The biggest night in the British film industry took place in London's Royal Opera House tonight as the 63rd annual BAFTA ceremony honoured outstanding achievement in film from 2009. Carrying British hopes for glory was coming-of-age drama An Education (dir. Lone Scherfig), tied with Hollywood heavyweights Avatar (dir. James Cameron) and The Hurt Locker (dir. Kathryn Bigelow) on eight nominations apiece including Best Film and Best Direction. Elsewhere Neill Blomkamp's District 9 has seven nominations, with Inglourious Basterds (dir. Quentin Tarantino) and Up (dir. Pete Docter, Bob Peterson) both one behind on six.
And the BAFTA goes to...
We start with a handful of celebrity vox pops from the red carpet including James Cameron, Quentin Tarantino, Mickey Rourke, Terry Gilliam and Matt Dillon before host Jonathon Ross gets the ceremony underway with the usual set of movie-related gags. More star names in the audience pointed out by Ross (Dustin Hoffman, Kate Winslet and Cedric Diggory), a montage of the year's best and now it's time to get the awards underway...
Colin Firth out to present Outstanding British Debut: nominees are Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock, David Pearson (directors/ producers – Mugabe And The White African), Eran Creevy (writer/director – Shifty), Stuart Hazeldine (writer/director – Exam), Duncan Jones (director – Moon), Sam Taylor-Wood (director – Nowhere Boy). And the BAFTA goes to... Duncan Jones for Moon.
Nick Frost and Mackenzie Crook out to present Special Visual Effects: nominees are Avatar, District 9, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Hurt Locker and Star Trek. And the BAFTA goes to... Avatar.
Appreciation for Avatar as the first of the Best Film nominees is profiled. Read our James Cameron profile.
Next up is Best Actor in a Supporting Role, presented by Anna Kendrick: nominares are Alec Baldwin (It's Complicated), Christian McKay (Me and Orson Welles), Alfred Molina (An Education), Stanley Tucci (The Lovely Bones) and Christoph Waltz (Inglourious Basterds). And the BAFTA goes to... Christoph Waltz, hot favourite to repeat this success at the Academy Awards next month.
Early toilet break with Best Costume Design: nominees are Bright Star, Coco Before Chanel, An Education, A Single Man and The Young Victoria. And the BAFTA goes to... The Young Victoria.
Second Best Film nominee... An Education.
Best Make-Up and Hair up next: nominees are Coco Before Chanel, An Education, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, Nine and The Young Victoria. And the BAFTA goes to... The Young Victoria. Second in a row for the period romance.
Matt Dillon out to present Best Actress in a Supporting Role: nominees are Anne-Marie Duff (Nowhere Boy), Vera Farmiga (Up in the Air), Anna Kendrick (Up in the Air), Mo'Nique (Precious) and Kristin Scott Thomas (Nowhere Boy). And the BAFTA goes to...Mo'Nique, collected by Precious director Lee Daniels.
Rupert Everett presenting Oustanding British Film: nominees are An Education, Fish Tank, In the Loop, Moon and Nowhere Boy. And the BAFTA goes to... Fish Tank. A surprise there for director Andrea Arnold, winner of a Best Short Film Oscar in 2003 and sporting a hideous green bomber jacket for tonight's ceremony.
Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is the third Best Film nominee. Read our Jason Reitman profile.
Cedric Diggory out to present Best Original Screenplay: nominees are The Hangover (Jon Lucas, Scott Moore), The Hurt Locker (Mark Boal), Inglourious Basterds (Quentin Tarantino), A Serious Man (Joel Coen, Ethan Coen) and Up (Bob Peterson, Pete Docter). And the BAFTA goes to... Mark Boal for The Hurt Locker.
Best Production Design up next: nominees are Avatar, District 9, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus and Inglourious Basterds. And the BAFTA goes to... Avatar.
Fourth Best Film nominee... The Hurt Locker. Read our Kathryn Bigelow profile.
Orange Rising Star Award now, presented by last year's winner Noel Clarke and decided by public vote: nominees are Jesse Eisenberg, Nicholas Hoult, Carey Mulligan, Tahar Rahim and Kristen Stewart. And the BAFTA goes to... Kristen Stewart. Good old Twilight fans.
Guy Pearce out to Best Adapted Screenplay: nominees are District 9 (Neill Blomkamp, Terri Tatchell), An Education (Nick Hornby), In the Loop (Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche), Precious (Geoffrey Fletcher) and Up in the Air (Jason Reitman, Sheldon Turner). And the BAFTA goes to... Sheldon Turner and an absent Jason Reitman for Up in the Air.
A montage honouring those who passed away in the previous twelve months including Jean Simmons, Karl Malden, Jennifer Jones, Edward Woodward, John Hughes, Éric Rohmer, David Carradine, Natasha Richardson, Brittany Murphy and Patrick Swayze. A sad year for the industry with some legendary names departing.
Best Animated Feature Film: nominees are Coraline, Fantastic Mr Fox and Up. And the BAFTA goes to... Up. Pixar bag the award for the third consecutive year. Read our Pixar Animation Studios profile.
On the world cinema front, we head over for Best Film Not in the English Language: nominees are A Prophet, Broken Embraces, Coco Before Chanel, Let the Right One In and The White Ribbon. And the BAFTA goes to... A Prophet. Winner of the Grand Prix at Cannes, the French crime thriller is also a nominee in the Best Foreign Film category at the Academy Awards.
Fifth and final Best Film nominee is Precious: Based on the Novel "Push" by Sapphire.
Clive Owen to present Best Direction: nominees are James Cameron (Avatar), Neill Blomkamp (District 9), Lone Scherfig (An Education), Kathryn Bigelow (The Hurt Locker) and Quentin Tarantino (Inglourious Basterds). And the BAFTA goes to... Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker. Bigelow beats Cameron to the coveted award.
Meanwhile, Tarantino realises he's wasted his weekend.
Last year's Best Actress Kate Winslet presenting Best Leading Actor: nominees are Jeff Bridges (Crazy Heart), George Clooney (Up in the Air), Colin Firth (A Single Man), Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) and Andy Serkis (Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll). And the BAFTA goes to... Colin Firth for A Single Man. Can he repeat the feat when he stands as the only Brit to challenge for Best Actor at the Oscars? I'd be surprised.
Best Actor last year for The Wrestler, Mickey Rourke stumbles his way through the contenders for Best Leading Actress: nominees are Carey Mulligan (An Education), Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones), Gabourey Sidibe (Precious), Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) and Audrey Tautou (Coco Before Chanel). And the BAFTA goes to... Carey Mulligan for An Education. Another British hope at the Academy Awards in the same category.
Dustin Hoffman comes out to present the biggie - Best Film. And the winner is... The Hurt Locker! Avatar is beaten once again as The Hurt Locker continues to add to its impressive list of awards and must surely be front-runner for the Best Picture at the Academy Awards.
To end the night the newly appointed president of BAFTA Prince William comes out to present Vanessa Redgrave with the Academy's highest honour, the BAFTA Fellowship, which must cap an emotional year for the screen legend.
In other categories announced earlier in the night...
Short Film - I Do Air
Short Animation - Mother of Many
Sound - The Hurt Locker
Editing - The Hurt Locker
Cinematography - The Hurt Locker
Music - Up
Final Thoughts - A big, big night for The Hurt Locker, bagging six awards out of eight and destroying the competition. Disappointment surely for Cameron with Avatar collecting just two awards (alongside Up and The Young Victoria) while main British hope An Education is left to make do with just the one. Inglourious Basterds also had to settle for one award from six nominations while District 9 went completely unnoticed.
Roll on March 7th.
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