LONDON: Survival drama “The Revenant” was the top winner at Britain’s biggest movie awards on Sunday, taking the best film prize and honours for leading actor Leonardo DiCaprio and director Alejandro G. Inarritu.

The movie earned five British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) awards, including for cinematography and sound, at a ceremony in London, two weeks before it vies for Hollywood’s top honours, the Oscars.

In the film, which has already picked up several trophies in this awards season and leads Oscar nominations, DiCaprio portrays fur-trapper Hugh Glass, who after being attacked by a bear, is left for dead by his companions during an 1820s expedition. He survives in harsh winter conditions and sets out for revenge.

DiCaprio is heavily favoured to win the best actor Academy Award on Feb 28, which would be his first in five Oscar acting nominations. In collecting his first BAFTA, he paid tribute to his mother and listed actors Daniel Day-Lewis, Gary Oldman and Peter O’Toole among his inspirations.

“All of this was not expected tonight ... Often we have talked about how difficult this movie was to make, and it was, but we are so proud,” he told reporters.

Inarritu, the Mexican director whose film “Birdman” won last year’s best picture Oscar, said the prizes were “overwhelming”. Continuing a winning streak for the portrayal of a young mother held captive with her son in “Room”, Brie Larson prevailed in the leading actress category and is also favoured to win the Oscar.

Kate Winslet won the supporting actress category for her portrayal in “Steve Jobs” of the late Apple co-founder’s colleague Joanna Hoffman, while Mark Rylance was named best supporting actor for his Soviet spy role in “Bridge of Spies”.

Published in Dawn, February 16th, 2016