Award trawl. Instead, flam- boyant Spanish film-maker PEDRO ALMODOVAR landed the prestigious dou- ble of the David Lean Award for Direction and Best Foreign Language film for his popular All About My Mother. And CHARLIE KAUFMAN scooped the Original Screenplay Award for his suitably original Being John Malkovich.
In the Best Supporting Actress catego- ry, veteran Brit DAME MAGGIE SMITH won for her delightfully eccentric role in Franco Zeffirelli’s Tea With Mussolini.
There were mixed fortunes for local hero MICHAEL CAINE. After his Best Supporting Actor Oscar for The Cider House Rules, he seemed noticeably
Michael Caine acknowledging his standing ovation
ovation when an emotional CHRISTIANE KUBRICK came on stage to receive the award from presenter SYDNEY POLLACK on behalf of her late husband, director STANLEY KUBRICK, who died last year aged 70.
Two of the year’s most popular films deservedly won awards. Notting Hill earned the evening’s sponsor Orange’s Audience Award, while another home- grown box-office blockbuster East is East was given the Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film Of The Year.
To Ratcatcher’s young Scots direc- tor, LYNNE RAMSAY, went The Carl Foreman Award (and a cash prize of £10,000) for Most Promising Newcomer in British Film. She thanked “Isaac Newton, ’cos I keeping my feet on the ground.” As experienced as Lynne is novice, veteran production manager JOYCE HERLIHY, whose films range from Chariots of Fire to The Remains Of The Day, received the Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema.
From DUSTIN HOFFMAN and FAYE DUNAWAY to KATE WINSLET and LESLIE NIELSEN, the ceremony, hosted by JACK DOCHERTY, was littered with guest pre- senters. Also on hand to distribute the awards were RALPH and JOSEPH FIENNES, HUGH GRANT, CATE BLANCHETT, ELLE MACPHERSON, DAVE STEWART, NAOMI CAMPBELL, ROBERT CARLYLE, RHYS IFANS, SAMANTHA MORTON, JULIA ORMOND, GINA MCKEE, RAY WINSTONE, JIMI MISTRY, JONNY LEE MILLER and All Saints’ really cute NATALIE APPLETON. ■ Quentin Falk
miffed to be beaten out to the same prize on home soil by The Talented Mr Ripley’s JUDE LAW, another South Londoner. But there was surely great consola- tion in his being named the 50th Fellow of BAFTA (see page 12),
following in the prestigious foot- steps of Hitchcock, Chaplin, Olivier and, more recently, his good friend, Sir Sean Connery.
The announcement of the 49th Fellowship earlier in the evening had provoked a previous standing
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