London: Daniel Day-Lewis cemented his place as favourite for the best-actor Oscar with victory at the British Academy Film Awards on Sunday, while French performer Marion Cotillard beat the hotly tipped Julie Christie to the best actress prize.
Literary tearjerker Atonement was named best picture and also took the production design prize – its only two awards from 14 nominations.
As expected, Day-Lewis scooped the acting trophy for his intense portrayal of a larger-than-life oilman in historical epic There Will Be Blood, during a ceremony that largely snubbed the favorites and rewarded the underdogs.
Day-Lewis, a previous Oscar winner for My Left Foot and the bookies' favourite to take the acting prize at the Academy Awards in Los Angeles in two weeks, paid tribute to this year's strong field of nominees.
“It has been a mighty year and I am very proud to be included,” he said.
The night's big surprise was the success of French-language Edith Piaf biopic La Vie En Rose, which took four prizes – music, costume design and makeup, as well as the acting award for Cotillard's searing performance as the tragic chanteuse.
“Wow, wow, wow!” said a trembling, visibly overwhelmed Cotillard. “It has been the most incredible adventure. I loved every single second of the shooting.”
Joel and Ethan Coen took the directing prize for their bleak modern-day western No Country for Old Men, while Spanish actor Javier Bardem was named best supporting actor for his turn as a remorseless killer in the same film. Roger Deakins took the cinematography prize for capturing a stark Texan landscape in the film.
Tilda Swinton was named best supporting actress for legal drama Michael Clayton.
Swinton who wore the evening's most outrageous outfit – an elaborate gold-and-black John Galliano creation – said she was surprised to win.
“Proof that I'm astonished. I would never have worn this skirt,” she said.
Neophyte screenwriter Diablo Cody took the original screenplay prize for quirky teen-pregnancy comedy Juno, while the original screenplay award went to Ronald Harwood for The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
The British awards, officially the Orange British Academy Film Awards but popularly known as BAFTAs, are considered an important indicator of success at the Oscars.
This year's show was given extra prominence by the Hollywood writers' strike that torpedoed last month's Golden Globes gala and imperilled the February 24 Academy Awards. The Oscars ceremony now looks likely to go ahead thanks to a draft agreement between the Writers Guild of America and studios that could end the strike this week.
Hundreds of fans gathered under an unseasonably warm February sun to watch stars including Anthony Hopkins, Sylvester Stallone, Keira Knightley and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe arrive at London's Royal Opera House for the black-tie ceremony.
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