UNITED KINGDOM: Stars of the BAFTAS shine on the red carpet

A who's-who of A-list international and Hollywood stars line up on the red carpet for the BAFTA awards, including Dame Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Eva Green ahead scooping their trophies for the night. The stars came out for the British film industry's nights of nights on Sunday (February 11) for the Orange British Academy Film Awards, or BAFTAs. As well as the prestige that the BAFTA's bring, the ceremony drew even more internatonal attention, as most of the nominees in the major categories are also contenders for the upcoming Academy Awards. But many of the actors and actresses said they weren't paying too much attention to the pressure of the competition. "It's a celebration. You know, we none of us believe in competition in the end," said Dame Helen Mirren ahead of winning the award for best actress for playing the title role ni 'The Queen'. "It's not to us what it's all about, but it's lovely to have our big end of term celebration kind of party thing and I think it's about that more than anything." Another one of the night's big winners, Forest Whitaker who scooped the Best Actor award for 'Last King of Scotland', . "This is amazing." he said. "Especially, you know, I'm from Los Angeles and to come here in London, being celebrated for your work, it just makes you feel like your part of a global community-- just the artists of the world. So it means a lot to me, because that's the way I think of myself, I think of myself as a person on this planet who's trying to express himself and give to the world." The new James Bond, Daniel Craig, too, played down his own nomination when asked if it had finally put to rest speculation about whether he was right for the role of the iconic super-spy. "No, I don't look at the world like that. No I don't, I just do my job. I don't look at the world in that way. I don't enter into any of that argument that was going on then and I'm certainly not going to do it now," he said.

ITN Source | February 15, 2007

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