BAFTAs 2013: Mendes salutes Daniel Craig after Skyfall named best British film

It’s already made more than billion dollars, but now ‘Skyfall’ has the recognition of the British film establishment after scooping the award for Outstanding British Film at the 2013 BAFTAs.

It beat ‘Anna Karenina’, ‘The Best Exotical Marigold Hotel’, ‘Les Miserables’ and ‘Seven Psychopaths’ to the award, but the result was never really in doubt.

[Related story: The full list of BAFTA winners]
[Related story: BAFTAs 2013 - the biggest snubs and shocks]
[Related story: Best 2013 BAFTAs speeches]

Collecting the award, handed out by Ben Affleck and Bradley Cooper, director Sam Mendes said:

"On behalf of the 1500+ people who made this award we're accepting this. We had high expectations of this film and it surpassed them all. I also have to single out the man around whom we built this film, and that's Daniel Craig.”

Later on at a backstage press conference, Mendes continued with this theme, saying Craig had suffered ‘the curse of Bond’ after not being nominated for Best Actor.

"It was an incredible performance but because Bond is the spine of the movie... You take it for granted."