Survival drama "The Revenant" was the top winner at Britain's biggest movie awards on Sunday, taking the best film prize and honors for leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Alejandro G. Inarritu.
The movie earned five British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, including for cinematography and sound, at a ceremony in London, two weeks before it vies for Hollywood's top honors, the Oscars.
In the film, which has already picked up several trophies in this awards season and leads Oscar nominations, DiCaprio portrays fur-trapper Hugh Glass, who after being attacked by a bear, is left for dead by his companions during an 1820s expedition. He survives in harsh winter conditions and sets out for revenge.
DiCaprio is heavily favored to win the best actor Academy Award on Feb. 28, which would be his first in five Oscar acting nominations. In collecting his first BAFTA, he paid tribute to his mother and listed actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman and Peter O'Toole among his inspirations.
"All of this was not expected tonight ... Often we have talked about how difficult this movie was to make, and it was, but we are so proud," he told reporters.
Inarritu, the Mexican director whose film "Birdman" won last year's best picture Oscar, said the prizes were "overwhelming".
Continuing a winning streak for the portrayal of a young mother held captive with her son in "Room", Brie Larson prevailed in the leading actress category and is also favored to win the Oscar.
Kate Winslet won the supporting actress category for her portrayal in "Steve Jobs" of the late Apple co-founder's colleague Joanna Hoffman, while Mark Rylance was named best supporting actor for his Soviet spy role in "Bridge of Spies"
Action adventure "Mad Max: Fury Road" was the second biggest winner on the night with four prizes in editing, makeup and hair, costume design and production design.
Financial misdeeds movie "The Big Short" won for adapted screenplay and "Spotlight", a film about a newspaper investigation into Catholic Church sex abuse, won best original screenplay. Irish immigrant story "Brooklyn" won outstanding British film.
Lesbian romance drama "Carol" went home empty-handed after leading BAFTA nominations with "Bridge of Spies" with nine nods each.
The industry did not shy away from the big theme of the awards season: the outcry over the lack of diversity among Oscar nominees in the four acting categories for the second straight year, which revived the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. Several guests poked fun at the controversy and the Oscar organizers, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.
"I have never been invited to the Oscars because, as you know, they are racist," Australian comedienne Rebel Wilson said as she introduced a BAFTA award.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" won the BAFTA for best special visual effects while cast member John Boyega was named the EE Rising Star, the only award voted for by the public. "I haven't been doing for a long time," he said. "It's a fluke."
Check out the full list list of 2016 BAFTA winners below:
BEST FILM
The Big Short
Bridge of Spies
Carol
The Revenant
Spotlight
BEST ACTRESS
Cate Blanchett - Carol
Brie Larson - Room
Saoirse Ronan - Brooklyn
Maggie Smith - Lady in the Van
Alicia Vikander - The Danish Girl
BEST ACTOR
Bryan Cranston - Trumbo
Matt Damon - The Martian
Leonardo DiCaprio - The Revenant
Michael Fassbender - Steve Jobs
Eddie Redmayne - The Danish Girl
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Jennifer Jason Leigh - The Hateful Eight
Rooney Mara - Carol
Alicia Vikander - Ex Machina
Julie Walters - Brooklyn
Kate Winslet - Steve Jobs
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Christian Bale - The Big Short
Benicio Del Toro - Sicario
Idris Elba - Beasts of No Nation
Mark Ruffalo - Spotlight
Mark Rylance - Bridge of Spies
DIRECTOR
Todd Haynes, Carol
Alejandro González Iñárritu, The Revenant
Adam McKay, The Big Short
Ridley Scott, The Martian
Steven Spielberg, Bridge of Spies
OUTSTANDING BRITISH FILM
45 Years
Amy
Brooklyn
The Danish Girl
Ex Machina
The Lobster
FILM NOT IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE
The Assassin
Force Majeure
Theeb
Timbuktu
Wild Tales
DOCUMENTARY
Amy
Cartel Land
He Named Me Malala
Listen to Me Marlon
Sherpa
ANIMATED FILM
Inside Out
Minions
Shaun the Sheep Movie
CINEMATOGRAPHY
Roger Deakins, Sicario
Janusz Kaminski, Bridge of Spies
Ed Lachman, Carol
Emmanuel Lubezki, The Revenant
John Seale, Mad Max: Fury Road
MUSIC
Thomas Newman, Bridge of Spies
Ennio Morricone, The Hateful Eight
Ryuichi Sakamoto, Carsten Nicolai, The Revenant
Jóhann Jóhannsson, Sicario
John Williams, Star Wars: The Force Awakens
OUTSTANDING DEBUT BY A BRITISH WRITER, DIRECTOR OR PRODUCER
Sean McAllister (Director/Producer), Elhum Shakerifar (Producer), A Syrian Love Story
Stephen Fingleton (Writer/Director), The Survivalist
Alex Garland (Director), Ex Machina
Debbie Tucker Green (Writer/Director), Second Coming
Naji Abu Nowar (Writer/Director), Rupert Lloyd (Producer),Theeb
ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Matthew Charman, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Bridge of Spies
Josh Cooley, Pete Docter, Meg LeFauve, Inside Out
Alex Garland, Ex Machina
Tom McCarthy, Josh Singer, Spotlight
Quentin Tarantino, The Hateful Eight
ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Emma Donoghue, Room
Nick Hornby, Brooklyn
Adam McKay, Charles Randolph, The Big Short
Phyllis Nagy, Carol
Aaron Sorkin, Steve Jobs
EDITING
Hank Corwin, The Big Short
Michael Kahn, Bridge of Spies
Stephen Mirrione, The Revenant
Pietro Scalia, The Martian
Margaret Sixel, Mad Max: Fury Road
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Bridge of Spies (Adam Stockhausen, Rena DeAngelo)
Carol (Judy Becker, Heather Loeffler)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Colin Gibson, Lisa Thompson)
The Martian (Arthur Max, Celia Bobak)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Rick Carter, Darren Gilford, Lee Sandales)
COSTUME DESIGN
Brooklyn (Odile Dicks-Mireaux)
Carol (Sandy Powell)
Cinderella (Sandy Powell)
The Danish Girl (Paco Delgado)
WINNER: Mad Max: Fury Road (Jenny Beavan)
MAKE UP & HAIR
Brooklyn (Morna Ferguson, Lorraine Glynn)
Carol (Jerry DeCarlo, Patricia Regan)
The Danish Girl (Jan Sewell)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Lesley Vanderwalt, Damian Martin)
The Revenant (Sian Grigg, Duncan Jarman, Robert Pandini)
SOUND
Bridge of Spies (Drew Kunin, Richard Hymns, Andy Nelson, Gary Rydstrom)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Scott Hecker, Chris Jenkins, Mark Mangini, Ben Osmo, Gregg Rudloff, David White)
The Martian (Paul Massey, Mac Ruth, Oliver Tarney, Mark Taylor)
The Revenant (Lon Bender, Chris Duesterdiek, Martin Hernandez, Frank A. Montaño, Jon Taylor, Randy Thom)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (David Acord, Andy Nelson, Christopher Scarabosio, Matthew Wood, Stuart Wilson)
SPECIAL VISUAL EFFECTS
Ant-Man (Jake Morrison, Greg Steele, Dan Sudick, Alex Wuttke)
Ex Machina (Mark Ardington, Sara Bennett, Paul Norris, Andrew Whitehurst)
Mad Max: Fury Road (Andrew Jackson, Dan Oliver, Tom Wood, Andy Williams)
The Martian (Chris Lawrence, Tim Ledbury, Richard Stammers, Steven Warner)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Chris Corbould, Roger Guyett, Paul Kavanagh, Neal Scanlan)
Also on HuffPost:
