The British Academy Awards awards split the big prizes today, with 12 Years a Slave winning just Best Picture and Best Actor, while Gravity won Best Director, Best British Film, and 4 others for a total of 6 trophies:
- British Film: Gravity
- Short Film: Room 8
- Animated Short: Sleeping With the Fishes
- Production Design: The Great Gatsby
- Sound: Gravity
- Editing: Rush
- Documentary: The Act of Killing
- Makeup & Hair: American Hustle
- Costume Design: The Great Gatsby
- Music: Gravity
- Animated Film: Frozen
- British Debut: Keiran Evans, Kelly + Victor
- Supporting Actor: Barkhad Abdi, Captain Phillips
- Cinematography: Gravity
- Supporting Actress: Jennifer Lawrence, American Hustle
- Original Screenplay: American Hustle
- Adapted Screenplay: Philomena
- Rising Star Award: Will Poulter
- Visual Effects: Gravity
- Foreign-Language Film: The Great Beauty
- Actor: Chiwetel Ejiofor, 12 Years a Slave
- Director: Alfonso Cuaron, Gravity
- Actress: Cate Blanchett, Blue Jasmine
- Picture: 12 Years a Slave
This was the last major precursor before the Oscars and it basically tells us nothing, except that Alfonso Cuaron is a lock for Best Director. 12 Years has won the top prize at the Golden Globes, Critics Choice, PGA (with Gravity) and now the BAFTA, but it has not been picking up many other awards to go with it. Even here, where it was favored to sweep, it didn't even win Supporting Actress or Screenplay as it was expected to. Voters in every group seem to want to reward Gravity and 12 Years a Slave at the same time, and have been splitting that up by giving Cuaron director and 12 Years Picture. This still means the Oscar race is wide open, because with the kind of ballot the Academy uses, you cannot control a split vote like you can in these other awards groups. We'll see what happens in two weeks, but I think the Best Picture prize is a 50/50 tossup between 12 Years a Slave and Gravity.
