9th Empire Awards


The 9th Empire Awards ceremony, presented by the British film magazine Empire, honored the best films of 2003 and took place on 4 February 2004 at The Dorchester Hotel in London, England. During the ceremony, Empire presented Empire Awards in nine categories as well as three honorary awards. The Lifetime Achievement Award was renamed to Career Achievement Award this year but was reverted to its former name at its next and last presentation. The ceremony was televised live in the United Kingdom by Sky Movies 1 with highlights and exclusive backstage interviews airing on Sky One Mix on 5 February. English actor Bill Bailey hosted the show for the first time. The awards were sponsored by Sony Ericsson for the second consecutive year.
Love Actually and ' were tied for most awards won with three awards apiece. Love Actually won the award for Best British Film, while The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King won the award for Best Film. Other winners included ' with two awards and with one. Ray Harryhausen received the Empire Inspiration Award, Sigourney Weaver received the Career Achievement Award and Roger Corman received the Independent Spirit Award.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.

  • * Cold Mountain
  • * '
  • * '
  • * X2
  • Love Actually
  • * Bright Young Things
  • * Calendar Girls
  • * Johnny English
  • * Young Adam
  • Quentin Tarantino —
  • * Anthony Minghella — Cold Mountain
  • * Joel and Ethan Coen — Intolerable Cruelty
  • * Peter Jackson — '
  • * Peter Weir — '
  • Johnny Depp —
  • * Daniel Day-Lewis — Gangs of New York
  • * Hugh Jackman — X2
  • * Sean Astin — '
  • * Viggo Mortensen — '
  • Andy Serkis —
  • * Ewan McGregor — Young Adam
  • * Ian McKellen — '
  • * Jude Law — Cold Mountain
  • * Orlando Bloom — '
  • Uma Thurman —
  • * Cate Blanchett — Veronica Guerin
  • * Julianne Moore — Far from Heaven
  • * Maggie Gyllenhaal — Secretary
  • * Nicole Kidman — Cold Mountain
  • Emma Thompson — Love Actually
  • * Emily Mortimer — Young Adam
  • * Helen Mirren — Calendar Girls
  • * Julie Walters — Calendar Girls
  • * Keira Knightley — '
  • Martine McCutcheon — Love Actually
  • * Andrew Lincoln — Love Actually
  • * Eli Roth — Cabin Fever
  • * Fenella Woolgar — Bright Young Things
  • * Mackenzie Crook — '
  • ': The ride of the Rohirrim
  • * Gangs of New York: The flag speech
  • * ': The House of Blue Leaves
  • * ': The opening battle
  • * ': The rum scene
  • Empire Inspiration Award: Ray Harryhausen
  • Career Achievement Award: Sigourney Weaver
  • Independent Spirit Award: Roger Corman

    • Multiple awards

    The following three films received multiple awards:
    AwardsFilm
    3Love Actually
    3'
    2'

    Multiple nominations

    The following 11 films received multiple nominations:
    NominationsFilm
    8'
    5'
    4Cold Mountain
    4'
    4Love Actually
    3Calendar Girls
    3Young Adam
    2Bright Young Things
    2Gangs of New York
    2'
    2X2