THE sweeping World War II romance Atonement won Britain’s top film honors on Sunday. The movie, which won the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Film and is nominated for seven Oscars, went into the ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall vying for 14 awards being handed out by the British Academy of Film and Television. Its only other win, however, was for production design.
Daniel Day-Lewis, who already has won the lion’s share of critics’ groups awards, as well as the Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild awards for Best Actor, took home the Bafta for his role as a ruthless oilman in There Will Be Blood. Day-Lewis is considered the front-runner for the Best Actor Oscar.

Marion Cotillard won Best Actress for her uncanny turn as France’s Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose. Cotillard won the Golden Globe a month ago for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy and is nominated for an Academy Award. The film also picked up Baftas for Best Music, Costume Design, and Makeup and Hair.

Brothers Joel and Ethan Coen won Best Director for the gritty contemporary Western No Country for Old Men, but lost in the Adapted Screenplay category to Ronald Harwood for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly. The Coens previously won the Directors Guild of America and the Writers Guild of America awards for No Country and are nominated for three Oscars—Film, Adapted Screenplay and Director.

Javier Bardem, who is already a Golden Globe and SAG award winner, was named Best Supporting Actor for his chilling turn as a cold-blooded assassin in No Country for Old Men. The Spanish actor is an Oscar nominee in this category. Roger Deakins also was named Best Cinematographer for the Western noir. Deakins is nominated for Oscars for No Country for Old Men, as well as The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford.

Oscar-nominee Tilda Swinton won Best Supporting Actress for her role as a ruthless litigator in the legal thriller Michael Clayton. And former stripper Diablo Cody, who won the WGA award Saturday evening for Juno, also won a Bafta in the original screenplay category. Cody is also an Academy Award nominee.

The Baftas, which began in 1947, were telecast live in the United Kingdom and are scheduled to air locally at 5 pm today on cable’s BBC America.

The Baftas, which are Britain’s equivalent to the Oscars, have become somewhat of a bellwether for the Academy Awards, which are scheduled to take place on February 24. Last year the actors who took home the top Baftas—Helen Mirren, Forest Whitaker, Alan Arkin and Jennifer Hudson—went on to win Academy Awards.

Other winners Sunday evening included:

§          Best British film: This Is England

§          Best Editing: The Bourne Ultimatum

§          The Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British director, writer or producer in their first feature film: Matt Greenhalgh, writer, Control

§          Best Sound: The Bourne Ultimatum

§          Best Special Visual Effects: The Golden Compass

§          Best Film Not in the English Language: The Lives of Others

§          Best Animated Film: Ratatouille

§          Best Short Animation: The Pearce Sisters

§          Best Short Film: Dog Altogether

§          The Orange Rising Star Award: Shia LaBeouf

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‘And the Orange Goes To...’

THE sweeping World War II romance Atonement won Britain’s top film honors on Sunday. The movie, which won the Golden Globe for Best Dramatic Film and is nominated for seven Oscars, went into the ceremony at London’s Royal Albert Hall vying for 14 awards being handed out by the British Academy of Film and Television. Its only other win, however, was for production design.