Atonement, starring Keira Knightley and James McAvoy, has won the best film award at this year’s Orange British Academy Film Awards.

The movie, adapetd from Ian McEwan’s novel, was nominated for 14 awards, but only went home with two, Best Film and Best Production Design.

James McAvoy lost out on the best actor award to Daniel Day-Lewis’s towering performance in There Will Be Blood, and Keira Knightley was beaten by Marion Cotillard as Edith Piaf in La Vie en Rose.

The Best British Film category was won by Shane Meadows’s 1980’s drama This Is England, beating off strong competition from The Bourne Ultimatum and Control.

The full list of winners:

Best Film - Atonement

Best British Film - This Is England

Best Actor - Daniel Day-Lewis (There Will Be Blood)

Best Actress - Marion Cotillard (La Vie En Rose)

Best Supporting Actor - Javier Bardem (No Country For Old Men)

Best Supporting Actress - Tilda Swinton (Michael Clayton)

David Lean Award for Achievement in Direction - Joel and Ethan Coen (No Country For Old Men)

Best Original Screenplay - Juno (Diablo Cody)

Best Adapted Screenplay - The Diving Bell And The Butterfly (Ronald Harwood)

Film Not in the English Language - The Lives of Others

Best Animated Film - Ratatouille

The Carl Foreman Award for Most Promising Newcomer - Matt Greenhalgh (writer of Control)

Orange Rising Star Award - Shia LaBeouf

Music - La Vie En Rose

Cinematography - No Country For Old Men

Editing - The Bourne Ultimatum

Production Design - Atonement

Costume Design - La Vie En Rose

Sound - The Bourne Ultimatum

Special Visual Effects - The Golden Compass

Make Up & Hair - La Vie En Rose

Short Animation - The Pearce Sisters

Short Film - Dog Altogether

Red Carpet: Amanda Peet and husband, James McAvoy and wife,  Javier Bardem,  Jessica Biel, Kate Hudson, Keira Knightley, Kevin Spacey, Rosamund Pike, Samantha Morton, Sienna Miller and boyfriend Rhys Ifans and Viggo Mortensen.

Backstage: Anthony Hopkins, Cuba Gooding, Jr., Daniel Day Lewis, Daniel Radcliffe, Emily Blunt, Eva Green, Harvey Keitel, Hugh Laurie, Ian McKellen, Javier Bardem, Marion Cotillard, Orlando Bloom, Paul Dano, Rosamund Pike, Thandie Newton and Tilda Swinton.

And WOW was it amazing.  

When Ted Crawford (Hopkins) discovers that his beautiful younger wife, Jennifer, is having an affair, he plans her murder. Among the cops arriving at the crime scene is hostage negotiator Detective Rob Nunally, the only officer permitted entry to the house. Surprisingly, Crawford readily admits to shooting his wife, but Nunally is too stunned to pay close attention when he recognizes his lover, whose true identity he never knew, lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Although Jennifer was shot at point blank range, Nunally realizes she isn’t dead. Crawford is immediately arrested and arraigned after confessing–a seemingly slam-dunk case for hot shot assistant district attorney Willy Beachum (Gosling). But nothing is as simple as it seems, including this case. In a tense duel of intellect and strategy, Crawford and Willy both learn that a “fracture” can be found in every ostensibly perfect façade.

Fracture was a great movie.  Ryan Gosling is H-O-T HOT.  Anthony Hopkins is - well, there are no words.  Who compares to Anthony Hopkins?  I love it when he plays an evil character (fava beans, anyone?) I seem to buy it more than Mr. Niceguy. 

The chemistry between Ryan and Anthony is great.  The movie is so well written - and so well directed.  This is a great departure for me -the last two movies I saw I absolutely HATED.  (They were Halle Berry’s “Perfect Stranger” and Sandra Bullock’s “Premonition”)

I give it two thumbs up… a must see! 

Oscar winner SIR ANTHONY HOPKINS is causing a stir in the art world - an exhibition of his paintings is on show at a gallery in California. The SILENCE OF THE LAMBS star is currently displaying his work at the Primavera Gallery in Ojai Valley, where individual articles can sell for over $5,684 (GBP3,000). A spokesman for the art house says, “We have about 30 pieces of Hopkins’ work available. “We have ink drawings starting around $2,160 and the oil canvases starting around $6,400.”