Posted on 02/19/2006 6:16:37 PM PST by peyton randolph
"Brokeback Mountain," already a hot favorite for next month's Hollywood Oscars, was the big star of the night at the British Film Academy awards on Sunday, scooping four BAFTAs.
The gay cowboy love story won the coveted Best Film Award, Ang Lee was picked as Best Director, Jake Gyllenhaal was chosen as Best Supporting Actor and it also won the Best Adapted Screenplay statuette.
"I didn't have a specific message. I wasn't trying to push any political issues. We are dealing here with love," Lee told Reuters Television before accepting his award.
Gyllenhaal, flabbergasted by his triumph, shook his head in astonishment and said: "Who would have thought this would happen."
"It moved me like no other love story I have ever seen," he said of the film for which he is also Oscar-nominated.
The film, which had taken Lee seven years to bring to the screen, faced tough competition in a strong year from "Capote," "The Constant Gardener," "Crash" and "Good Night, and Good Luck" to be picked as Best Film.
Philip Seymour Hoffman took home the Best Actor BAFTA for his mesmerising portrayal of writer Truman Capote in "Capote" and Reese Witherspoon was selected as Best Actress for her role in the Johnny Cash biopic "Walk The Line."
Accepting his award, Hoffman thanked his girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell, saying "I want to say I love her and she looks really hot tonight."
The Best Supporting Actress award went to British star Thandie Newton for her role in the low-budget racial drama "Crash."
"This is the highest high ever," she said afterwards. "I don't expect it to get any higher."
The British film industry had great hopes for the stylish political thriller "The Constant Gardener" which garnered 10 nominations but its stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz went home empty-handed.
Another disappointed star was George Clooney who had been nominated four times in recognition of his directing, acting and writing skills in the McCarthy era drama "Goodnight, and Good Luck" and the Middle East thriller "Syriana."
"Wallace and Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit," another in line for Oscar glory in Hollywood next month, was chosen as The Best British Film of the Year, much to the delight of Nick Park, creator of the two plasticine pals.
The BAFTAs were shifted in 2001 from April to February to fall between the Golden Globes and the Oscars with organizers hoping to capture some Hollywood glitter in the packed awards calendar.
But winning a top UK film industry award is certainly no guarantee of Oscar success.
Last year, Clint Eastwood's boxing drama "Million Dollar Baby" swept the board at the Oscars but failed to score at the BAFTAs after distributors refused to send out copies of the film to voters amid fears of piracy.
Brokeback Mountain, a favorite at the Oscars, and the British film awards, but a flop in theaters everywhere.
$107 million worldwide on a $14 million investment? That's some flop.
I bet it did!!!!
The oscars tv show is going to be quite a revelation to the American people that watch.
Many will appreciate how "way out" hollywood is for the first time...and they won't like it.
I'm actually going to go see it tonight. Some female friends of mine really want to so ... here we go. I expect to guffaw through most of it, but we'll see.
They will have their smallest audience ever!
It may be really well made, but to me it looks like a really well made parody of romance movies. I was laughing at the trailer when I first saw it.
So here we go....weeeee!
Well at least you have your cover...
I think the Republican Party's poll numbers go up every year after the Oscars - the Oscars remind everyone of how demented and sick Hollywood/the Democrat party is.
I wonder how many of those ticket numbers are due to liberal and homosexual groups buying up open seats.
Liberals do this all the time. They buy their own books to increase their sales numbers and visibility on the bestseller and Amazon.com lists.
It turns out the story originated with the movie distributors, and the press just lapped it up. (Like pudding.) Funny, the same press that's always bemoaning the lies pushed by movie companies seemed to think the producers of this thing are somehow pure because they made a pro-gay movie. Gee, no bias there, huh?
BTW www.boxoffice.yahoo.com says it's 68m not 114m...but whats 46m amoung really really close friends.
Okay, well... I saw it. I'll say this for them: they didn't even try to make that sex scene anything other than a grunting grapple. I may have missed a few moments as I was cringing into my coat...
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