Best British Movies of All Time? Lean + Reed Replace Caine Thriller

Best British movies ever made: Michael Caine in Get Carter.

Best British Movies of All Time?

Ten years ago, Get Carter, starring Michael Caine as a dangerous-looking London gangster, was selected as the United Kingdom’s very best movie of all time according to 25 British film critics polled by Total Film magazine. To say that Mike Hodges’ 1971 thriller was a surprising choice would be an understatement. I mean, not a David Lean epic or an early Alfred Hitchcock thriller?

What a difference ten years make. On Total Film‘s 2014 list, published last May, Get Carter was no. 44 among the magazine’s Top 50 best British movies of all time. How could that be?

Well, first of all, people would be very naive if they took such lists seriously, whether we’re talking Total Film, the British Film Institute, or, to keep things British, Sight & Sound magazine. Second, whereas Total Film‘s 2004 Best British Films list was the result of a 25-critic consensus, its 2014 list seems to have been the work of one single film reviewer, Paul Bradshaw.

‘Lawrence of Arabia’ no. 1

So, what are Total Film‘s / Paul Bradshaw’s best British movies of all time? Here’s Bradshaw’s Top Twelve list, including director[s] and key cast members – and several Anglo-American productions:

1. David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia (1962).
   Cast: Peter O’Toole. Omar Sharif. Alec Guinness. Claude Rains. Anthony Quinn. Arthur Kennedy.
2. Carol Reed’s The Third Man (1949).
   Cast: Joseph Cotten. Alida Valli. Orson Welles. Trevor Howard.
3. Stanley Kubrick’s A Clockwork Orange (1971).
   Cast: Malcolm McDowell. Patrick Magee. Michael Bates. Adrienne Corri.
4. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Red Shoes (1948).
   Cast: Moira Shearer. Anton Walbrook. Marius Goring.
5. Stanley Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon (1975).
   Cast: Ryan O’Neal. Marisa Berenson.
6. Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s A Matter of Life and Death / Stairway to Heaven (1946).
   Cast: David Niven. Raymond Massey. Kim Hunter. Marius Goring.
7. Robert Hamer’s Kind Hearts and Coronets (1949).
   Cast: Dennis Price. Valerie Hobson. Joan Greenwood. Several Alec Guinness-es.
8. David Lean’s The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957).
   Cast: William Holden. Alec Guinness. Jack Hawkins. Sessue Hayakawa.
9. Danny Boyle’s Trainspotting (1996).
   Cast: Ewan McGregor. Ewen Bremner. Jonny Lee Miller. Kevin McKidd. Robert Carlyle.
10. David Lean’s Brief Encounter (1946).
    Cast: Celia Johnson. Trevor Howard.
11. Lindsay Anderson’s This Sporting Life (1963).
    Cast: Richard Harris. Rachel Roberts.
12. David Lean’s This Happy Breed (1944).
    Cast: Robert Newton. Celia Johnson. Stanley Holloway. John Mills.

Below is the Lawrence of Arabia trailer:

What’s a ‘British Movie’?

On the list above, we can see Hollywood’s pervasive influence on the British film industry. Two of the listed “British movies” – A Clockwork Orange and Barry Lyndon – were backed by Hollywood studios and were directed by an American filmmaker, Stanley Kubrick, while the David Lean epics Lawrence of Arabia and The Bridge on the River Kwai were distributed and partially financed by Columbia Pictures.

As for Carol Reed’s The Third Man, it was a joint effort between David O. Selznick’s U.S.-based Selznick International Pictures and Alexander Korda’s London Films.

Curiously missing from Total Film‘s Top Twelve Best British Movies Ever Made is another Stanley Kubrick effort, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). Perhaps the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer release starring Americans Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood simply wasn’t considered British enough. Even though Barry Lyndon, starring Americans Ryan O’Neal and Marisa Berenson, was.

Now, let’s compare the 2014 Total Film list to the one published in Oct. 2004.

Top Ten Best British Movies of All Time: Old classics mostly ignored

Only three pre-1960 films were included on Total Film‘s Oct. 2004 list of the Top Ten British movies of all time – which pretty much goes to show that British critics are as ignorant about film history as their American counterparts. Also worth noting is that every single movie on this particular Top Ten list revolves around men and their issues; not one features a woman in a central role. (On the other hand, Peter Bradshaw’s list had both The Red Shoes, with Moira Shearer, and Brief Encounter, with Best Actress Oscar nominee Celia Johnson, in addition to the gender-balanced This Happy Breed.)

And here’s the list of the Top Ten British movies ever according to Total Film – back ten years ago: “Best British Films Ever? Violent Thriller Is Surprise #1 Choice + Women (Almost) Completely Ignored.”

Missing British movies: From Herbert Wilcox to James Ivory

Missing from both Total Film lists of Top Ten / Top Twelve best British movies of all time were the following:

• Movies produced and/or directed by British film industry torchbearers Alexander Korda (e.g., Rembrandt, The Four Feathers, The Thief of Bagdad) and Herbert Wilcox (Nurse Edith Cavell, Spring in Park Lane, Odette).
• Alfred Hitchcock’s The Lodger a.k.a. The Lodger: A Story of the London Fog (1927), The Man Who Knew Too Much (1934), The 39 Steps (1935), and The Lady Vanishes (1938).
• Leslie Howard and Anthony Asquith’s Pygmalion (1938) and Asquith’s The Winslow Boy (1948).
• Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), Black Narcissus (1946), and Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom (1958).
• Alberto Cavalcanti, Basil Dearden, Charles Crichton, and Robert Hamer’s Dead of Night (1945).
• Laurence Olivier’s Henry V (1945) and Best Picture Oscar winner Hamlet (1948).
• David Lean’s Blithe Spirit (1945), Great Expectations (1946), Hobson’s Choice (1954), Summertime (1955), and A Passage to India (1984).
• Carol Reed’s Night Train to Munich (1940), Odd Man Out (1947), The Fallen Idol (1948), and Oliver! (1968).
• Henry Cornelius’ Passport to Pimlico (1949) and Genevieve (1953).
• Alexander Mackendrick’s The Man in the White Suit (1951) and The Ladykillers (1955).
• Charles Crichton’s The Lavender Hill Mob (1951) and A Fish Called Wanda (1988).
• John Huston’s The African Queen (1951) – probably not considered British enough due to its American director and stars (Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart) though produced by the U.K.-based Romulus Films, which also financed Huston’s Moulin Rouge (1952).
• Otto Preminger’s Bonjour Tristesse (1958) and Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965).
• Jack Clayton’s Room at the Top (1959) and The Innocents (1961).
• Ronald Neame’s Tunes of Glory (1960) and The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).
• Joseph Losey’s The Servant (1963) and The Go-Between (1971).
• John Schlesinger’s Billy Liar (1963), Darling (1965), and Sunday, Bloody Sunday (1971).
• Cy Endfield’s Zulu (1964).
• Lewis Gilbert’s Alfie (1966).
• Michelangelo Antonioni’s Blow-Up.
• Lindsay Anderson’s If…. (1968).
• Stanley Kubrick’s aforementioned 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
• Ken Loach’s Kes (1969) and Land and Freedom (1995).
• Ken Russell’s Women in Love (1969), The Boy Friend (1971), and Tommy (1975).
• Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973).
• Stephen Frears’ My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
• James Ivory’s A Room with a View (1986), Howards End (1992), and The Remains of the Day (1993).
• Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V (1989).
• Terence Davies’ The Long Day Closes (1992).
• Neil Jordan’s The Crying Game (1992).
• Mike Leigh’s Secrets & Lies (1995) and Topsy-Turvy (1999).

More Best British movies of all time: Anglo-American ‘The Third Man’ tops

For the record, according to a 1999 British Film Institute poll of about 1,000 film and television industry personnel, the Top Ten best British movies of all time – well, at least of the 20th century – are the following:

1. The Third Man.
2. Brief Encounter.
3. Lawrence of Arabia.
4. Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps (1935).
   Cast: Robert Donat. Madeleine Carroll. Peggy Ashcroft. Lucie Mannheim.
5. David Lean’s Great Expectations (1946).
   Cast: John Mills. Valerie Hobson. Alec Guinness. Finlay Currie. Martita Hunt. Jean Simmons.
6. Kind Hearts and Coronets.
7. Ken Loach’s Kes (1969).
   Cast: David Bradley. Freddie Fletcher. Lynne Perrie. Colin Welland.
8. Nicolas Roeg’s Don’t Look Now (1973).
   Cast: Donald Sutherland. Julie Christie. Hilary Mason.
9. The Red Shoes.
10. Trainspotting.

Of note, some the best-known British movies ever made were directed by foreign-born filmmakers, among them: Alexander Korda (Hungary; Rembrandt), Alberto Cavalcanti (Brazil; Nicholas Nickleby), Roman Polanski (Polish-raised; Repulsion), Michelangelo Antonioni (Italy; Blow-Up), Fred Zinnemann (Austrian-raised; A Man for All Seasons), and Karel Reisz (Czechoslovakia; Isadora), plus Americans Alexander Mackendrick (The Ladykillers), Joseph Losey (The Servant), Robert Wise (The Haunting), Richard Lester (A Hard Day’s Night), Martin Ritt (The Spy Who Came In from the Cold), Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange), and James Ivory (A Room with a View).

‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ British?

And among the U.K.-based Sight & Sound magazine’s most recent (Sept. 2012) Top 50 movies of all time, only one film could possibly be considered in any way “British”: ironically, that’s Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey.

But it may serve as consolation that the no. 1 movie on the list, the 1958 Hollywood production Vertigo, starring James Stewart and Kim Novak, was directed by an Englishman: Alfred Hitchcock.

‘Get Carter’ remake, ‘The Third Man’ ‘homage’ and the return of T.E. Lawrence

As an aside: Get Carter suffered an American remake in 2000; directed by Stephen Kay, the critical bomb starred Sylvester Stallone.

The Third Man hasn’t been officially remade – despite threats in 2009 that Leonardo DiCaprio and Tobey Maguire would star in a reboot of Carol Reed’s film. However, there was a The Third Man “homage” found in Martin Scorsese’s 2006 Best Picture Oscar winner The Departed: the cemetery scene, when Vera Farmiga is seen walking past Matt Damon.

To date, there hasn’t been an official Lawrence of Arabia remake, but T.E. Lawrence will shortly be back on the big screen in the form of Robert Pattinson, one of the stars of Werner Herzog’s Queen of Desert, also featuring Nicole Kidman as Gertrude Bell and James Franco as Henry Cadogan.

Note: Following suggestions from readers, I’ve added a few extra titles to the above lists of best British movies of all time.

Image of Michael Caine in one of the “Best British Movies Ever,” Get Carter: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Trailers of Best British Movies Lawrence of Arabia and The Third Man: Columbia and Selznick Pictures, respectively.

More British cinema titles (post-1960) can be found below.

Note: When it comes to the BAFTAs, some of the listed movies were nominated and/or won only in Best British Film category (1947–1967; 1992–present). In such instances, “British” is found in parentheses.

Also, unless otherwise noted, Cannes, Berlin, and Venice wins refer to, respectively, the Palme d’Or (under its various names), the Golden Bear, and the Golden Lion.

Lastly, EFA = European Film Awards.

• Peeping Tom (1960).
  Director: Michael Powell.
  Cast: Karlheinz Böhm. Moira Shearer. Anna Massey.
• BAFTA (British) winner Saturday Night and Sunday Morning (1960).
  Director: Karel Reisz.
  Cast: Albert Finney. Shirley Anne Field. Rachel Roberts.
• Sink the Bismarck! (1960).
  Director: Lewis Gilbert.
  Cast: Kenneth More. Dana Wynter. Carl Möhner.
• The Entertainer (1960).
  Director: Tony Richardson.
  Cast: Laurence Olivier. Alan Bates. Brenda de Banzie. Joan Plowright. Roger Livesey.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee The Sundowners (1960).
  Director: Fred Zinnemann.
  Cast: Deborah Kerr. Robert Mitchum. Peter Ustinov. Glynis Johns. Michael Anderson Jr. Dina Merrill.
• BAFTA (British) nominee Tunes of Glory (1960).
  Director: Ronald Neame.
  Cast: Alec Guinness. John Mills. Dennis Price. Kay Walsh. Susannah York. John Fraser.
• BAFTA nominee The Innocents (1961).
  Director: Jack Clayton.
  Cast: Deborah Kerr. Peter Wyngarde. Pamela Franklin. Martin Stephens.
• BAFTA (British) winner A Taste of Honey (1961).
  Director: Tony Richardson.
  Cast: Dora Bryan. Rita Tushingham. Robert Stephens.
• The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962).
  Director: Tony Richardson.
  Cast: Tom Courtenay. Michael Redgrave.
• BAFTA nominee A Kind of Loving (1962).
  Director: John Schlesinger.
  Cast: Alan Bates. June Ritchie. Thora Hird.
• BAFTA (British) nominee Billy Liar (1963).
  Director: John Schlesinger.
  Cast: Tom Courtenay. Julie Christie. Mona Washbourne.
• BAFTA nominee This Sporting Life (1963).
  Director: Lindsay Anderson.
  Cast: Richard Harris. Rachel Roberts.
• BAFTA nominee The Servant (1963).
  Director: Joseph Losey.
  Cast: Dirk Bogarde. Sarah Miles. James Fox.
• The Haunting (1963).
  Director: Robert Wise.
  Cast: Julie Harris. Claire Bloom. Richard Johnson. Russ Tamblyn.
• Oscar/BAFTA winner Tom Jones (1963).
  Director: Tony Richardson.
  Cast: Albert Finney. Susannah York. Joan Greenwood. Diane Cilento. Edith Evans. Joyce Redman. Hugh Griffith.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA winner Dr. Strangelove (1964).
  Director: Stanley Kubrick.
  Cast: Peter Sellers. George C. Scott. Sterling Hayden.
• BAFTA nominee The Pumpkin Eater (1964).
  Director: Jack Clayton.
  Cast: Anne Bancroft. Peter Finch. James Mason. Maggie Smith. Cedric Hardwicke. Richard Johnson.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee Becket (1964).
  Director: Peter Glenville.
  Cast: Richard Burton. Peter O’Toole. John Gielgud. Gino Cervi.
• Zulu (1964).
  Director: Cy Endfield.
  Cast: Stanley Baker. Jack Hawkins. Ulla Jacobsson. James Booth. Michael Caine.
• Cannes winner The Knack… and How to Get It (1965).
  Director: Richard Lester.
  Cast: Rita Tushingham. Ray Brooks. Michael Crawford.
• Oscar/BAFTA (British) nominee Darling (1965).
  Director: John Schlesinger.
  Cast: Julie Christie. Dirk Bogarde. Laurence Harvey.
• Berlin Special Jury Prize winner Repulsion (1965).
  Director: Roman Polanski.
  Cast: Catherine Deneuve. Ian Hendry. John Fraser.
• BAFTA (British) winner The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (1965).
  Director: Martin Ritt.
  Cast: Richard Burton. Claire Bloom. Oskar Werner.
• Bunny Lake Is Missing (1965).
  Director: Otto Preminger.
  Cast: Laurence Olivier. Carol Lynley. Keir Dullea. Martita Hunt.
• Oscar/BAFTA winner A Man for All Seasons (1966).
  Director: Fred Zinnemann.
  Cast: Paul Scofield. Robert Shaw. Susannah York. Wendy Hiller. Leo McKern. Orson Welles. John Hurt.
• BAFTA (British) nominee Georgy Girl (1966).
  Director: Silvio Narizzano.
  Cast: Lynn Redgrave. Alan Bates. James Mason.
• Oscar/BAFTA (British) nominee Alfie (1966).
  Director: Lewis Gilbert.
  Cast: Michael Caine. Shelley Winters. Shirley Anne Field. Jane Asher. Millicent Martin. Vivien Merchant.
• BAFTA (British) nominee & Cannes winner Blow-Up (1966).
  Director: Michelangelo Antonioni.
  Cast: David Hemmings. Vanessa Redgrave. Sarah Miles. Jane Birkin. Gillian Hills.
• BAFTA (British) nominee Morgan! (1966).
  Director: Karel Reisz.
  Cast: David Warner. Vanessa Redgrave.
• Berlin winner Cul-De-Sac (1966).
  Director: Roman Polanski.
  Cast: Donald Pleasance. Françoise Dorléac.
• Cannes winner If…. (1968).
  Director: Lindsay Anderson.
  Cast: Malcolm McDowell.
• BAFTA nominee 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
  Director: Stanley Kubrick.
  Cast: Keir Dullea. Gary Lockwood.
• Oscar nominee The Lion in Winter (1968).
  Director: Anthony Harvey.
  Cast: Katharine Hepburn. Peter O’Toole. Anthony Hopkins.
• Oscar winner/BAFTA nominee Oliver! (1968).
  Director: Carol Reed.
  Cast: Ron Moody. Oliver Reed. Mark Lester. Shani Wallis.
• Charlie Bubbles (1968).
  Director: Albert Finney.
  Cast: Albert Finney. Colin Blakely. Billie Whitelaw. Liza Minnelli.
• BAFTA nominee Women in Love (1969).
  Director: Ken Russell.
  Cast: Alan Bates. Glenda Jackson. Oliver Reed. Jennie Linden. Eleanor Bron.
• BAFTA nominee Kes (1969).
  Director: Ken Loach.
  Cast: David Bradley. Colin Welland.
• The Italian Job (1969).
  Director: Peter Collinson.
  Cast: Michael Caine. Noël Coward. Benny Hill. Raf Vallone. Rossano Brazzi.
• The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1969).
  Director: Ronald Neame.
  Cast: Maggie Smith. Robert Stephens. Pamela Franklin. Celia Johnson. Gordon Jackson.
• BAFTA nominee Ryan’s Daughter (1970).
  Director: David Lean.
  Cast: Sarah Miles. Robert Mitchum. Christopher Jones. Trevor Howard. John Mills. Leo McKern. Barry Foster.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee A Clockwork Orange (1971).
  Director: Stanley Kubrick.
  Cast: Malcolm McDowell. Patrick Magee. Adrienne Corri.
• BAFTA winner Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971).
  Director: John Schlesinger.
  Cast: Peter Finch. Glenda Jackson. Murray Head. Peggy Ashcroft. Maurice Denham. Bessie Love. Vivian Pickles.
• Cannes winner The Go-Between (1971).
  Director: Joseph Losey.
  Cast: Julie Christie. Alan Bates. Margaret Leighton. Dominic Guard. Michael Redgrave. Michael Gough. Edward Fox.
• Cannes co-winner The Hireling (1973; with Jerry Schatzberg’s Scarecrow).
  Director: Alan Bridges.
  Cast: Robert Shaw. Sarah Miles. Peter Egan. Caroline Mortimer. Elizabeth Sellars.
• BAFTA nominee Don’t Look Now (1973).
  Director: Nicolas Roeg.
  Cast: Donald Sutherland. Julie Christie. Hilary Mason.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee Barry Lyndon (1975).
  Director: Stanley Kubrick.
  Cast: Ryan O’Neal. Marisa Berenson. Hardy Krüger.
• Tommy (1975).
  Director: Ken Russell.
  Cast: Roger Daltrey. Ann-Margret. Oliver Reed. Jack Nicholson. Tina Turner.
• The Duellists (1977).
  Director: Ridley Scott.
  Cast: Keith Carradine. Harvey Keitel. Albert Finney. Edward Fox. Christina Raines.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee Midnight Express (1978).
  Director: Alan Parker.
  Cast: Brad Davis. John Hurt. Randy Quaid. Bo Hopkins.
• Oscar/BAFTA winner Chariots of Fire (1981).
  Director: Hugh Hudson.
  Cast: Ben Cross. Ian Charleson. Nigel Havers. Ian Holm. John Gielgud. Alice Krige.
• BAFTA nominee The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981).
  Director: Karel Reisz.
  Cast: Meryl Streep. Jeremy Irons.
• Oscar/BAFTA winner Gandhi (1982).
  Director: Richard Attenborough.
  Cast: Ben Kingsley. Rohini Hattangadi. Edward Fox. Candice Bergen. Trevor Howard. Martin Sheen.
• BAFTA winner Educating Rita (1983).
  Director: Lewis Gilbert.
  Cast: Michael Caine. Julie Walters.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee A Passage to India (1984).
  Director: David Lean.
  Cast: Judy Davis. Victor Banerjee. Peggy Ashcroft. Alec Guinness. James Fox. Nigel Havers.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA winner The Killing Fields (1984).
  Director: Roland Joffé.
  Cast: Sam Waterston. Haing S. Ngor. John Malkovich.
• My Beautiful Laundrette (1985).
  Director: Stephen Frears.
  Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis. Gordon Warnecke. Saeed Jaffrey. Roshan Seth. Shirley Anne Field.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA winner A Room with a View (1986).
  Director: James Ivory.
  Cast: Helena Bonham Carter. Julian Sands. Denholm Elliott. Maggie Smith. Daniel Day-Lewis. Simon Callow. Rupert Graves.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee & Cannes winner The Mission (1986).
  Director: Roland Joffé.
  Cast: Jeremy Irons. Robert De Niro. Ray McAnally. Aidan Quinn. Cherie Lunghi.
• Little Dorrit (1987).
  Director: Christine Edzard.
  Cast: Alec Guinness. Derek Jacobi. Joan Greenwood. Sarah Pickering. Cyril Cusack. Miriam Margolyes.
• BAFTA nominee A Fish Called Wanda (1988).
  Director: Charles Crichton.
  Cast: John Cleese. Jamie Lee Curtis. Kevin Kline. Michael Palin.
• EFA nominee Distant Voices Still Lives (1988).
  Director: Terence Davies.
  Cast: Freda Dowie. Pete Postlethwaite. Angela Walsh.
• The Cook the Thief His Wife & Her Lover (1989).
  Director: Peter Greenaway.
  Cast: Richard Bohringer. Michael Gambon. Helen Mirren. Alan Howard.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee My Left Foot (1989).
  Director: Jim Sheridan.
  Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis. Brenda Fricker. Hugh O’Conor.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA winner Howards End (1992).
  Director: James Ivory.
  Cast: Anthony Hopkins. Emma Thompson. Vanessa Redgrave. Helena Bonham Carter. James Wilby. Samuel West.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA (British) winner The Crying Game (1992).
  Director: Neil Jordan.
  Cast: Stephen Rea. Miranda Richardson. Forest Whitaker. Jaye Davidson.
• The Long Day Closes (1992).
  Director: Terence Davies.
  Cast: Leigh McCormack. Marjorie Yates.
• Oscar/BAFTA nominee The Remains of the Day (1993).
  Director: James Ivory.
  Cast: Anthony Hopkins. Emma Thompson. James Fox. Peter Vaughan. Christopher Reeve.
• Oscar nominee In the Name of the Father (1993).
  Director: Jim Sheridan.
  Cast: Daniel Day-Lewis. Emma Thompson. Pete Postlethwaite.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA winner Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994).
  Director: Mike Newell.
  Cast: Hugh Grant. Andie MacDowell. Kristin Scott Thomas.
• BAFTA (British) nominee & EFA winner Land of Freedom (1995).
  Director: Ken Loach.
  Cast: Ian Hart. Rosana Pastor. Icíar Bollaín.
• Oscar/BAFTA winner + EFA nominee The English Patient (1996).
  Director: Anthony Minghella.
  Cast: Ralph Fiennes. Kristin Scott Thomas. Juliette Binoche.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA (British) winner + EFA nominee Secrets & Lies (1996).
  Director: Mike Leigh.
  Cast: Brenda Blethyn. Timothy Spall. Marianne Jean-Baptiste.
• Oscar nominee + BAFTA & EFA winner The Full Monty (1997).
  Director: Peter Cattaneo.
  Cast: Robert Carlyle. Mark Addy. Tom Wilkinson.
• Oscar nominee + BAFTA (British) winner Elizabeth (1998).
  Director: Shekhar Kapur.
  Cast: Cate Blanchett. Joseph Fiennes. Geoffrey Rush.
• BAFTA nominee Topsy-Turvy (1999).
  Director: Mike Leigh.
  Cast: Jim Broadbent. Allan Corduner. Lesley Manville.
• BAFTA (British) winner & EFA nominee Billy Elliot (2000).
  Director: Stephen Daldry.
  Cast: Jamie Bell. Julie Walters.
• Oscar nominee/BAFTA (British) winner Gosford Park (2001).
  Director: Robert Altman.
  Cast: Maggie Smith. Helen Mirren. Kristin Scott Thomas. Alan Bates. Michael Gambon. Ryan Phillippe. Charles Dance. James Wilby. Clive Owen. Eileen Atkins. Stephen Fry. Emily Watson. Derek Jacobi.