Lord of the Rings is king of the Baftas | Fiachra Gibbons, arts correspondent

It was pure magic at the box office, but when it comes to awards Harry Potter is far from wizard. In evil weather worthy of Mordor itself, and with hundreds of fans huddled outside in the rain to catch a glimpse of Nicole Kidman arriving under an umbrella, the Potter film's fantasy rival, The Lord

This article is more than 22 years old

Lord of the Rings is king of the Baftas

This article is more than 22 years old, arts correspondent

It was pure magic at the box office, but when it comes to awards Harry Potter is far from wizard.

In evil weather worthy of Mordor itself, and with hundreds of fans huddled outside in the rain to catch a glimpse of Nicole Kidman arriving under an umbrella, the Potter film's fantasy rival, The Lord of the Rings dominated last night's Bafta awards, winning best film, best director and most popular film.

The Fellowship of the Ring, the first of Peter Jackson's adaptations of JRR Tolkien's trilogy, took five awards, while Harry Potter, the blockbuster based on JK Rowling's altogether more down to Earth first book, got nothing at all.

Its spectacular failure to turn seven nominations in seven categories into wins was the shock of the night, though its makers can console themselves with the fact that it still has the box office edge.

The assumption of Dame Judi Dench into award heaven continued with a best actress Bafta for her portrayal of the late novelist Iris Murdoch's slow slip into the void of Alzheimer's disease. It was the only award of the night for Richard Eyre's film, which will again be relying on Dame Judi to win an Oscar next month.

The other big homegrown quality hit of the year, Robert Altman's Gosford Park, which won the ageing American director a Golden Globe, had to content itself with best British film and the best costume award.

The plucky-struggle-against-illness theme popped up again when Russell Crowe, looking more like a bedraggled St Bernard dog than the star of Gladiator, won best actor for A Beautiful Mind, in which he plays the Nobel-prize winning mathematician John Nash, who has battled with schizophrenia for most of his career.

It was compensation in part for defeat last year by Jamie Bell, the star of Billy Elliott. His co-star Jennifer Connelly, who played Nash's long-suffering wife, beat Dame Judi, Dame Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren to best supporting actress.

Jim Broadbent, whose performance as Murdoch's husband has won universal plaudits, won best supporting actor for his less celebrated role as the idiosyncratic MC in Moulin Rouge. It was one of three awards for Baz Luhrmann's musical.

While the Baftas are Britain's top film awards - and this year's ceremony attracted a galaxy of US stars - they are not quite the major pointer to the Oscars that the organisers would like to claim.

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