London, February 22: Kathryn Bigelow’s Iraq war movie “The Hurt Locker” swept the board at the BAFTA awards Sunday, winning the best film and director awards and leaving ex-husband James Cameron almost empty-handed.
Bigelow picked up six gongs out of eight she was nominated for, and was the first woman to win the best director award for her movie portraying elite soldiers tasked with defusing bombs in the heat of combat.
Collecting her best film award from US actor Dustin Hoffman, she said the prize was “beyond our wildest imagination.”
“This is so unbelievable, we’re just so deeply honoured and humbled,” said the director at the London awards ceremony.
“The Hurt Locker” also picked up gongs for original screenplay, cinematography, editing and sound at the glittering event, which attracted stars including Uma Thurman, Robert Pattinson and Colin Firth.
The war film beat Cameron’s 3D, computer-animated blockbuster “Avatar” to the major prizes — both had been nominated for best film and best director.
Avatar has also been linked by some film critics to the Iraq war.
“Avatar”, the world’s biggest-ever grossing movie, picked up just two awards from eight nods for special visual effects and production design.
The BAFTAs come two weeks before the Oscars where “Avatar” and “The Hurt Locker” are also locked in a dead heat, leading the field with nine nods each.
A glittery event, the BAFTAs is one of the most hotly anticipated in the film world’s calendar and thousands of fans packed out London’s Covent Garden to catch a glimpse of the A-listers as they arrived.
—Agencies