'12 Years a Slave' wins top British film awards as 'Gravity' soars

Director Alfonso Cuaron (L) and producer David Heyman celebrate after winning Outstanding British Film for "Gravity" at the Royal Opera House in London February 16, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

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Britain's Prince William arrived last, chatting to the crowd gathered outside the theatre on a cold, dry evening before heading inside to present an Academy Fellowship for outstanding contribution to film to the British actress Helen Mirren.

Mirren, 68, won an Oscar for playing his grandmother Queen Elizabeth in the 2006 film "The Queen".

Bookmakers had expected "12 Years a Slave" to be the big winner ahead of "Gravity", "American Hustle", the Somali pirate thriller "Captain Phillips" and the British drama "Philomena", starring Judi Dench as an Irish woman hunting for the son she had given up for adoption.

Vying for the Best Actor prize alongside Ejiofor were Christian Bale in "American Hustle", Bruce Dern in "Nebraska", DiCaprio in Martin Scorsese's tale of American greed "The Wolf of Wall Street", and Tom Hanks in "Captain Phillips".

DiCaprio said it had taken seven years and a lot of luck to get "The Wolf of Wall Street" to the big screens.

"This is the second film in my career that I really got behind and did everything I could to get made. This is a very proud moment for me," he said.

The Best Actress award went to Australian Cate Blanchett for playing a riches-to-rags socialite in Woody Allen's tragicomedy "Blue Jasmine". She beat Dench, Amy Adams from "American Hustle", Emma Thompson in "Saving Mr. Banks" and Bullock in "Gravity".

Blanchett, 44, dedicated her award to the actor Philip Seymour Hoffman, who died of an apparent drugs overdose two weeks ago.

Barkhad Abdi was named Best Supporting Actor for his role in "Captain Phillips" and the award for Best Supporting Actress went to Jennifer Lawrence in "American Hustle", a con-artist caper set in the 1970s.

The Italian movie "The Great Beauty" won the award for Film Not in the English Language, while the documentary prize went to "The Act of Killing" by Joshua Oppenheimer.