Bafta Film Award predictions: Who will win Best Picture, Actor and Actress?

Tonight (18 February) the film industry turns its attention to the British Academy Film Awards: the last major event of awards season before next month's all-important Oscars. Depending on who wins a coveted Bafta, favourites will be cemented and new contenders may emerge.

Britain's most prestigious awards night always attracts big names, from nominees Daniel Day Lewis, Margot Robbie, Gary Oldman, Frances McDormand and Hugh Grant to guests like the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and many more.

Who, though, is going to win night's biggest awards? Here are IBTimes UK's picks for the night of glitz, glamour and golden statues.

Let's start with the easiest category: Best Actor. The British Academy tends to favour British stars and British films, but that makes little difference to the overwhelming likelihood that Gary Oldman will be going home with the prize for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in Darkest Hour.

Only Daniel Day Lewis as a realistic chance of pipping him to the post, and that's only because his turn in Phantom Thread is - he says - his career swansong.

When it comes to Best Actress the Bafta swing towards British-born stars makes Sally Hawkins a contender, but the momentum is undoubtedly with Frances McDormand, whose performance in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri is a career highlight.

Best Supporting Actress is expected to go to Allison Janney in I, Tonya - the safest bet - but because of that British favouritism we're going to go for Lesley Manville in Phantom Thread, whose performance was wonderfully biting and more likely to appeal to Bafta voters.

As much as we'd like to see Best Supporting Actor go to Hugh Grant, who is probably still digesting Paddington 2 scenery, the odds are with Sam Rockwell for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri.

Best Director is a tight race between awards season favourite Guillermo Del Toro and Christopher Nolan, whose on Dunkirk has earned him an overdue FIRST Oscar nomination and his second Bafta nod. He didn't win for Inception in 2011, we suspect he'll win here.

Del Toro remains the odds-on favourite however, for The Shape of Water.

Finally there's Best Film and Outstanding British Film. Darkest Hour and Three Billboards are nominated in both categories, but winning both awards is unheard of. Strangely Dunkirk was never in the running for the latter prize but is our favourite to win Best Film.

Outstanding British Film we predict will go to Paddington 2, which would certainly win on the criteria of being the MOST British. That will probably be enough to earn it win. If it does, expect one of the loudest applauses of the night.

Our predictions for the night's biggest categories....