Kathryn Bigelow’s pulsatingly tense war pic “The Hurt Locker” continued its steamroll through the precursors, making an impressive showing at the BAFTAs by collecting 6 awards, including Best Film and Best Director as predicted. Significantly, its impressive showing here is the largest since 1999’s “American Beauty”, which went on to win 6 Oscars (Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Original Screenplay and Best Cinematography). Given the widespread critical praise lavished on “Locker” by the guilds and (virtually all of the) major critics groups, “Locker” could end up taking home the very same awards as “Beauty”, although Best Actor is probably going to the sentimental odds-on favourite Jeff Bridges. I think “Locker” has already earmarked 4 Oscars but will probably win a few more.
Hopping off the “Locker” express, BAFTA largely gave a collective pat on the back to the season’s frontrunners – Christoph Waltz and Mo’Nique (who should be engraving their Oscars as we speak) taking the supporting categories, “Up in the Air” won yet another Adapted Screenplay prize and “Up” took out Animated Film. Unsurprisingly, BAFTA were unashamedly patriotic in handing their Best Actor and Best Actress awards to Colin Firth (“A Single Man”) and Carey Mulligan (“An Education”) respectively. Expect Bullock (or perennial bridesmaid Streep) to replace Mulligan at the Oscars.
In other awards, “Fish Tank” made good on its sole nomination by taking out Best British film over the likes of “An Education”, “Moon” and “In the Loop” while “A Prophet” ensured a photo-finish for the Foreign Film Oscar with its Cannes brethren “The White Ribbon” by winning Best Foreign film.
Courtesy of the tireless Guy Lodge and folks at InContention, further commentary and a full winners list, reproduced after the jump:
Best Film
“Avatar”
“An Education”
“The Hurt Locker” (WINNER)
“Precious”
“Up in the Air”
Best British Film
“An Education”
“Fish Tank” (WINNER)
“In the Loop”
“Moon”
“Nowhere Boy”
Best Director
James Cameron, “Avatar”
Neill Blomkamp, “District 9”
Lone Scherfig, “An Education”
Kathryn Bigelow, “The Hurt Locker” (WINNER)
Quentin Tarantino, “Inglourious Basterds”
Best Actor
Jeff Bridges, “Crazy Heart”
George Clooney, “Up in the Air”
Colin Firth, “A Single Man” (WINNER)
Jeremy Renner, “The Hurt Locker”
Andy Serkis, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”
Best Actress
Carey Mulligan, “An Education” (WINNER)
Saoirse Ronan, “The Lovely Bones”
Gabourey Sidibe, “Precious”
Meryl Streep, “Julie & Julia”
Audrey Tautou, “Coco Before Chanel”
Best Supporting Actor
Alec Baldwin, “It’s Complicated”
Christian McKay, “Me and Orson Welles”
Alfred Molina, “An Education”
Stanley Tucci, “The Lovely Bones”
Christoph Waltz, “Inglourious Basterds” (WINNER)
Best Supporting Actress
Anne-Marie Duff, “Nowhere Boy”
Vera Farmiga, “Up in the Air”
Anna Kendrick, “Up in the Air”
Mo’Nique, “Precious” (WINNER)
Kristin Scott Thomas, “Nowhere Boy”
Best Original Screenplay
“The Hangover”
“The Hurt Locker” (WINNER)
“Inglourious Basterds”
“A Serious Man”
“Up”
Best Adapted Screenplay
“District 9”
“An Education”
“In the Loop”
“Precious”
“Up in the Air” (WINNER)
Best Foreign Language Film
“Broken Embraces”
“Coco Before Chanel”
“Let the Right One In”
“A Prophet” (WINNER)
“The White Ribbon”
Best Animated Film
“Coraline”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Up” (WINNER)
Best Cinematography
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“The Hurt Locker” (WINNER)
“Inglourious Basterds”
“The Road”
Best Production Design
“Avatar” (WINNER)
“District 9”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Inglourious Basterds”
Best Costume Design
“Bright Star”
“Coco Before Chanel”
“An Education”
“A Single Man”
“The Young Victoria” (WINNER)
Best Film Editing
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“The Hurt Locker” (WINNER)
“Inglourious Basterds”
“Up in the Air”
Best Makeup & Hair
“Coco Before Chanel”
“An Education”
“The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus”
“Nine”
“The Young Victoria” (WINNER)
Best Music
“Avatar”
“Crazy Heart”
“Fantastic Mr. Fox”
“Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”
“Up” (WINNER)
Best Sound
“Avatar”
“District 9”
“The Hurt Locker” (WINNER)
“Star Trek”
“Up”
Best Special Visual Effects
“Avatar” (WINNER)
“District 9”
“Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince”
“The Hurt Locker”
“Star Trek”
Best Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer
Stuart Hazeldine (writer/director), “Exam”
Duncan Jones (director), “Moon” (WINNER)
Lucy Bailey, Andrew Thompson, Elizabeth Morgan Hemlock and David Pearson (directors and producers), “Mugabe and the White African”
Sam Taylor-Wood (director), “Nowhere Boy”
Eran Creevy (writer/director), “Shifty”
Rising Star Award
Jesse Eisenberg
Nicholas Hoult
Carey Mulligan
Tahar Rahim
Kristen Stewart (WINNER)
Best Short Film
“14”
“I Do Air” (WINNER)
“Jade”
“Mixtape”
“Off Season”
Best Animated Short
“The Gruffalo”
“The Happy Duckling”
“Mother of Many” (WINNER)
Films in Focus 
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