British film Slumdog Millionaire triumphed at last night's Bafta awards taking home seven awards including Best Picture and Best Director for Danny Boyle.
The rags to riches story which has dominated the awards season and is expected to do well at the Oscars in two weeks time was the runaway favourite to scoop a handful of awards at the ceremony.
There were awards for Best Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Music, Editing and Sound but it was Boyle's son who provided one of the best moments of the evening when he jumped up and yelled 'I love you did' as Boyle collected his Best Director gong.
In his speech, as well as thanking his cast and the people of Mumbai he also thanked his dad's neighbour's saying: "The wiring in my dad's house blew overnight, so a big shout out to everyone who helped him get the extension cable in so he could watch this on TV."
There was more British success for Kate Winslet as she won the Best Actress award for her role in Holocaust drama The Reader and managed to keep her emotions in check.
There was no repeat of her much criticised Golden Globe hysterics there was however a wobble in her voice as she said: "I want to thank my friends and family, especially my mum and dad, who I won't look at right now or I will burst into tears."
She went on to dedicate the award to producers Sydney Pollack and Anthony Minghella, both died before the movie was released.
Mickey Rourke cemented himself as the slight favourite to win the Best Actor Oscar as he won the Bafta for his role in The Wrestler. The actor who saw his career take a nose dive fifteen years ago has been basking in the attention that the role of Randy 'The Ram' Robinson has brought.
Heath Ledger once again picked up the Best Supporting Actor gong for his role in The Dark Knight, now making the Oscar a foregone conclusion. Penelope Cruz won Best Supporting Actress for her role in Vicky, Cristina Barcelona.
Despite a string of nominations The Curious Case of Benjamin Button only walked away with three gongs, but only in the more technical categories.
And more British success came as Nick Park collected another gong for Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death, Steve McQueen picked up the Carl Foreman Award for Hunger while Noel Clarke won the Rising Star Award.
Full List of Winners
Best Film
Slumdog Millionaire
Director
Slumdog Millionaire - Danny Boyle
Original Screenplay
In Bruges - Martin McDonagh
Adapted Screenplay
Slumdog Millionaire - Simon Beaufoy
Leading Actor
Mickey Rourke - The Wrestler
Leading Actress
Kate Winslet - The Reader
Supporting Actor
Heath Ledger - The Dark Knight
Supporting Actress
Penelope Cruz - Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Music
Slumdog Millionaire - A.R. Rahman
Cinematography
Slumdog Millionaire - Anthony Dod Mantle
Editing
Slumdog Millionaire - Chris Dickens
Production Design
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Donald Graham Burt, Victor J. Zolfo
Costume Design
The Duchess - Michael O'Connor
Sound
Slumdog Millionaire - Glenn Freemantle, Resul Pookutty, Richard Pryke, Tom Sayers, Ian Tapp
Special Visual Effects
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Eric Barba, Craig Barron, Nathan McGuinness, Edson Williams
Make Up & Hair
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button - Jean Black, Colleen Callaghan
Outstanding British Film
Man on Wire - Simon Chinn, James Marsh
Foreign Language Film
I've Loved You So Long - Yves Marmion, Philippe Claudel
Animated Film
Wall-E - Andrew Stanton
Short Animation
Wallace and Gromit: A Matter of Loaf and Death - Steve Pegram, Nick Park, Bob Baker
The Carl Foreman Award (For special achievement by a British director, writer or producer for their first feature film.)
Steve McQueen, director/writer - Hunger
Short film
September - Stewart le Marechal, Esther May Campbell
The Orange Rising Star Award (voted for by the public)
Noel Clarke
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw
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