BAFTA's Best Films - 2000-2009

17 February 10

On the face of it, there seems nothing particularly to connect BAFTA’s Best Film winners of the past decade. Well, apart from the first and third in Peter Jackson’s spectacular Lord of the Rings trilogy.

But what does closer inspection of the list, starting with American Beauty in 2000, suggest about any possible trends, themes and genres which might also have something to say about the industry generally - and BAFTA’s voting membership in particular?

Best Film Winners (2000-2009)*
2000: American Beauty 2001: Gladiator 2002: The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring 2003: The Pianist 2004: The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King	2005: The Aviator 2006: Brokeback Mountain 2007: The Queen 2008: Atonement 2009: Slumdog Millionaire

According to cultural commentator and film writer Professor Sir Christopher Frayling: "It’s an interesting and varied list with an emphasis on a) period, b) outside Hollywood, c) lower budgets (with a few exceptions) in reaction against creeping 'blockbusterisation', and d) a slight whiff of parochialism."

For respected Daily Telegraph film journalist and critic David Gritten, it’s "striking that BAFTA voters have united solidly behind British films in the last three years - to a greater extent than the American awards organisations in the case of The Queen and Atonement- and might for a fourth if An Education wins."

He also observes that of the ten films, seven had a director who originated from Britain or the Commonwealth - "maybe sub-conscious cultural bias? Or just an acknowledgement of genuine quality? It works either way."

BAFTA voters have united solidly behind British films in the last three years...

Taking a closer look at specific winners, Frayling emphasises his own "parochialism" point by suggesting that the nod for The Aviator might also have something to do with the fact that director Scorsese has had such a close-and-personal engagement down the years with British cinema, championing the likes of Ealing and Powell & Pressburger.

Unlike, say, American Beauty, which he claims is "very much of its moment," Frayling is also adamant that Brokeback Mountain is the only film on the list to have "achieved classic status. It had genuine innovations within a tried and true genre that everyone had given up on: gender, sex, setting, made possible perhaps because director Ang Lee, like Sam Mendes on American Beauty, was an outsider."

If Gladiator and the LOTR films - linked in terms of being period, costume, magnifying old stories with the latest sfx and based on European originals (Italian history, Saxon and Norse mythology) - were Westerns, gripes Frayling, an admitted horse-opera expert, they would not have stood a chance.

For Gritten: "One positive aspect of this list is the preference of BAFTA voters for a genuine ‘big-screen’ experience: in Gladiator, The Pianist, The Aviator and the two Lord of the Rings films.

"Brokeback Mountain, Atonement and Slumdog Millionaire weren’t mega-budget productions but they certainly felt big. It would be hard to imagine the majority of these films being conceived for television.

For his part, Christian Colson, producer of last year’s triumphant Slumdog Millionaire, suggests that the rollcall resists analysis:

"It’s a great list of films but hard to spot any real trend, bias or pattern: three British films, five by British directors, four that also won the Oscar for Best Picture, six set in the past, four in the present... it’s a pretty mixed bag.

"But they are worthy winners all so if nothing else I think we can say that BAFTA has great taste."

• *Listed by year of presentation

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