French star lights up the Baftas
- 00:02:09
- ITN
French star lights up the Baftas
Daniel Day-Lewis has taken the best actor prize at the Baftas - but Britain's leading ladies were left empty-handed as Marion Cotillard stole the limelight.The French actress was the surprise winner of the best actress award for her portrayal of singer Edith Piaf in La Vie En Rose.Julie Christie had been odds-on favourite to win for Away From Her and Atonement's Keira Knightley was not far behind.But the Bafta judges plumped instead for Cotillard, 33, rewarding a performance which has already earned her a Golden Globe win and an Oscar nomination. She is believed to be the first French actress to win the best actress Bafta.It was a bad night for Atonement, although it did win the big prize of best film.The lavish adaptation of Ian McEwan's best-selling novel was nominated for 14 awards, but came away with just two - the other was for production design.There were no surprises in the best actor category, which went to Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood.The 50-year-old plays oil baron Daniel Plainview in the film and is tipped to scoop an Oscar later this month, having already won a Golden Globe and a Screen Actors' Guild Award.The Oscars now look set to go ahead after the Writers' Guild of America reached a "tentative deal" over an end to strike action.It is the second Bafta for Day-Lewis, who won in 1990 for My Left Foot. This time he beat the likes of James McAvoy for Atonement and George Clooney for Michael Clayton.Jonathan Ross hosted the Bafta ceremony from the Royal Opera House in London's Covent Garden.La Vie En Rose was the night's big success story with four awards, also winning gongs for music, costume design and make-up.The latter was for the remarkable feat of transformation which saw Cotillard play Piaf through her career, from a 19-year-old ingénue to a frail figure who died at 47.The film's costume designer, Marit Allen, and composer, Christopher Gunning, were both British. Allen died from a brain aneurysm shortly after finishing La Vie En Rose, aged 66.Tilda Swinton won best supporting actress for her role as a ruthless corporate lawyer in Michael Clayton.The award for best British film went to This Is England, Shane Meadows' semi-autobiographical tale of skinhead culture in the early 1980s, seen through the eyes of a young boy.Meadows was last nominated in 2005 for Dead Man's Shoes and joked that he had decided against getting in shape for his red carpet moment.He told the audience: "Last time I was nominated I took up a regime after Christmas, lots of sit-ups and press-ups and that sort of thing. This year I gave up on that idea and thought I'd go with the man boobs, and it's turned my luck around."Dark thriller No Country For Old Men won best director for brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, and best supporting actor for Spaniard Javier Bardem.Another French film, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly, won best adapted screenplay for its British writer, Ronald Harwood.Best original screenplay went to Juno, Diablo Cody's quirky tale of teenage pregnancy.Screenwriter Matt Greenhalgh won the Carl Foreman Award for special achievement by a British talent, for Joy Division biopic Control. He dedicated his prize to the late Factory Records boss Tony Wilson.The Golden Compass, which opened to terrible reviews, won the award for best special visual effects.Sienna Miller was nominated for the Orange Rising Star award but lost out to US actor Shia LaBeouf, star of Transformers and soon to be seen in the new Indiana Jones movie.Oscar-winning star Sir Anthony Hopkins received the Bafta Fellowship.The Welsh actor, whose films include The Silence of the Lambs and Remains of the Day, was hailed as "one of the UK's most loved and admired performers whose contribution to the film industry, both in the UK and abroad, is unrivalled".Presenters at the ceremony included Kate Hudson, Thandie Newton, Bond girl Eva Green, Sylvester Stallone, Emily Blunt, Orlando Bloom and Harry Potter star Daniel Radcliffe.© Independent Television News Limited 2008. All rights reserved.
ITN | February 10, 2008
