'The Favourite' grabs 2 British Academy awards

LONDON (AP) — Tragicomic royal drama "The Favourite" was crowned the year's best U.K. film at Sunday's British Academy Film awards, in front of an audience studded with Hollywood stars and real British royalty.

Yorgos Lanthimos' period drama has a total of 12 nominations for the U.K. equivalent of the Oscars. Star Olivia Colman has already won a Golden Globe for her performance as Queen Anne in "The Favourite" and is favored to take the best-actress prize

The 18th-century queen's distant relative, Prince William, and his wife, Kate, Duchess of Cambridge — wearing a white, off-the-shoulder Alexander McQueen dress — joined Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Cate Blanchett, Viola Davis, Timothee Chalamet and other stars for a blacktie ceremony at London's Royal Albert Hall.

"Absolutely Fabulous" star Joanna Lumley was the gently risque host.

"The Favourite" lived up to its title, snapping up both the outstanding British film trophy and a second prize for its opulent production design early in the ceremony.

Winners Fiona Crombie and Alice Felton dedicated the award to "every woman and working mother who keeps it together and makes it happen."

Other front-runners for the prizes include the Freddie Mercury biopic "Bohemian Rhapsody," lunar drama "First Man," autobiographical Mexican story "Roma" and musical melodrama "A Star Is Born." Each film has seven nominations.

The awards, known as BAFTAs , will be scoured for clues to who might triumph at Hollywood's Academy Awards on Feb. 24, in what's shaping up as an unpredictable awards season.

Colman is up against Glenn Close, who took Screen Actors Guild and Golden Globe awards for "The Wife." The other best-actress nominees are Lady Gaga for "A Star is Born," Viola Davis for "Widows" and Melissa McCarthy for "Can You Ever Forgive Me?"

"I feel like I'm in a fever dream," said McCarthy of recognition for the offbeat film, based on the story of a real literary forger.

Her "Can You Ever Forgive Me?" co-star Richard E. Grant has secured both BAFTA and Oscar nominations for his performance as an affable rogue.