Few things in the film world have been more certain than Dame Helen Mirren being crowned at the Orange British Academy Film Awards for her performance in The Queen. Bookmakers had even stopped taking bets on her winning the Best Actress Award.

Sure enough, everything went according to script last night when the 61-year-old added the Bafta to her Golden Globe and other gongs. The 6,000 directors, producers and other members of the British Academy of Film and Television were impressed by her moving portrayal of the Queen after the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. However, with typical modesty, the actress insisted that audiences had fallen in love with the Queen rather than her. The Queen also won the Best Film Award.

As she arrived for the ceremony at the Royal Opera House, Dame Helen said: “We always thought it was a small film, a pretty parochial film in many ways. We had a clue when it was chosen as the best film by the international critics in Venice that it might have a wider appeal.”

The role as a very different head of state, Idi Amin, won Forest Whitaker the Best Actor Award for The Last King of Scotland, beating Daniel Craig. The first actor to be nominated in the Baftas for his performance as James Bond, Craig’s nomination was one of nine for Casino Royale. which won only two awards – one for sound, and the Rising Star Award, which went to Eva Green. Being cast as a Bond Girl has sometimes been seen as the kiss of death for an acting career, but Green is already filming her next big role, in the adaptation of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass.

Stephen Frears’s The Queen attracted ten nominations, but won two awards. The Best Director Award went to Paul Greengrass, for United 93. Peter Morgan, who wrote for The Queen and The Last King of Scotland, had been nominated for both Best Original Screen-play and Best Adapted Screen-play. He won the latter for The Last King. The omens looked good last night for both productions finding glory at the Oscars this month, but it seems that Hollywood does not quite share the same view.

Apart from Whitaker, none of the big Hollywood stars who were nominated – notably Leonardo DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Meryl Streep and Martin Scorsese – attended. A number of British stars were in attendance, however, including Dame Judi Dench, who said before the ceremony: “I would put my money on Helen.”

Bafta award winners

Academy Fellowship: Anne V Coates

Michael Balcon Award for Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema: Nick Daubeny Film: The Queen

Alexander Korda Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year: The Last King of Scotland

The Carl Foreman Award for Special Achievement by a British Director, Writer or Producer in their First Feature Film: Andrea Arnold, Red Road

David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction: Paul Greengrass, United 93

Original Screenplay: Michael Arndt, Little Miss Sunshine

Adapted Screenplay: Peter Morgan/Jeremy Brock, The Last King of Scotland

Film Not in The English Language: Pan’s Labyrinth

Animated Feature Film: Happy Feet

Actor in a Leading Role: Forest Whitaker, The Last King of Scotland

Actress in a Leading Role: Helen Mirren, The Queen

Actor in a Supporting Role: Alan Arkin, Little Miss Sunshine

Actress in a Supporting Role: Jennifer Hudson, Dreamgirls

Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music: Babel

Cinematography: Children of Men

Editing: United 93

Production Design: Children of Men

Costume Design: Pan’s Labyrinth

Sound: Casino Royale

Achievement in Special Visual Effects: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest

Make up & Hair: Pan’s Labyrinth

Short Animation Film: Guy 101

Short Film: Do Not Erase

Orange Rising Star Award: Eva Green

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