Kathryn Bigelow's film The Hurt Locker won six awards at the Baftas, including best film and director. Photograph: Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images
It came, it saw, but failed to conquer. James Cameron's Avatar, which has taken more money at the box office than any other film in the history of cinema came away tonight with just two Bafta awards in an evening dominated by arthouse films made on a fraction of its budget.
The outright winner at the London ceremony was The Hurt Locker, directed by Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow. It won six awards including best film, director, original screenplay, editing, cinematography and sound.
British success came in the acting awards with Carey Mulligan named best actress for An Education and Colin Firth best actor for A Single Man.
The Hurt Locker, a grittily realistic depiction of US army bomb disposal men in post-invasion Iraq, has been around a long time, gathering pace and acclaim on the film festival circuit. It first premiered in competition at Venice 18 months ago and has been seen by only a small fraction of those who have seen Avatar: it took $17.6m at the box office, compared with Avatar's mind-boggling $2bn.
Nevertheless, the film has been lavishly praised as a brilliantly accomplished piece of tense, well-crafted drama.
Bigelow, best known for her macho action dramas such as Point Break and K-19: The Widowmaker, said: "The secret to directing is collaborating and I was so, so lucky to have an incredible cast and crew. This is amazing and humbling."
She dedicated the award to never abandoning the need for a peace resolution and is hoping to repeat her success by being the first woman to win a best director Oscar.
It was a miserable night for Cameron and Avatar, a film dismissed as hyped and derivative nonsense by its detractors, or the glorious future of cinema by its fans. It did, though, win best special visual effects and best production design.
Firth won his first Bafta for his portrayal of a gay college professor breaking down after his partner dies in a car accident. Firth paid tribute to director Tom Ford, the fashion designer, who had also made him "better groomed and more fragrant".
"What Tom Ford doesn't know is I have the email telling him I could not possibly do this," Firth said. "I was about to send it when a man came to repair my fridge … so I would like to thank the fridge guy."
Many had tipped An Education to win best British film, as a consolation prize, perhaps, to best film. Instead, Andrea Arnold's working class Essex drama Fish Tank took the award for outstanding British film.
Mulligan's victory had been widely predicted. The film, based on a schoolday memoir by journalist Lynn Barber, tells how, in 1962, she was seduced by an older Bristol-driving charmer. It was a career-making performance which has resulted in the 24-year-old becoming a hot Hollywood property One of her next roles will be this spring's sequel to Wall Street in which she plays Gordon Gekko's estranged daughter.
"I really didn't expect this at all so I didn't think of anything to say," she said. "Thank you so much Bafta. I was here a year ago and I didn't imagine in a million years that this would happen. I wish I could do a speech like Colin Firth and talk about fridges, but I can't."
She said: "My brother and my dad are right up there. My mum is there. I love them. Thank you so much."
Christoph Waltz had been odds-on to win best supporting actor for his role as the unhinged Nazi "Jew hunter" in Inglourious Basterds. He called the award "beautiful and terrific." He said: "Supporting or supported? From the moment that fate dropped me in front of Quentin Tarantino everybody has supported me."
Similarly, Mo'Nique had been favourite in the best supporting actress category for her portrayal of a monstrous mother in Lee Daniels' Precious. It will be astonishing if she now fails to win the Oscar.
It was a good night too for The Young Victoria, which won for costume design and make-up & hair.
The Orange Rising Star award – chosen by the public – went to Twilight's Kristen Stewart. The first-timer award for an outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer was won by Duncan Jones – David Bowie's son – for his space drama, Moon. Slightly overcome by emotion, he said he had tried a lot of jobs, but: "Finally, I think I've found what I love doing."
Perhaps the most zeitgeisty movie was Up in the Air, in which George Clooney plays a hatchet man who flies around the US making people redundant. It won in the best adapted screenplay category.
The arguments continue to rage about how good a year it had actually been for English language films. Some argue that the best movies came from Germany (The White Ribbon), Sweden (Let The Right One In) and France (A Prophet). The latter, a brutal, gripping prison drama, won the award for best foreign language film.
The final award, the Bafta fellowship, was presented by the new Bafta president, Prince William, to Vanessa Redgrave. Accepting her award, Redgrave said: "Oh dear, you've absolutely done me in." She also paid tribute to Prince William's father, Prince Charles, praising him for his "intelligence, humility and kindness.
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