The film Ma Rainey's Black Bottom scooped two awards on the first night of the BAFTA Film Awards, which is being held over two days for the first time.

The movie, starring Violet Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman, won awards for best costume design and make-up and hair as the night focused mainly on the awarding of technical prizes.

COVID-19 measures mean the awards ceremony is being presented from the Royal Albert Hall online, with prize winners receiving their awards virtually.

READ MORE

Tributes to Prince Philip

Soccer clubs boycott social media

Brexit pricing researchers out of the UK

The prize for best British short film went to The Present, while the British short animation gong was awarded to The Owl and the Pussycat.

UK actor Noel Clarke, who has starred in Kidulthood, Bulletproof and Doctor Who, received the outstanding British contribution to cinema award. 

In his acceptance speech, Clarke dedicated his award to "my young black boys and girls out there that never believed it could happen to them".

On Sunday, night two of the BAFTAs will focus mainly on individual awards, with a host of star names in contention for the leading prizes.

Boseman and Sir Anthony Hopkins (The Father) are two of six nominees for the best actor award. 

Boseman's nomination is his first recognition from BAFTA and comes just nine months after the actor died of colon cancer.

Bukky Bakray (Rocks), Radha Blank (The Forty-Year-Old Version) and Vanessa Kirby (Pieces of a Woman) are three of the leading contenders for best actress.

Sixteen of the 24 nominees for the individual prizes are actors from ethnic minority backgrounds following criticism of the BAFTAs last year when only white actors were nominated.