London ? Epic fantasy reigned supreme at the Orange British Academy Film Awards, where “The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring” won five Baftas, including best film and best director for New Zealander Peter Jackson.

The movie, based on the first part of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy, has the most nominations for next month’s Oscars in Los Angeles with 13.

Russell Crowe won the best actor honor on Sunday for playing schizophrenic mathematician John Nash in “A Beautiful Mind.” Judi Dench won for best actress for playing celebrated novelist Iris Murdoch, who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease, in “Iris.”

While Dench’s screen husband in “Iris,” Jim Broadbent, lost in the best actor category, he won a supporting-actor Bafta for playing the furious showman in Baz Luhrmann’s “Moulin Rouge.”

The supporting-actress prize went to Oscar front-runner Jennifer Connelly, who plays Crowe’s wife in “A Beautiful Mind.” The lone American nominee against four Englishwomen, Connelly said she was “really shocked and very much honored” to win. “The women in this category are truly extraordinary.”

Besides the multiple wins for “The Lord of the Rings,” including a special audience award voted by the public, the Baftas were spread among numerous films. “Moulin Rouge” received two awards in addition to Broadbent’s, while Robert Altman’s England-based “Gosford Park” and the sleeper French success “Amelie” also won two.

The Academy Fellowship  Bafta’s highest honor  went to actor-director-producer Warren Beatty. Receiving the night’s sole standing ovation, Beatty told the audience that he made his first film in England in 1961  when his wife, actress Annette Bening, was 3.

Other special awards went to the filmmaking triumvirate of director James Ivory, producer Ismail Merchant, and screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, who specialize in screen adaptations of classic British novels, including “The Remains of the Day” and “Howards End.”

Since 1998, the mobile phone company Orange has sponsored the ceremony, with the name changed officially to the Orange British Academy Film Awards in 2000.