After the triumph that The King's Speech enjoyed last year, the Baftas 2012 were a disappointment for the Brits. The hopes that Gary Oldman or Michael Fassbender might pip The Artist's Jean Dujardin to the Best Actor award were dashed. Many had thought that Kenneth Branagh would win a Supporting Actor award for his perfectly-measured portrayal of Laurence Olivier in My Night With Marilyn. In the event, Branagh lost out to Christopher Plummer for Beginners.

The Artist wins in seven categories, with Meryl Streep the other big success story

The actresses behind portrayals of Margaret Thatcher and Marilyn Monroe are set to face off at next month's glitzy Bafta ceremony; and so too will their characters' iconic hairdos.

James Mottram on the Bond star playing Aung San Suu Kyi in a new biopic

On the eve of British film's biggest night, Nicola Christie investigates how the Baftas are chosen, and whether voters actually see the movies, Alice Jones looks at the leading contenders, and Oscar-winning director James Marsh laments the lack of a documentary category

'The Thick of It' was a treble winner at last night's Bafta awards. Rebecca Front won best Female Performance in a Comedy Programme for her role as the ineffectual MP Nicola Murray while Peter Capaldi, who played the foul-mouthed spin doctor Malcolm Tucker, took the best male award for a comedy. The political satire was named best Situation Comedy.

Could Nintendo's Mario be swapping his world of magic mushrooms and ravenous dinosaurs for the staid confines of the classroom?

Young designers are reinventing hackneyed television billboards and movie posters online, with striking results.

Blunder by organisers of Bafta awards sees station's shows left off voting form

The great relief was that the evening wasn't all about <i>Avatar </i>after all

Bafta winners tend to do the same at the Oscars. So is the British tail wagging the American dog?

An extraordinary lobbying process now influences the shortlists