Feb. 9 (Bloomberg) -- “Slumdog Millionaire,” about a Mumbai quiz contestant accused of cheating, won seven British Academy Film Awards, or Baftas, including for best film and best director, boosting its frontrunner status at the Academy Awards this month.

The movie was a multiple winner at last month’s Golden Globes, where it bagged the award for best drama, and its maker Danny Boyle won for best director. “Slumdog Millionaire” is now vying for 10 Academy Awards in Los Angeles on Feb. 22.

Another 2009 Oscar nominee to take a Bafta home last night was Mickey Rourke. For his role as the comeback fighter in “The Wrestler,” he garnered the best-actor prize, extending a winning streak that began at the Venice Film Festival in September and continued at the Golden Globes last month.

“It’s such a pleasure to be back here, out of the darkness,” said Rourke, wearing shades and a velvety black jacket, as strands of streaked hair fell across his face. True to form, he used a four-letter word to describe the damage he had done to his career for 15 years.

In a backstage confession after winning, Rourke said he had taken a tranquillizer to lessen the stress. “I get really nervous in front of strangers,” he said. “By nature, I’m kind of shy.”

At this month’s Oscars, Rourke faces competition from actors Sean Penn, Richard Jenkins, Frank Langella and Brad Pitt. Rourke said Penn was a close friend who had given him much career advice in recent months, and if Penn wins, “it’s okay with me.”

Kate Winslet was the evening’s other big winner. Nominated twice in the best-actress category, she won for her role in “The Reader” as a woman who beds a young German boy and has him read out loud. Winslet, who wore a long black mermaid dress with straps around her neck, thanked her British parents, seated next to her, as she stepped up to take the award.

Pitt, Jolie

The evening’s big losers were Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, beaten in the best-actor and best-actress categories. Yet outside the Royal Opera House, where the ceremony was held, their popularity on the red carpet was unmatched. As Jolie, in an asymmetrical black-and-yellow dress, walked up arm-in-arm with her moustachioed partner, pandemonium broke out.

Autograph seekers shrieked for their attention, forcing the couple to part and sign the notebooks separately.

Heath Ledger posthumously won the best supporting actor award for “The Dark Knight.”

Penelope Cruz’s performance as the hysterically jealous ex- wife in Woody Allen’s “Vicky Cristina Barcelona” won her the best supporting-actress award. She told reporters backstage, after winning, that it was a “very fast experience” as Allen did three or four scenes each day.

“He doesn’t like to rehearse,” said Cruz. “I think it’s a strategy to keep his actors very much in the present.”

Nominees

“Slumdog Millionaire” -- which also won for its script, score, cinematography, editing and sound -- beat out four other best-film Bafta contenders: “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,” starring Pitt; “Frost/Nixon;” “Milk,” with Penn in the title role; and “The Reader.”

“Slumdog” director Boyle faced down competition from Clint Eastwood (“Changeling”), David Fincher (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”), Ron Howard (“Frost/Nixon”), and Stephen Daldry (“The Reader”).

The other best-actress nominees were Jolie in “Changeling,” Kristin Scott Thomas in “I’ve Loved You So Long,” and Meryl Streep in “Doubt.”

Mickey Rourke defeated Bafta nominees Frank Langella (“Frost/Nixon”), Dev Patel (“Slumdog Millionaire”), Penn (“Milk”), and Pitt (“The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”).

Started in 1947 and honoring films produced worldwide and shown in U.K. cinemas, the Baftas are now held before the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awards, or Oscars, Hollywood’s most prestigious awards.

To contact the writer on the story: Farah Nayeri in London at farahn@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: February 8, 2009 21:03 EST