Mirren, Whitaker Prevail At BAFTA Awards
Posted February 12, 2007 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Top acting honours at the British Academy Film Awards went to a ‘King’ and ‘Queen.’
Dame Helen Mirren’s acclaimed performance as Queen Elizabeth II in The Queen earned her the best actress prize, an honour she’s favoured to repeat in two weeks’ time at the Oscars. Meanwhile, Forest Whitaker added to his statuette collection by winning best actor for his turn as charismatic Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in The Last King of Scotland. As the winner of both this year’s SAG and Golden Globe awards, he’s also considered an Academy Award frontrunner – the prizes are handed out Feb. 25.
The Queen was named best picture of the year at the BAFTAs.
Mirren, 61, joked that she couldn’t have won the award without a lot of help from her castmates, “without whom you would never have believed in me as the queen. I refer, of course, to the corgis.”
The Stephen Frears-directed film, which depicts the public tragedy that gripped Britain following the 1997 death of Princess Diana,beat Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s Babel, Martin Scorsese’s The Departed, road trip comedy Little Miss Sunshine, and The Last King of Scotland.
Last King did win prizes for best British film of the year and best adapted screenplay.
“He seemed such a sweet, gentle, lovable sort of person,” director Kevin Macdonald said of the film’s star Whitaker and the initial doubt that he’d be the right actor to play Amin. “He proved he did have those depths of anger and paranoia and terror in him.”
Other winners included Paul Greengrass, named best director for United 93, Dreamgirls star Jennifer Hudson as best supporting actress and Alan Arkin of Little Miss Sunshine for best supporting actor.
Michael Arndt won best original screenplay for Little Miss Sunshine.
James Bond thriller Casino Royale had nine nominations but only won for best sound. Bond girl Eva Green was named rising star of the year.
Image Credit: Dave Hogan, Getty Images Entertainment
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