1955: The first craft award is added: British Screenplay, won by George Tabori and Robin Estridge for The Young Lovers. In 1964, British Cinematography (split between Colour and Black And White) is added, won by Ted Moore for From Russia with Love and Douglas Slocombe for The Servant, respectively. British Art Direction and British Costume Design (also split between Colour and Black And White) are added in 1965, only to be later merged into single categories in 1969 as colour became dominant, and the ‘British’ tag was also dropped. Slocombe (photographed in 2007) won three Cinematography awards in total and a Special Award. He died in February 2016, aged 103. 1958: The Bridge on the River Kwai wins three BAFTAs, namely British Actor (Alec Guinness), British Screenplay (Pierre Boulle) and Film And British Film. A huge international hit, David Lean’s war epic was the first film to win BAFTA’s ‘Best Film’ award while also sitting atop the year’s worldwide box office chart. Lean and Guinness, two greats of British cinema, share a smile in 1989, as the former honours the latter with the Fellowship.
1961: Karel Reisz’ influential drama Saturday Night and Sunday Morning collects three awards: Film And British Film, British Actress (Rachel Roberts) and Most Promising Newcomer (Albert Finney, who is also nominated for British Actor). The film is nominated for British Screenplay (Alan Sillitoe), too. Finney (pictured in 2001 with ceremony host Stephen Fry, after being presented with the Fellowship) is the Film Awards’ most nominated performer, with nine in total.
1969: A rash of categories are added, illustrating how the Awards have evolved to better represent film crafts. The Graduate produces the first winners for Direction (Mike Nichols) and Editing (Sam O’Steen); while 2001: A Space Odyssey wins the first (and now defunct) Soundtrack award (Winston Ryder). John Barry (captured here in 2005 for his Fellowship) collects the inaugural Original Film Music for his score to The Lion in Winter.