While the latest Bond film Skyfall, starring Daniel Craig as 007, picked up the award for Outstanding British Film, the night also saw Daniel Day Lewis win big for Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln. The evening belonged though to Affleck and his third film as director Argo, and to Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln.

Affleck won the Best Director award for his Iranian Embassy hostage drama, with the film picking up Best Film award, too.

“I want to say this is a second act for me and you’ve given me that, this industry has given me that and I want to thank you and I’m so grateful and proud,” Affleck said afterwards.

Daniel Day Lewis won the Best Actor award for his portrayal of US president in the Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln, pipping Hugh Jackman to the gong.

Jackman, who was a hit on the red carpet with fans screaming his name to get his attention and a snap, wasn’t confident heading into the Royal Opera House in London last night and with good reason – the bookies had installed Day-Lewis as an unbackable favourite.

But the Sydney-born actor told AAP just being nominated for his turn as Jean Valjean in Les Miserables was a thrill.

“This is just a joy,” the 44-year-old said on the red carpet, where he had to compete with an over-zealous fan belting out a tune from the screen musical.

“Any movie musical can go so wrong so easily.

“The fact we got nine nominations means a lot for us.”

Les Mis did pick up wins elsewhere though, with Anne Hathaway winning the Best Supporting Actress award for her turn as Fantine in Tom Hooper’s big screen adaptation of the classic musical.

Quentin Tarantino, who won the award for Original Screenplay for his western Django Unchained, thanked his actors for doing a “bang-up job with my dialogue”.

The film has attracted criticism for its liberal use of racial insults and Tarantino thanked his backers for standing by what he described as “a hot potato” film.

One of its stars, Christoph Waltz, won the award for Best Supporting Actor and paid tribute to Tarantino who he described as a “silver-penned” writer.

“Why I get to stand here is really no mystery because it says at the beginning of our film, ‘written and directed by Quentin Tarantino’,” he said.

The winners in full:

Film – Argo 

British Film – Skyfall 

Director – Ben Affleck, Argo 

Actor – Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln 

Actress – Emmanuelle Riva, Amour 

Supporting Actor – Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained 

Supporting Actress – Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables 

Rising Star – Juno Temple 

British Debut – Bart Layton and Dimitri Doganis, The Imposter 

Original Screenplay – Quentin Tarantino, Django Unchained 

Adapted Screenplay – David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook 

Film Not in the English Language – Amour 

Music – Thomas Newman, Skyfall 

Cinematography – Life of Pi 

 Editing – Argo 

Production Design – Eve Stewart, Anna Lynch-Robinson, Les Miserables 

Costume Design – Anna Karenina 

Sound – Les Miserables 

 Visual Effects – Life of Pi 

 Makeup and Hair – Les Miserables 

 Animated Feature – Brave 

Short Film – Swimmer 

Short Animation – The Making of Longbird 

Documentary – Searching for Sugar Man 

Outstanding British Contribution to Cinema – Tessa Ross 

Academy Fellowship – Alan Parker

Photo: Getty.