Atonement Triumphs At Bafta’s

ATONEMENT has won the top prize at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs) on Sunday (10Feb08), landing the gong for Best Film at the London ceremony.

The romantic epic, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, triumphed over German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck’s The Lives of Others, the Coen brothers’ No Country For Old Men, Ridley Scott’s American Gangster, and Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood to claim the coveted prize.

But McAvoy and Knightley were overlooked in the Leading Actor and Actress categories, with awards going instead to Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood and Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose respectively.

Meanwhile, Spanish star Javier Bardem was named best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men, and British actress Tilda Swinton was honored as best Supporting Actress for her role in legal thriller Michael Clayton.

Accepting his award at the capital’s Royal Opera House, Bardem said: “I want to thank the mummy and daddy of, not mine, (but) Joel and Ethan Coen, because without them there would be no film…”

Joel and Ethan Coen also added to their growing collection of awards after they were presented with the Best Director prize for the Academy Award-nominated thriller No Country For Old Men.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Best Film – Atonement

Best Director – Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

Leading Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood Leading

Actress – Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Supporting Actor – Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men

Supporting Actress – Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

Best British Film – This Is England (Mark Herbert/Shane Meadows)

The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in their First Feature Film – Matt Greenhalgh, Control

Best Original Screenplay – Diablo Cody, Juno

Best Adapted Screenplay – Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

Best Foreign Language Film – The Lives of Others (Quirin Berg/Max Wiedemann/Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck)

Best Animated Film – Ratatouille (Brad Bird) Music – La Vie en Rose (Christopher Gunning)

Cinematography – No Country For Old Men (Roger Deakins)

Editing – The Bourne Ultimatum (Christopher Rouse)

Production Design – Atonement (Sarah Greenwood/Katie Spencer)

Costume Design – La Vie en Rose (Marit Allen)

Sound – The Bourne Ultimatum (Kirk Francis/Scott Millan/David Parker/Karen Baker Landers/Per Hallberg)

Special Visual Effects – The Golden Compass (Michael Fink/Bill Westenhofer/Ben Morris/Trevor Wood)

Make-Up & Hair – La Vie en Rose (Jan Archibald/Didier Lavergne)

Short Animation – The Pearce Sisters (Jo Allen/Luis Cook)

Short Film – Dog Altogether (Diarmid Scrimshaw/Paddy Considine)

2008 Fellow of the Academy – Sir Anthony Hopkins The Orange Rising Star Award – Shia LaBeouf.

(MT/WNV/LR)