Baftas 2014: '12 Years a Slave' defies 'Gravity' to claim top prize

Fifteen years after winning a Turner Prize for his art, the film director Steve McQueen picked up the best film trophy at the EE British Academy Film Awards last night for his drama 12 Years A Slave, on a night where the big-budget British blockbuster Gravity was the other main winner.

Cate Blanchett was named best actress for her role in Woody Allen’s bittersweet comedy Blue Jasmine. She dedicated her win to the US actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died earlier this month.

Read more: Baftas 2014: Chiwetel Ejiofor wins Best Actor
Baftas 2014: Cate Blanchett wins Best Actress for Blue Jasmine

Gravity, the sci-fi blockbuster that sent Sandra Bullock into space with George Clooney, won six awards, including outstanding British film and best director for the Mexican film-maker, Alfonso Cuaron.

There had been controversy about whether the film, made with $100 million of Hollywood money, should be entered into the  “British” category and be up against such films as The Selfish Giant, which was made on a shoestring budget.

“I don’t need to set the record straight. There are a series of rules that makes it a British film and this has all the requirements,” the director said.

Gravity’s British producer, David Heyman, said the award recognised “everyone working on the film. We had the most incredible crew”.

Mr Heyman went on to pay tribute to Framestore, the special effects company based in Soho, which created the ground-breaking visuals of astronauts in peril after their spaceship is hit by debris from a satellite.

Gravity, which had 450 people working on it, also won an award for special effects.

Read more: Baftas 2014: Winners list in full
Baftas 2014: Gravity wins Outstanding British Film

The best supporting actor prize went to Barkhad Abdi who plays a Somali pirate in his debut film Captain Phillips, with Tom Hanks. Abdi was born in Mogadishu but moved to the US, where he worked as a limousine driver before landing a part in the film after an open audition. He said: “I’m loving every moment of it. It’s quite a dream. “

Jennifer Lawrence won best supporting actress for American Hustle, which also took away best original screenplay and best make up and hair.

Peter Greenaway, the director whose films include The Draughtsman’s Contract and The Cook, The Thief, His Wife & Her Lover, was honoured for his outstanding British contribution to cinema.

This year’s fellowship of the British Adademy, the highest honour it can bestow, was presented to Dame Helen Mirren by the Duke of Cambridge.

William described her as “an extremely talented British actress who I should probably call granny”. Collecting her honour, Dame Helen, 68, paid tribute to her former teacher who died recently and “alone was the person who encouraged me to be an actor”.

She ended by quoting from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, saying: “We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little life is rounded with a sleep’.

She added: “My little life is rounded with this honour, thank you very much indeed.”

The Independent, Nick Clark