LONDON, United Kingdom?American director Kathryn Bigelow's Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" swept the board at the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (Bafta) Sunday, winning the best film and director awards and leaving ex-husband James Cameron almost empty-handed.

Bigelow picked up six gongs out of eight she was nominated for, and was the first woman to win the best director award for her movie portraying elite soldiers tasked with defusing bombs in the heat of combat.

Collecting her best film award from American actor Dustin Hoffman, she said the prize was "beyond our wildest imagination."

"This is so unbelievable, we're just so deeply honored and humbled," she said.

"The Hurt Locker" also picked up gongs for original screenplay, cinematography, editing, and sound at the glittering event, which attracted stars including Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, and Uma Thurman.

It beat Cameron's 3D, computer-animated blockbuster "Avatar" to the major prizes, with the world's biggest-ever grossing movie picking up just two awards from eight nods, for special visual effects and production design.

Colin Firth won the best actor award for his role in "A Single Man," in which he plays a gay academic fighting with grief.

"What (director) Tom Ford doesn't know is I have the e-mail in my outbox telling him I could not possibly do this," he said.

"I was about to send this when a man came to repair my fridge.... I don't know what's best for me so I would like to thank the fridge guy."

Carey Mulligan scooped the prize for best actress for her part in "An Education," a coming-of-age drama set in 1960s London, whose screenplay was written by British novelist Nick Hornby.

His books "High Fidelity" and "About A Boy" have been made into successful films.

"Thank you so much Bafta. I was here a year ago and I didn't imagine in a million years that this would happen," said Mulligan, shaking with emotion.