British film, The King’s Speech, won six awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, with Colin Firth winning best actor for the second year in a row – last year he picked up the award for Tom Ford’s A Single Man.
Co-stars Helena Bonham-Carter,and Geoffrey Rush each picked up awards for best supporting roles. The film also won for outstanding British film, best film, and original screenplay.
The remaining awards were spread generously among the assorted nominees: Natalie Portman won for best actress for her role in Black Swan. Portman was not present and director Darren Aronofsky accepted the award on her behalf.
David Fincher won best director for The Social Network. Best foreign language film award went to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Director Soren Stoermose dedicated the award to writer Stieg Larsson and actress Noomi Rapace.
Filmmaker Tim Burton presented the highest award from the academy – the BAFTA Fellowship award – to veteran English actor Christopher Lee, 88, in recognition of outstanding achievement in film. Having acted in almost 200 films, Lee recently played Saruman in the Lord of the Rings movie trilogy, and will reprise the role for The Hobbit.