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Britain Storms the BAFTAS

Silver screen royalty turned out in force in London to see Britain’s love of the underdog triumph as intimate war drama The Hurt Locker beat 3-D spectacular Avatar to take six prizes, including best picture, at the British Academy Film Awards.

Kathryn Bigelow won the best-director battle with Avatar’s James Cameron, her ex-husband, for her intense depiction of a bomb-disposal squad in Iraq.

“It means so much that this film seems to be touching people’s hearts and minds,” Bigelow said. “This is so unbelievable, we’re just so deeply honoured and humbled,” she added.

Bigelow became the first woman to win the best director BAFTA, and said she hoped she would not be the last.

“Women’s struggle for equity is a constant struggle, so if this can be a beacon of light, then wonderful,” she told stated after receiving her award in the gilded splendour of London’s Royal Opera House.

Cameron was in the audience, and Avatar, the biggest box office hit in history, won just two gongs — production design and special visual effects. Bigelow played down talk of rivalry between the former spouses.

“It’s been a real honour,” she said. “Specifically with Jim, we’re very good friends. I think we’re proud of each other and I think that’s there for a long time.”

Both films had eight nominations for the British awards, considered an indicator of possible success at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles next month. Avatar and The Hurt Locker each has nine Oscar nominations.

The Hurt Locker also took British prizes for original screenplay cinematography, editing and sound.

Avatar won awards for production design and visual effects for its vivid vision of a distant moon populated by a blue-skinned species called the Na’vi.

Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal dedicated the best-film prize to the hope of peace “and bringing the boys and girls back home.”

Bigelow also paid tribute to soldiers serving in Iraq, and said the goal of the film was “putting a bit of a spotlight on a very, very difficult situation.”

“I hope that in some small way this film can begin a debate ... and bring closure to this conflict,” she said.

The Avatar/Hurt Locker battle initially seemed like a David-and-Goliath story. Cameron’s last feature, Titanic, won 11 Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director. Avatar is a global phenomenon that has taken more than $2 billion at the box office.

Hurt Locker has made about a hundredth that much.

“It did not seem like a slam-dunk commercial proposition,” said Boal, who thanked Bigelow and the cast for making “an unpopular story about an unpopular war.”

Austrian actor Christoph Waltz, already a hot Oscar favourite, won the supporting actor prize for his turn as a chilling, charming Nazi colonel in Inglourious Basterds. The supporting actress award went to Mo’nique for Precious based on the novel Push by Sapphire.

Director Duncan Jones took the award for best British debut for his lost-in-space drama Moon.