BAFTA's

Last night saw the BAFTA awards come to London’s Royal Opera House and, after a two-hour delay, to our screens.

With Jonathon Ross presenting, the ceremony was bound to be littered with mockery and jokes and we were not disappointed.

Atonement only managed to win two of the 14 categories it was nominated for, but scooped the coveted “Best Film” award making it the big winner of the evening.

To the audience’s delight, Shane Meadows received the “Best British Film” award for “This is England”, a film partly based on his own life. His speech also went down a treat, with his “man-boobs” joke bringing the ceremony back down to earth.

Surprise winner of the “Best Actress” award, for her performance in French film, “La Vie En Rose”, was Marion Cotillard. Equally unexpected was the prize for “Best Supporting Actress” going to “Michael Clayton” star Tilda Swinton.

It proved to be a good night for subtitled films, with “La Vie En Rose” winning four awards and German drama, “The Lives Of Others”, winning “Best Film not in the English Language”.

“Best Actor” was always going to be awarded to Daniel Day-Lewis for his role in the recently released film, “There Will Be Blood” and he accepted his award in his usual humble form.

Anthony Hopkins deservedly received the Academy fellowship for his work.

In all, it was an enjoyable evening, with the usual glitz and glamour and the odd star who seemed to take the ceremony too seriously or failed miserably at reading the auto-cue without making it obvious they were doing so!
“Best acceptance speech” award would definitely have to go to Shane Meadows for being genuine and good-natured.