US FILM The Hurt Lockerswept to success at the Baftas with a best director and best film double, last night in London.
Kathryn Bigelow won the best director award for her role in the Iraq war drama.
Colin Firth won best actor for his role in A Single Man, while Carey Mulligan took the best actress award following her part in An Education.
Dubliner Richard Baneham picked up a Bafta in the special visual effects category for Avatar.
The Hurt Locker, which also took the awards for best cinematography, best editing, best sound and best original screenplay, triumphed again over blockbuster Avatar. After being crowned best director, Bigelow described the gong as "beyond our wildest imagination".
She said: “This is so unbelievable, we’re just so deeply honoured and humbled.” Bigelow said the film had put “a bit of a spotlight on a very, very difficult situation”.
Twilightheart-throb actor Robert Pattinson presented the original screenplay award to Mark Boal for his role in the drama.
Boal said: “This is really a wonderful honour . . . I was very fortunate on this picture to have tremendous actors.
“I’d like to thank them for this and also Kathryn Bigelow . . . It was an unpopular story about an unpopular war.”
Bigelow, who received the award from Clive Owen, beat off competition from ex-husband, Avatardirector James Cameron, among others to win her award.
“I was so, so lucky to have an incredible cast and crew . . .,” she said. “This is really amazing and humbling . . .” She added: “I would like to dedicate this to never abandoning the need to find a resolution for peace.
Firth was recognised at the Orange British Academy Film Awards, as the Baftas are formally known, for his portrayal of a gay academic battling grief in A Single Man.
“What Tom Ford doesn’t know is I have the e-mail in my outbox telling him I could not possibly do this,” he said.
“I was about to send this when a man came to repair my fridge . . . I don’t know what’s best for me so I would like to thank the fridge guy.” He thanked Ford who “knows what’s best for me. An encounter with Tom Ford is to come away feeling resuscitated, a little more worldly, better groomed, more fragrant, and more nominated than one has ever been before”.