While two of the major acting awards went to Brits, it was an American film that took home the most awards at the 2010 Orange British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) as The Hurt Locker took home both Best Director, Original Screenplay and Film on its way to six total awards. Kathryn Bigelow’s directorial win makes her the first female to win the best director prize at the BAFTAs just as she’ll be the first female to win Best Director at the Oscars on March 7.
The Hurt Locker also won in Editing, Sound and Cinematography. Of the six it won for, it’s nominated for an Oscar in all of them and can be argued the front-runner in all six as well.
Quoted by Mimi Turner at The Hollywood Reporter, Bigelow said, “My heart’s beating so fast I can barely talk,” while accepting her best director award. “I think the secret to directing is collaboration, and I was so lucky to have an incredible cast and crew. This is deeply moving — we all felt an incredible responsibility to honor the courage of the men and women in the field.”
Anyone concerned for Avatar‘s chances at the Oscars don’t get too upset. The film, which was nominated in eight categories, did manage to win for effects and production design. This is more than Titanic can claim as it was nominated for 10 awards in 1998 and lost all ten before going on to dominate the Academy Awards.
As I mentioned in the opening, the top acting awards didn’t go to current Oscar favorites such as Sandra Bullock (who wasn’t nominated because The Blind Side hadn’t been released internationally), Meryl Streep, Jeff Bridges or George Clooney. Instead, Carey Mulligan (An Education) and Colin Firth (A Single Man) took home the top prizes for actress and actor respectively. However, the supporting awards were as to be expected with Mo’Nique winning for Precious and Christoph Waltz winning for Inglourious Basterds.
A surprise to me (but perhaps no one else) is the win for Andrea Arnold’s Fish Tank for best British Film as it beat out An Education, Nowhere Boy, In the Loop and Moon. My favorite film of 2009, A Prophet, won for Best Foreign Language Film.
I have included the complete list of winners directly below and on the following page. I will be updating Oscar predictions with a new Oscar column early this coming week so stay tuned, but be sure to add your thoughts on the BAFTA winners in the comments below.
Best Film
Best British Film
Best Director
Best Actor
Best Actress
Best Supporting Actor
Best Supporting Actress
Best Original Screenplay
Best Adapted Screenplay
