Big stars expected at BAFTA awards

By Paul Majendie

LONDON (Reuters) – Hollywood is sending in the big guns for
Sunday’s BAFTA awards as movie publicists shift into top gear
for next month’s Oscars.

Winning a UK film industry award is no guarantee of Oscar
success but a BAFTA statuette can provide a valuable
pre-Academy fillip.

Triple Oscar nominee George Clooney will be joined on the
BAFTA red carpet by Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal, stars of
the gay cowboy movie “Brokeback Mountain” which ranks as one of
the hottest Oscar contenders.

Among the other Oscar nominees confirmed for London are
“Capote” star Philip Seymour Hoffman, best actress contender
Charlize Theron and supporting actor hopeful Matt Dillon.

Hype reigns supreme in film award season but, even with
three Oscar and four BAFTA nominations under his belt, Clooney
remains sanguine.

“People wax and wane, it ebbs and flows on what my standing
is,” he told Reuters in an interview at the Berlin Film
Festival before heading to London.

At the BAFTAs, Clooney will be competing against himself as
he has been nominated for best actor in a supporting role for
two films: the Middle East thriller “Syriana” and “Good Night,
and Good Luck” about a reporter’s showdown with Senator Joseph
McCarthy.

He is also competing for a BAFTA for best director and best
original screenplay for “Good Night, and Good Luck.”

Another reluctant to get caught up in all the hype is Judi
Dench, who has been nominated for a best actress Oscar and a
best actress BAFTA for “Mrs Henderson Presents.”

“It is not good to cross the bridge before you get to it,”
Dench told Reuters after receiving her 11th BAFTA nomination
for her role playing a 1930s widow who buys an abandoned
theater and goes on to stage what became Britain’s most famous
nude review.

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 reflected Hollywood glitter in the
packed awards calendar.

But they are not a natural prequel to the Oscars.

Last year’s Clint Eastwood 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.

Flying the flag for Britain at the BAFTAs will be the
political thriller “The Constant Gardener” which landed 10
nominations. Its stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz are up
for top acting honors.

Box office receipts rose one percent in Britain last year,
bucking the downward European trend. But film production
slumped due to uncertainty over the government’s tax regime.

(Additional reporting by Hanna Rantala in Berlin)