BAFTA Award for Best Film in the context of "54th British Academy Film Awards"

François Roland Truffaut (UK: /ˈtruːfoʊ, ˈtrʊ-/ TROO-foh, TRUU-, US: /truːˈfoʊ/ troo-FOH; French: [fʁɑ̃swa ʁɔlɑ̃ tʁyfo]; 6 February 1932 – 21 October 1984) was a French filmmaker, actor, and critic. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of the French New Wave. He came under the tutelage of film critic Andre Bazin as a young man and was hired to write for Bazin's Cahiers du Cinéma, where he became a proponent of the auteur theory, which posits that a film's director is its true author. The 400 Blows (1959), starring Jean-Pierre Léaud as Truffaut's alter-ego Antoine Doinel, was a defining film of the New Wave. Truffaut supplied the story for another milestone of the movement, Breathless (1960), directed by his Cahiers colleague Jean-Luc Godard.

His other notable films include Shoot the Piano Player (1960), Jules and Jim (1962), The Soft Skin (1964), Two English Girls (1971) and The Last Metro (1980). Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) earned him the BAFTA Award for Best Film and the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. He played the doctor in The Wild Child (1970), the director of the film-within-the-film in Day For Night and the scientist in Steven Spielberg's Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). He starred in The Green Room (1978), based on Henry James's "The Altar of the Dead". He wrote Hitchcock/Truffaut (1966), a book-length interview with his hero Alfred Hitchcock which tied for second on Sight and Sound's list of the greatest books on film. Truffaut paid homage to Hitchcock in The Bride Wore Black (1968), Mississippi Mermaid (1969) and his last film, Confidentially Yours (1983).

Slumdog Millionaire is a 2008 British drama film that is a loose adaptation of the novel Q & A (2005) by Indian author Vikas Swarup. It narrates the story of 18-year-old Jamal Malik from the Juhu slums of Mumbai. Starring Dev Patel in his film debut as Jamal, and filmed in India, it was directed by Danny Boyle, written by Simon Beaufoy, and produced by Christian Colson, with Loveleen Tandan credited as co-director. As a contestant on Kaun Banega Crorepati, a Hindi Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?, Jamal surprises everyone by answering every question correctly so far, winning ₹1 crore ($USD210,000, equivalent to around $300,000 in 2023), and he is one question away from winning the grand prize of ₹2 crore ($USD420,000, equivalent to around $590,000 in 2023). Accused of cheating, he recounts his life story to the police, illustrating how he was able to answer each question.

After its world premiere at the Telluride Film Festival and later screenings at the Toronto International Film Festival and the London Film Festival, Slumdog Millionaire had a nationwide release in United Kingdom on 9 January 2009, in India on 23 January 2009, and in the United States on 25 January 2009. Regarded as a sleeper hit, Slumdog Millionaire was widely acclaimed, praised for its plot, soundtrack, cinematography, editing, direction, and performances (especially Patel's). It was nominated for 10 Academy Awards in 2009 and won 8—the most of any 2008 film—including Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Adapted Screenplay. It won seven BAFTA Awards including Best Film, five Critics' Choice Awards and four Golden Globes. However, reception in India and among Indian diaspora was mixed, and the film was the subject of controversy over its depiction of poverty in India and other issues. The Hindustan Times called it "an assault on Indian self-esteem".

Michael Cormac Newell (born 28 March 1942) is an English film and television director and producer. He won the BAFTA for Best Direction for Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), which also won the BAFTA Award for Best Film, and directed the films Donnie Brasco (1997) and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005).

Billy Budd is a 1962 British historical adventure-drama film produced, directed, and co-written by Peter Ustinov. It is adapted from Louis O. Coxe and Robert H. Chapman's stage play version of Herman Melville's 1924 novella of the same name. Terence Stamp, in his film debut, plays the title role, with Robert Ryan as John Claggart, Melvyn Douglas as the Dansker, and Ustinov as Captain Vere.

The film was released by Rank Film Distributors on September 21, 1962. It received generally positives reviews with film critic Pauline Kael calling it the best film of 1962. It was nominated for five BAFTA Awards, including Best Film and Outstanding British Film. For his first-ever film role, Stamp was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA Award for Most Promising Newcomer to Leading Film Roles, and received a Golden Globe Award for New Star of the Year – Actor.

Day for Night (French: La Nuit américaine, lit. 'American Night') is a 1973 romantic comedy-drama film co-written and directed by François Truffaut. The metafictional and self-reflexive film chronicles the troubled production of a melodrama, and the various personal and professional challenges of the cast and crew. It stars Jacqueline Bisset, Valentina Cortese, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Dani, Alexandra Stewart, Jean-Pierre Léaud and Truffaut himself.

The film premiered out of competition at the 1973 Cannes Film Festival and won the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film the following year. At the 1975 Oscars, the film was nominated for Best Director, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Supporting Actress for Valentina Cortese. The film also won three BAFTA Awards, for Best Film, Best Direction, and Best Actress in a Supporting Role for Cortese.

The 60th British Academy Film Awards, more commonly known as the BAFTAs, took place on 11 February 2007 at the Royal Albert Hall in London, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2006. 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 2006.

The nominees were announced on 12 January 2007. The Queen won Best Film and Best Actress for Helen Mirren. Paul Greengrass won Best Director for United 93, which also won Best Editing. Forest Whitaker won Best Actor for The Last King of Scotland, which also won Outstanding British Film and Best Adapted Screenplay. The ceremony also featured the inaugural BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film, which was awarded to Happy Feet, directed by George Miller.

The 1st British Film Academy Awards (retroactively known as the British Academy Film Awards), were handed out on 29 May 1949 at the Odeon Cinema, Leicester Square, in London, for films shown in the United Kingdom in 1947 and 1948. They were presented by the British Film Academy (currently, British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA)), an organisation established in 1947 by filmmakers from Great Britain, for the "advancement of the art and technique of the film". The Academy bestowed accolades in three categories: Best British Film, Best Picture from any source – British or Foreign and a Special Award. British film producer Michael Balcon chaired the ceremony.

Odd Man Out won Best British Film. Best Film from any source – British or Foreign was awarded to American film The Best Years of Our Lives. Documentary, The World Is Rich received the Special Award. Bronze trophies, designed by Henry Moore were given to the director of the films, on behalf of the motion pictures' production units.