Argo Wins BAFTA Awards

Who even watches the BAFTA awards? After all, it's up against the Grammys and more egregiously, the winners are announced hours prior to the tape-delayed show. Well, I do, mostly to indulge my awards season completist freak side, but also to spend a few hours listening to the dulcet tones of Stephen Fry cracking jokes. In any case, the complete list of winners are below:

Best Film: Argo
Best Director: Ben Affleck, Argo
Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Best Supporting Actor: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained
Best Supporting Actress: Anne Hathaway, Les Misérables
Best Original Screenplay: Django Unchained
Best Adapted Screenplay: Silver Linings Playbook
Best British Film: Skyfall
Best Foreign Language Film: Amour
Best Documentary: Searching for Sugar Man
Best Animated Film: Brave
Best Film Editing: Argo
Best Production Design: Les Misérables
Best Cinematography: Life of Pi
Best Costume Design: Anna Karenina
Best Makeup & Hair: Les Misérables
Best Original Music: Skyfall
Best Sound: Les Misérables
Best Visual Effects: Life of Pi
Best Short Film: Swimmer
Best Short Animation: The Making of Longbird
Best British Debut: Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis, The Imposter
Orange Rising Star: Juno Temple

While Les Misérables walked away as the night's most awarded film with 4 BAFTA awards including one for surely Oscar-bound Anne Hathaway, it was yet again Ben Affleck's Argo which came out on top winning Best Film, Best Director, and Best Editing. The only surprising result really was that it didn't win more, but Affleck expectantly lost out to heavy front-runner and very British Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor while Adapted Screenplay shockingly went to Silver Linings Playbook beating both Argo and presumed winner Lincoln making this category a must-watch at the Oscars. That award surely lessened the sting of SAG winner Jennifer Lawrence losing to surprise, but very well-deserved winner Emmanuelle Riva for Best Actress, which significantly boosts the octogenarian's Oscar chances. Amour also won Best Foreign Film and joins a handful of films with two wins including Django Unchained, Skyfall, and Life of Pi. Those latter two films probably should've have picked up more awards, but it was still a solid showing for both, especially for Skyfall, the most successful British film ever, picking up Best British Film.

Speaking of British Film, I surprised myself by correctly predicting that category as well as Best British Debut and the Orange Rising Star award (Juno Temple). As for the rest of my predictions, I did better than last year, but 14/22 (63.6%) is nothing to write home about. As for what all of this means for the Academy Awards, I think it's pretty much a done deal for Argo, Day-Lewis, Hathaway, and Visual Effects for Life of Pi. Actress, Supporting Actor, and Adapted Screenplay are crazy competitive wile the Affleck-less Director field is pretty much up in the air.