Bafta awards boost Oscars hopes of 12 Years a Slave and Gravity
Top honours go to unflinching slavery drama, but space thriller picks up six prizes at British film awards seen as pointer to Academy Awards
The force of Gravity was strong at the British Academy Film Awards - but it was unflinching drama 12 Years a Slave that took the top prize.
Steve McQueen's visceral, violent story of a free black man kidnapped into servitude in the 19th-century US South was named best picture at Sunday's ceremony. Its star, Chiwetel Ejiofor, took the male acting trophy.
This is yours. I’m going to keep it – that’s the kind of guy I am – but it’s yours
Ejiofor thanked McQueen, a visual artist who turned to filmmaking with Hunger and Shame, for bringing the story to the screen. Holding the trophy, the British actor told McQueen: "This is yours. I'm going to keep it - that's the kind of guy I am - but it's yours."
McQueen reminded the black-tie audience that, in some parts of the world, slavery is not a thing of the past. "There are 21 million people in slavery as we sit here," he said. "I just hope 150 years from now our ambivalence will not allow another filmmaker to make this film."
The prizes, coming two weeks before Hollywood's Academy Awards, are watched as an indicator of likely Oscars success.
Watch: Slave epic big Bafta winner as Hollywood descends on London