04/02/2003 - Dirty Pretty Things wins best film and Chiwetel Ejofor best actor at London's 30th Evening Standard British Film Awards

Stephen Frears’ Dirty Pretty Things [+see also:
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film profile] won the Best Film Award with Chiwetel Ejofor taking home the best actor prize at the 30th Evening Standard British Film Awards ceremony that were held at the Savoy Hotel in London on 2 February.
Catherine Zeta-Jones won best actress for Chicago, and Tom Husinger and Neil Hunter shared the best screenplay award for The Lawless Heart. Asif Kapadia, who directed The Warrior was presented with this year's Carlton Award for best newcomer while Eve Steward, the production designer of All or Nothing [+see also:
trailer
film profile] won the best technical achievement nod which was presented by Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.
Hugh Grant was true to form when he promptly forgot the names of this year's three recipients of the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy: Keith Fulton, Louis Pepe and Lucy Darwin for the docudrama, Lost In La Mancha…. Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson received a Special Award for 40 years of James Bond.
On presenting his fellow director Stephen Frears with the best film award, Terry Gilliam criticised the Film Council: “I do not know how much money is going to make new (British) films - but I wonder how much is being spent on all these employees of The Film Council”.
Veronica Wadley, the Editor of the Evening Standard, was much more ‘diplomatic’ with her British film industry guests: “Our awards are dedicated solely to British talent at home and abroad. This makes them unique. British film companies like Film Four are retrenching. Granada has ceased making films - we hope only temporarily. The Film Council is being forced to take a harder look at value for public money. There may be less of it soon. But we keep a special affection for the talents that these awards have honoured and discovered over 30 years,” she said.

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