The British Academy Film & Television Arts Awards -- or BAFTAs -- were announced on Sunday, and "Argo" and director Ben Affleck were big winners.
"Argo" won Best Film from the BAFTAs, beating "Les Miserables," "Life of Pi," "Zero Dark Thirty," and -- once again -- "Lincoln." Since the Oscar nominations were announced on Jan. 10, "Argo" has bested "Lincoln" at the Critics' Choice Awards, Golden Globes, Producers Guild of America Awards and Screen Actors Guild Awards. Affleck, who was famously snubbed in the Best Director category by the Academy Awards, also defeated "Lincoln" director Steven Spielberg at the Directors Guild Awards. As has been par for the awards-season course, Affleck won Best Director at the BAFTAs as well, though he didn't top Spielberg for the honor; Spielberg was not nominated in the category. (Michael Haneke, Quentin Tarantino, Ang lee and Kathryn Bigelow were.)
Beyond Affleck and "Argo," the BAFTAs also honored Oscar favorites Daniel Day-Lewis (for "Lincoln") and Anne Hathaway (for "Les Miserables") in, respectively, the Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories. Christoph Waltz won the BAFTA award for Best Supporting Actor. Waltz, who also won the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor, is nominated for an Oscar alongside Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones, Alan Arkin and Robert De Niro. ("Skyfall" star Javier Bardem replaced De Niro on the BAFTA list of supporting actor nominees.)
The night's biggest surprise may have been Emmanuelle Riva. The 85-year-old "Amour" star -- who turns 86 on Feb. 24, the same night as the Oscars -- won Best Actress, topping presumed favorites Jennifer Lawrence ("Silver Linings Playbook") and Jessica Chastain ("Zero Dark Thirty"). That win has some awards experts speculating that Riva could take home Best Actress on Oscar night, despite the overwhelming success of Lawrence up until this point. "[Marion] Cotillard & [Meryl] Streep's road to the Oscars really started at BAFTA. They hadn't won much else. Hence why I say BAFTA actress = Oscar actress," wrote THR awards columnist Scott Feinberg on Twitter. Cotillard won Best Actress at the 2008 Oscars; Streep won Best Actress at the 2012 Oscars.
Elsewhere, Quentin Tarantino won a BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay (for "Django Unchained"), while David O. Russell ("Silver Linings Playbook") took home a BAFTA for Best Adapted Screenplay, beating "Argo" screenwriter Chris Terrio and "Lincoln" screenwriter Tony Kushner in the process.
"Les Miserables" won four BAFTA awards, but not Best British Film; that honor went to "Skyfall."
For full BAFTA coverage click here. For a full list of winners, and a complete list of winners, click here.
