Best Supporting Actor Jake Gyllenhaal

Brokeback Mountain was the big star of the night at the British Film Academy awards.

The gay cowboy love story won the Best Film Award, Ang Lee was picked as Best Director, Jake Gyllenhaal was chosen as Best Supporting Actor and it also won the Best Adapted Screenplay reports ABC

Jake Gyllenhaal's Bafta win is one of the highest recognition to date for a young actor who has managed to mix acclaimed offbeat work with mainstream offerings reports BBC

Gyllenhaal's performance in Ang Lee's gay cowboy film Brokeback Mountain, has given him the best reviews of his career.

The actor, whose first role in a major film was a child part in 1991 cowboy comedy City Slickers, has been praised along with screen lover Heath Ledger.

The Guardian newspaper said the film showed how Gyllenhaal had "matured into one of the most charismatic actors of his generation".

Philip Seymour Hoffman took home the Best Actor award for his portrayal of writer Truman Capote in Capote and Reese Witherspoon was selected as Best Actress for her role in the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line.

Accepting his award, Hoffman thanked his girlfriend Mimi O'Donnell, saying "I want to say I love her and she looks really hot tonight."

The Best Supporting Actress award went to British star Thandie Newton for her role in the low-budget racial drama Crash.

"This is the highest high ever," she said afterwards. "I don't expect it to get any higher."

The British film industry had high hopes for the political thriller The Constant Gardener, which garnered 10 nominations, but its stars Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz went home empty-handed.

Another disappointed star was George Clooney who had been nominated four times in recognition of his directing, acting and writing in the McCarthy era drama Goodnight and Good Luck and the Middle East thriller Syriana reports Channel4 News

Memoirs of a Geisha won three awards for cinematography, costume design and the Anthony Asquith Award for achievement in film music.

Wallace & Gromit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, won the Alexander Korda Award for the outstanding British film