55th British Academy Film Awards

The 55th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 24 February 2002 at the Odeon Leicester Square in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2001. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2001.

The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring won Best Film, Best Director for Peter Jackson, Best Makeup and Hair, and Best Visual Effects. Russell Crowe won Best Actor for A Beautiful Mind, which also won Best Supporting Actress for Jennifer Connelly. Judi Dench won Best Actress for Iris and Jim Broadbent won Best Supporting Actor for Moulin Rouge!. Gosford Park, directed by Robert Altman, was voted Outstanding British Film of 2001. This ceremony is also notable for Eddie Murphy's nomination for his voice role as Donkey in Shrek, to date the only voice-over performance ever nominated in BAFTA history.

Stephen Fry hosted the ceremony for the first time solo, after co-hosting with Mariella Frostrup the previous year.

BAFTA Fellowship

 * Warren Beatty, Merchant Ivory Productions and John Mills

Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema

 * Vic Armstrong

Awards
Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

Russell Crowe controversy
After winning the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Russell Crowe gave a speech in which he quoted a poem by Patrick Kavanagh. When the ceremony was broadcast, Crowe was enraged that the poem was cut. He blamed the producer, Malcolm Gerrie, and confronted him about it. It was reported that the confrontation got physical and there was speculation that it would cost him the Academy Award for Best Actor; Crowe later apologized and ultimately lost the Oscar to Denzel Washington for Training Day.

The following poem that was cut is four lines:

"To be a poet and not know the trade, To be a lover and repel all women; Twin ironies by which great saints are made, The agonising pincer-jaws of heaven."