The Americans may do it better, but for the second year in a row the Baftas proved that the Brits think they know better. Last year the British Academy resisted the steamroller of hype behind Shakespeare in Love in favour of The Truman Show, and this year they honoured many films ignored by the Oscars.
Although Sam Mendes’ American Beauty went one better than its Oscar tally of five – including the Bafta for best film – best director went to the flamboyant Spaniard Pedro Almodóvar for All About My Mother, a tragi-comedy in which a nun gets Aids from a transsexual prostitute.
Being John Malkovich – possibly the most surreal, and possibly the only, adult puppet comedy ever to become a Hollywood hit – won best screenplay, and Tim Burton’s Sleepy Hollow, made in Britain, won Baftas to make up for lost Oscar glory.
Maggie Smith was a surprise winner of best supporting actress for Tea With Mussolini, a film which has not been overburdened with praise.
Annette Bening, who many had expected to win the best actress Oscar for her part as a manically self-improving suburban wife in American Beauty, finally got her due with a Bafta best actress.
Jude Law, who had been similarly disappointed in Los Angeles, won best supporting actor for playing a wastrel heir in Anthony Minghella’s The Talented Mr Ripley. Overall though, it was a bad night for Minghella, who many had thought was due for at least a few consolation awards after his film was snubbed by the Oscars.
There was even less to cheer for another much-tipped British film, The End of the Affair, which despite 10 nominations left with only one Bafta, for its screenwriter Neil Jordan. Mike Leigh might have had more to smile about too, but Topsy-Turvy, which took two Oscars, won only one Bafta: best make-up for Christine Blundell, one of the behind-the-screen heroines of the British industry.
But there was joy for East is East, the rip-roaring low-budget comedy set in a Salford fish and chip shop which last month became the most successful fully-funded British film ever. It won, with touching historical symmetry, the Alexander Korda award for the outstanding British film.
The film’s producer, Leslee Udwin, said that when the father of the film’s writer – Ayub Khan Din – came to Britain from Pakistan in the 1950s he worked for a short time as a film extra on one of Korda’s films, where he got his first taste of racism. “When he went to have some lunch, the other extras with him would not eat with him. So Korda came over himself and ate with him.” East Is East features a character called George who is based on Khan Din’s father.
Michael Caine won a Bafta fellowship for his special contribution to British film. Another fellowship was awarded posthumously to American director Stanley Kubrick, maker of 2001: A Space Odyssey and A Clockwork Orange, who only emerged from his Hertfordshire estate to make films.
Roll the credits: who won what
Best film
American Beauty
Best actress
Annette Bening – American Beauty
Best actor
Kevin Spacey – American Beauty
Best supporting actress
Dame Maggie Smith – Tea With Mussolini
Best supporting actor
Jude Law – The Talented Mr Ripley
David Lean award for best achievement in direction
Pedro Almodóvar – All About My Mother
Best original screenplay
Charlie Kaufman – Being John Malkovich
Best adapted screenplay
Neil Jordan – The End of the Affair
Best film not in English language
All About My Mother
Anthony Asquith award for music
Thomas Newman – American Beauty
Carl Foreman award for newcomer in British film
Lynne Ramsay – Ratcatcher
Best sound
The Matrix
Best cinematography
Conrad L Hall – American Beauty
Best production design
Rick Heinrichs/Colleen Atwood – Sleepy Hollow
Best editing
Tariq Anwar/Christopher Greenbury – American Beauty
Best achievement in special visual effects
The Matrix
Best make-up/hair
Christine Blundell – Topsy-Turvy
Best short film
Who’s My Favourite Girl?
Best short animation
The Man with Beautiful Eyes
The Orange audience award
Notting Hill
Alexander Korda award for outstanding British film
East is East
Academy Fellowships
Michael Caine, Stanley Kubrick
Michael Balcon award for contribution to British cinema
Joyce Herlihy