BAFTAs 2013: ‘Les Misérables’ and ‘Argo’ Take This Year’s Big Awards

London – The British Academy of Film and Television Arts handed out its awards Sunday night in rainy London, and the stars turned out in full for the event. 

Lincoln, nominated for 10 awards at tonight’s glittering awards ceremony at the Royal Opera House, won just one prize: Best Actor for Daniel Day-Lewis.

Local favorite Les Misérables won four BAFTAs including Best Supporting Actress for Anne Hathaway. With nine nominations, Les Misérables trailed Lincoln in the run-up to the ceremony.

Accepting her award, a breathless Hathaway even managed to thank Les Mis author Victor Hugo, even though he’s been dead for 128 years. Hathaway praised her cast and crew as the “goodest-hearted group of loves whose talent knocked me sideways.”

Argo won three prizes having been nominated for seven: Best Film, Best Editing while Ben Affleck won Best Director.

Affleck said: “This has been a second act for me. You’ve given me that. I want to dedicate this award to anybody out there who’s trying to get their second act.”

Argo producer George Clooney added: “Ben, if this is your second act, I don’t know what you’re going to do for your third.”

And Bond was definitely back. Local hero 007 won two prizes for Skyfall, Outstanding British Film and Original Music. Skyfall director Sam Mendes said: “This really is the icing on the cake. I want to thank Ian Fleming for inventing this character. Here’s to the next 50 years.”

US movies that went away empty handed were Zero Dark Thirty, nominated for five awards; The Master, nominated for four; and The Hobbit, up for three.

Biggest surprise of the night was 85-year-old actress Emmanuelle Riva winning Leading Actress for French film Amour, besting Helen Mirren, Jennifer Lawrence, Jessica Chastain and Marion Cotillard.

Amour also won Film Not in the English Language, although its director Michael Haneke was a no-show.

Quentin Tarantino’s Django Unchained won two BAFTAs, Original Screenplay and Supporting Actor Christoph Waltz.

Onstage Tarantino thanked producers Harvey Weinstein and Amy Pascal for having the courage to back what he called “a pretty hot potato script.”

Accepting Supporting Actor, Waltz added: “The thing that moves me the most Quentin is your unconditional trust in allowing me to put your talent to its proper use, you silver-tongued devil you.”

There were cheers in the auditorium when Life Of Pi, nominated for nine, won two awards for Cinematography and Special Visual Effects.

Stars including Jeremy Renner, Hugh Jackman and Joaquin Phoenix braved the pouring rain in London tonight. The red carpet outside Royal Opera House was a sea of umbrellas. Rubber-necking fans shivered beneath umbrellas watching other celebrities including Bradley Cooper, Samuel L. Jackson and Sally Field stroll down the sodden red carpet.

One no-show was Meryl Streep, who was grounded in New York because of the bad weather. Elizabeth Olsen, nominated for the best newcomer EE Rising Star Award, revealed that she only made it to London by getting the last flight out of New York.

Commenting on the number of men sporting beards on this year’s red carpet – among them George Clooney, Ben Affleck and Hugh Jackman – ceremony host Stephen Fry quipped: “I’ve got a strong feeling that I’m not the only actor here tonight wearing a beard.”

There were jokes aplenty during this evening’s ceremony. Fry, a British TV comedian and wit, took digs at various targets including Scientology and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey – a movie in which his own part ended up on the cutting room floor. Fry said: “If they can squeeze, I mean, lovingly craft, another six films of out of Tolkien’s slim volume the final film should be called, The Hobbit: Are We Nearly Bloody There Yet?”

Meanwhile Sally Field, announcing the award for Best Original Screenplay, joked that Eddie Redmayne (Les Misérables) was backstage “puking his guts up” with food poisoning before faking a barf herself.

And Samuel L. Jackson joked there were so many Hollywood agents on the plane coming over from Los Angeles, he felt like he was in a remake of Snakes On a Plane.