A well-known British film set in space, with two American leads and a Mexican director, led the pack with 11 nominations going into the evening. It also led the way out, converting six of those 11 nominations into gongs.
Several awards in, it seemed the voters would do anything other than back British at their own awards, with early wins for Gravity, Frozen, American Hustle and Mrs Luhrman taking two gongs for The Great Gatsby.
The Hobbit: The Desolation Of Smaug had a couple of nominations, although neither converted to a win.
Peter Swords King, Richard Taylor & Rick Findlater were nominated in the Make Up & Hair category, up against titles including Behind The Candelabra, which won in the TV categories at the Hair and Make-Up Awards in Hollywood on the weekend, and American Hustle, which took the BAFTA.
In the Special Visual Effects category, Joe Letteri, Eric Saindon, David Clayton & Eric Reynolds were nominated, up against another Weta team – Bryan Grill, Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams & Dan Sudick – for their work on Iron Man 3. Both missed out to the team nominated for Gravity.
The 2014 BAFTA winners were:
Best Film
12 Years A Slave
Outstanding British Film
Gravity
Outstanding Debut By A British Writer, Director Or Producer
Kieran Evans (Director/Writer) for Kelly + Victor
Film Not In The English Language
The Great Beauty, Paolo Sorrentino
Documentary
The Act Of Killing, Joshua Oppenheimer
Animated Film
Frozen, Chris Buck & Jennifer Lee
Director
Alfonso Cuarón, Gravity
Original Screenplay
American Hustle, Eric Warren Singer & David O. Russell
Adapted Screenplay
Philomena, Steve Coogan & Jeff Pope
Leading Actor
Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years A Slave
Leading Actress
Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
Supporting Actor
Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
Supporting Actress
Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
Original Music
Gravity, Steven Price
Cinematography
Gravity, Emmanuel Lubezki
Editing
Rush, Dan Hanley & Mike Hill
Production Design
The Great Gatsby, Catherine Martin & Beverley Dunn
Costume Design
The Great Gatsby, Catherine Martin
Make Up & Hair
American Hustle, Evelyne Noraz & Lori Mccoy-Bell
Sound
Gravity, Glenn Freemantle, Skip Lievsay, Christopher Benstead, Niv Adiri & Chris Munro
Special Visual Effects
Gravity, Tim Webber, Chris Lawrence, David Shirk, Neil Corbould, Nikki Penny
British Short Animation
Sleeping With The Fishes, James Walker, Sarah Woolner & Yousif Al-Khalifa
British Short Film
Room 8, James W. Griffiths & Sophie Venner
The EE Rising Star Award (public vote)
Will Poulter
Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema
Peter Greenaway