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Sunday, 9 April, 2000, 23:35 GMT 00:35 UK
American Beauty shines at Baftas
![]() Kevin Spacey received his award from Cate Blanchett
Smash hit film American Beauty has repeated its Oscars success by taking six Bafta awards at the UK's most prestigious movie ceremony.
The late maverick director Stanley Kubrick and veteran actor Michael Caine were also honoured with Bafta fellowships marking their cinematic achievements.
American Beauty - which won five Oscars - was named best film and its stars Kevin Spacey and Annette Bening were named best actor and actress.
Instead the honour went to Spanish director Pedro Almodovar, whose All About My Mother was also named best foreign film. Spacey, who flew in for the ceremony, said: "I am forever grateful for Sam Mendes for casting me in this role. It's the most incredible part I've ever been given.
"I have to say that when I step before a camera I am grateful for every single moment of my stupid little life."
And he described the time since his Oscar triumph as "one of the nicest and most chaotic periods of my life". The stars - kitted out in their most glamorous outfits - were greeted by cheers from crowds waiting at London's Leicester Square.
Director Stanley Kubrick, whose last film Eyes Wide Shut was released within months of his death last year, was given a posthumous Bafta fellowship - one of the British movie industry's top accolades.
Because of his working class roots - he was born in south London, the son of a fish market porter - and non-stage school route into acting, he said: "I never really felt that I belonged in my own country, in my own profession."
Caine, 67, added: "It's a great honour for me. It has
been cold out there, maybe I'll feel a little more welcome in my own country than I have up until now."
Instead, the tables were turned and Jude Law, whom Caine pipped to the Oscar, was rewarded for his performance in The Talented Mr Ripley. Clearly overjoyed by his win the black-clad star leapt to the stage and thanked the film's director for giving him the chance to appear in the thriller.
Law said: "Thank you, thank you Bafta for the opportunity to say thank you to Anthony Minghella who made me play this part - and made me play it well."
American Beauty, a satire on small-town life in the US which follows a dysfunctional family, has taken a string of top awards. The film's haul of Baftas included best music, best cinematography and best editing.
Low-budget British film East Is East took The Alexander Korda award for best British film.
But its success with film fans around the world was reflected when it took the Orange Audience Award, voted for by cinemagoers themselves, beating blockbusters like The Matrix and The Sixth Sense. Bafta judges were asked to cast their votes ahead of the Oscars so as not to be influenced by the famous US ceremony. |
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