 The US gay cowboy movie Brokeback Mountain, managed to round up four awards in the BAFTAs, including Best Film, at Britain's answer to the Oscars.
The story of a secret love affair between a ranch hand and rodeo cowboy also took Best Director award for Ang Lee and Best Adapted Screenplay. Jake Gyllenhaal took the fourth award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. Philip Seymour Hoffman, the American star of the biopic, Capote, about American writer Truman Capote, gained the award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Another American, Reese Witherspoon, won the Actress in Leading Role category for her portrayal of the wife of country-western singer Johnny Cash in another biopic, Walk the Line. The Actress in a Supporting Role award went to Thandie Newton for Crash, a low-budget racial drama set in Los Angeles.  Memoirs of a Geisha, the story of a penniless girl who becomes an accomplished geisha, was the second biggest winning film with three awards — Cinematography, Costume Design and Music.
The Alexander Korda Award for the Outstanding British Film of the Year was presented to Wallace &
Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit and The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by
a British Director, Writer or Producer in their First Feature Film was presented to Director Joe Wright
for Pride & Prejudice. De Battre Mon Coeur S’est Arrêté (The Beat That My Heart Skipped) won Film Not in the
English Language.
 The Award for Editing was won by The Constant Gardener and King Kong won the Award for
Achievement in Special Visual Effects. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire won for Production Design and the BAFTA for Make Up & Hair was presented to The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Antonio’s Breakfast won the Short Film BAFTA and the Short Animation Award was won by Fallen
Art. The Orange Rising Star Award was won by James McAvoy. This is the only award voted for by theBritish public and it recognises a young actor or actress of any nationality who has demonstratedexceptional talent and ambition. The Award has been created in honour of the late , thehighly respected, BAFTA winning casting director who died in April 2004.
Robert (Chuck) Finch and Bill Merrell were this year’s recipients of The Michael Balcon Award for
Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema. Chuck, one of the film industry’s leading Gaffers, and Bill,
a Best Boy and Rigging Gaffer, have each worked on over 50 films. They have worked together for
more than 20 years.
 David Puttnam was honoured with the Academy Fellowship. Awarded annually in the Gift of
Council, this is the highest accolade bestowed by the Academy. David’s BAFTA winning films include
The Mission, The Killing Fields, Chariots of Fire, Local Hero, Midnight Express and Bugsy Malone.
The Awards were hosted by Stephen Fry for the sixth time and held at the Odeon Leicester Square in
London on Sunday 19 February. They were produced by Initial (part of Endemol UK) and broadcast
on BBC One the same evening.
The BAFTAs were moved to a date before the Oscars in 2001. They are now seen as a pointer to who will pick up the golden statues in Los Angeles next month.
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