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The Baftas were a deliciously British affair, honouring homegrown talents Carey Mulligan and Colin Firth and snubbing Avatar, James Cameron’s record-breaking Hollywood epic.
Mulligan won the best actress award for her performance as an Oxford-bound schoolgirl seduced by an older man in An Education.
“I really didn’t expect this at all. I was here a year ago and I just never imagined this in a million years,” said the delighted 24-year-old, waving to her parents and brother in the Royal Opera House auditorium.
Avatar, the 3-D fantasy which has steamrollered its way into the record books by becoming the most successful film of all time, was expected to dominate the ceremony. However, it won only two minor awards.
Instead, Bafta voters handed six prizes to The Hurt Locker, a drama about a US bomb disposal unit in Iraq.
Its haul included best film and best director for Kathryn Bigelow, who becomes the first woman in Bafta history to take the prize.
Christopher Waltz was the other noteable non-Brit winner, picking up a gong for his supporting role as Col Lander ‘The Jew Hunter’ in Inglourious Basterds, while director Quentin Tarantino cheered him on in the audience.