The Underdog is King at the 2010 BAFTAs

Avatar may be an undeniable box office behemoth, but at last night's British Academy of Film and Television Academy Awards, which shall henceforth be referred to as the BAFTAs and carry the same cache as the Oscars in the United Kingdom, smaller films with way smaller budgets were the night's undeniable victors. Case in point: Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker's Best Picture win over ex-husband Cameron's Avatar.

Bigelow's tour de force about a bomb disposal unit in the war in Iraq swept the awards, picking up six out of the eight awards for which it had been nominated. Bigelow's Best Director win marks the first time a female director has picked up the accolade in BAFTA history. In a backstage interview made available on the BAFTA website, Bigelow admits that she didn't even realize she was making history with her win: "Seriously? I didn't even know that! I'm glad I didn't even know that going in ... it's a real honor.... This tough little war film seems to be touching a nerve, and it means so much to me."

Even after the film picked up its final prize of the night, the big one itself: Best Picture, Bigelow remained humble about her mission in her acceptance speech: "This is so unbelievable, and speaking on [behalf] of all of us involved with The Hurt Locker, we're just so deeply honored and humbled to be recognized for putting a bit of a spotlight on a very, very difficult situation. It means everything to us and this is beyond our wildest imagination. Thank you."

The Hurt Locker wasn't the only underdog that proved to be boss at last night's BAFTAs. Duncan Jones, the son of rock icon David Bowie, earned the award for Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director, or Producer for his critically-acclaimed film Moon. In his backstage interview, an exuberant Jones reacted to his win: "I'm quite overwhelmed. I start the second film [next week].... You know what it's like with smaller-budget first films. A lot of faith from places like Sony.... We had wonderful technical people working with us."

Other first-time winners — all from smaller-scale films — at the BAFTAs included Colin Firth, who picked up the night's Best Actor prize for his work in A Single Man, Carey Mulligan, who won Best Actress for her role in An Education, Mo'Nique, who picked up the Best Supporting Actress award for her role in Precious, and Kristen Stewart. The Twilight star was actually discovered due to her breakout role in Sean Penn's Into the Wild, so she's actually come into her newfound fame through small-budget, underdog films herself. Stewart picked up the Orange Rising Star Award, which was voted for by the public. "I'm very thankful for the fans of Twilight and the fans who aren't just exclusively involved in Twilight. I'm surprised because ... everyone [who was nominated] I'm in awe of."

The BAFTAs certainly threw a curveball into the already unpredictable 2010 Oscars. With different films taking top honors at each major awards ceremony, it really is anyone's game. No matter what happens, this award season will truly be one for the record books: the year an ex-husband's big-budget sci-fi Goliath was up against his ex-wife's low-cost war story David.

Screengrab by BBC via YouTube.