Brokeback Mountain Dominates Brit Awards

By Rich Drees

     February 20, 2006- The drama Brokeback Mountain dominated the British Academy Film Awards last night, sweeping up four awards including Best Film and Director.

     Awarded by the British Academy of Film and Television, Brokeback was one of the several American films that dominated the English awards ceremony, leaving British films to pick up only a few minor prizes. Although considered a strong contender with ten BAFTA nominations, the British political thriller The Constant Gardner only won one trophy, for editing.

     In addition to its Best Film and Director statues, Brokeback Mountain also won the prize for Best Adapted Screenplay while its star Jake Gyllenhaal was awarded the prize for Best Supporting Actor. Brokeback goes into next month’s Academy Awards with eight nominations including those for Best Picture, Director and  three of the four acting categories. 

     Philip Seymour Hoffman won the BAFTA award for best actor for his work in the title role of the bio-pic Capote. Reese Witherspoon took the trophy for Best Actress for her role in the Johnny Cash bio-pic Walk The Line, while Thandie Newton won Best Supporting Actress for the drama Crash.

     Winning the Alexander Korda Award For Outstanding British Film was director Nick Park’s stop-motion animated Wallace & Gromit: The Curse Of The WereRabbit, the first time an animated film has won the award. The event’s other exclusively British award, the Carl Foreman Award For Special Achievement By A Director, Producer Or Writer In A First Feature went to director Joe Wright for Pride and Prejudice.

     Film producer David Puttnam – who won the 1982 Best Picture Oscar for Chariots Of Fire - was awarded the BAFTA’s Academy Fellowship, the organization’s highest honor.

     You can view the complete list of BAFTA Award winners here.