ATONEMENT TRIUMPHS AT BAFTAS

ATONEMENT has won the top prize at the British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTAs) on Sunday (10Feb08), landing the gong for Best Film at the London ceremony.

The romantic epic, starring James McAvoy and Keira Knightley, triumphed over German filmmaker Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck's The Lives of Others, the Coen brothers' No Country For Old Men, Ridley Scott's American Gangster, and Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood to claim the coveted prize.

But McAvoy and Knightley were overlooked in the Leading Actor and Actress categories, with awards going instead to Daniel Day-Lewis for There Will Be Blood and Marion Cotillard for La Vie en Rose respectively.

Meanwhile, Spanish star Javier Bardem was named best Supporting Actor for No Country for Old Men, and British actress Tilda Swinton was honoured as best Supporting Actress for her role in legal thriller Michael Clayton.

Accepting his award at the capital's Royal Opera House, Bardem said: "I want to thank the mummy and daddy of, not mine, (but) Joel and Ethan Coen, because without them there would be no film..."

Joel and Ethan Coen also added to their growing collection of awards after they were presented with the Best Director prize for the Academy Award-nominated thriller No Country For Old Men.

The full list of winners is as follows:

Best Film - Atonement

Best Director - Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country For Old Men

Leading Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis, There Will Be Blood

Leading Actress - Marion Cotillard, La Vie en Rose

Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem, No Country For Old Men

Supporting Actress - Tilda Swinton, Michael Clayton

The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in their First Feature Film - Matt Greenhalgh, Control

Best Original Screenplay - Diablo Cody, Juno

Best Adapted Screenplay - Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell And The Butterfly

2008 Fellow of the Academy - Sir Anthony Hopkins

The Orange Rising Star Award - Shia LaBeouf.