The 2012 BAFTAs: our thoughts, and the full list of winners

Looking down the lengthy list of BAFTA nominees there’s one thing that immediately springs to mind: 2011 was a great year for movies. And while awards ceremonies don’t always focus on the films that truly deserve exposure, it was great to see Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive – this site’s favourite film of the last 12 months – given the attention it deserved, with no fewer than four nominations (assuming we can count properly, that is).

We were pleased to see We Need To Talk About Kevin so prominently featured, too, since it was sorely overlooked by the Academy in its Oscar shortlist – that the BAFTAs would champion a British-made film isn’t much of a surprise, of course, but Lynne Ramsay and Tilda Swinton richly deserved recognition for their outstanding work.

And the results? It's a little disappointing to see the usual pattern at awards ceremonies, where one film wins just about everything. In this instance, it was The Artist that dominated this year's BAFTAs, with its director and lead actor both awarded as the finest in their respective fields, and also walking off with the somewhat coveted Best Film gong. All in all (again, assuming we can count after approximately four beers) The Artist won a total of eight scary gold faces. It was undeniably one of the finest films of 2011 - and certainly one of the more inventive - but it's always slightly disappointing to see one movie sweep the board when other films could have been given a bit of attention and praise.

Meryl Streep's victory over Tilda Swinton and Olivia Colman for the Best Actress award was disappointing but not at all unexpected, and to be fair, Streep was the best thing about the deeply flawed Thatcher portrait, The Iron Lady.

Although it was disappointing that We Need To Talk About Kevin and the magnificent Drive didn't win anything, there were plenty of other films that received some much deserved attention. Paddy Considine and his fellow filmmakers more than earned the Outstanding Debut award for Tyrannosaur, and if there's any justice, the BAFTA coverage will encourage more people to seek it out on DVD and Blu-ray.

The mighty Senna richly deserved its Best Editing and Best Documentary wins, since its account of the life and death of Brazil's greatest ever racing driver was never less than electrifying.

The big surprise of the evening, though – at least for us – was Rango's acquisition of the Best Animated Feature Award. Viewed against the Spielberg-directed might of Tintin, and the UK-backed Arthur Christmas, ILM's debut was surely the underdog. Tintin may have had Hollywood's most bankable director, and Arthur Christmas the UK's most famous animation studio, but Rango was surely among the very finest films of 2011, and its intelligent writing and rich execution made Rango a more than worthy winner.

And with Christopher Plummer winning Best Supporting Actor for his work in Beginners, and John Hurt receiving some recognition for his outstanding body of work, even the most cynical of pundits would surely admit that, as far as movie awards go, this year's BAFTAs were pretty well distributed.

If we had any say, Drive should really have won something, though. And not even so much as a nomination for Fast Five? For shame...

Best film

WINNER: The Artist

Nominees:
The Artist
The Descendants
Drive
The Help
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Outstanding British film

WINNER: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Nominees:
My Week With Marilyn
Senna
Shame
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best director

WINNER: Michel Hazanavicius

Nominees:
Michel Hazanavicius - The Artist
Nicolas Winding Refn - Drive
Martin Scorsese - Hugo
Tomas Alfredson - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
Lynne Ramsay - We Need To Talk About Kevin

Best actor

WINNER: Jean Dujardin

Nominees:
Brad Pitt - Moneyball
Gary Oldman - Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
George Clooney - The Descendants
Jean Dujardin - The Artist
Michael Fassbender - Shame

Best actress

WINNER: Meryl Streep

Nominees:
Berenice Bejo - The Artist
Meryl Streep - The Iron Lady
Michelle Williams - My Week with Marilyn
Tilda Swinton - We Need to Talk About Kevin
Viola Davis - The Help

Best supporting actor

WINNER: Christopher Plummer

Nominees:
Christopher Plummer - Beginners
Jim Broadbent - The Iron Lady
Jonah Hill - Moneyball
Kenneth Branagh - My Week with Marilyn
Philip Seymour Hoffman - The Ides of March

Best supporting actress

WINNER: Octavia Spencer

Nominees:
Carey Mulligan - Drive
Jessica Chastain - The Help
Judi Dench - My Week with Marilyn
Melissa McCarthy - Bridesmaids
Octavia Spencer - The Help

Outstanding debut

WINNER: Tyrannosaur

Nominees:
Attack The Block - Joe Cornish (director/writer)
Black Pond - Will Sharpe (director/writer), Tom Kingsley (director), Sarah Brocklehurst (producer)
Coriolanus - Ralph Fiennes (director)
Submarine - Richard Ayoade (director/writer)
Tyrannosaur - Paddy Considine (director), Diarmid Scrimshaw (producer)

Best foreign language film

WINNER: The Skin I Live In

Nominees:
Incendies (Canada)
Pina (Germany)
Potiche (France)
A Separation (Iran)
The Skin I Live In (Spain)

Best animated feature film

WINNER: Rango

Nominees:
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
Arthur Christmas
Rango

Best documentary

WINNER:Senna

Nominees:
Senna
George Harrison: Living in the Material World
Project Nim

Best original screenplay

WINNER: The Artist

Nominees:
The Artist - Michel Hazanavicius
Bridesmaids - Annie Mumolo, Kristen Wiig
The Guard - John Michael McDonagh
The Iron Lady - Abi Morgan
Midnight In Paris - Woody Allen

Best adapted screenplay

WINNER: Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Nominees:
The Descendants - Alexander Payne, Nat Faxon, Jim Rash
The Help - Tate Taylor
The Ides Of March - George Clooney, Grant Heslov, Beau Willimon
Moneyball - Steven Zaillian, Aaron Sorkin
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Bridget O'Connor, Peter Straughan

Best original score

WINNER: The Artist - Ludovic Bource

Nominees:
The Artist - Ludovic Bource
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross
Hugo - Howard Shore
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Alberto Iglesias
War Horse - John Williams

Cinematography

WINNER: The Artist

Nominees:
The Artist - Guillaume Schiffman
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo - Jeff Cronenweth
Hugo - Robert Richardson
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Hoyte van Hoytema
War Horse - Janusz Kaminski

Editing

WINNER: Senna

Nominees:
The Artist - Anne-Sophie Bion, Michel Hazanavicius
Drive - Mat Newman
Hugo - Thelma Schoonmaker
Senna - Gregers Sall, Chris King
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - Dino Jonsater

Production design

WINNER: Hugo

Nominees:
The Artist
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

Costume design

WINNER: The Artist

Nominees:
The Artist
Hugo
Jane Eyre
My Week With Marilyn
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

Sound

WINNER: Hugo

Nominees:
The Artist
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Hugo
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
War Horse

Special Visual Effects

WINNER: Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2

Nominees:
The Adventures Of Tintin: The Secret Of The Unicorn
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Hugo
Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes
War Horse

Make-up and hair

WINNER: The Iron Lady

Nominees:
The Artist
Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows - Part 2
Hugo
The Iron Lady
My Week With Marilyn

Short animation

WINNER: A Morning Stroll

Nominees:
Abuelas
Bobby Yeah Robert Morgan
A Morning Stroll

Short film

WINNER: Pitch Black Heist

Nominees:
Chalk
Mwansa The Great
Only Sound Remains
Pitch Black Heist
Two And Two

Rising Star Award

WINNER: Adam Deacon

Nominees:
Adam Deacon
Chris Hemsworth
Chris O'Dowd
Eddie Redmayne
Tom Hiddleston

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