It must have been music to his ears.

Director Roman Polanski's harrowing semi-autobiographical drama The Pianist, about a Polish musician's struggle to survive the Holocaust, took Best Picture and Polanski was named Best Director Sunday night at the British Academy Film Awards, otherwise known as the BAFTAs, Britain's version of the Oscars.

Considered a key Oscar tuneup and featuring a Best Picture field identical to the Academy Awards, the BAFTA choice was surprising, with The Pianist topping early Oscar faves Chicago and The Hours.

But the BAFTAs spread the wealth around. Nicole Kidman earned the Best Actress trophy for her Virginia Woolf nose job in The Hours and Daniel Day-Lewis nabbed Best Actor for his knife-twirling role as Bill "the Butcher" in Martin Scorsese's epic Gangs of New York.

"It is so lovely to share this with two really really special women, and I do divide it in three, so we have it together," said Kidman in her acceptance speech, praising costars Meryl Streep and Julianne Moore.

Best Supporting Actor kudos went to another Oscar hopeful, Christopher Walken, for playing con man Leonardo DiCaprio's disgraced dad in Catch Me If You Can. A very pregnant Catherine Zeta-Jones claimed the Best Supporting Actress prize for her razzle-dazzle turn as high-hicking murderess Velma Kelly in Chicago.

"Oh my gosh! I'm very hormonal so please forgive anything I say, and if I cry, Marty please take me off the stage!" the Welsh-born Zeta-Jones told presenter Scorsese upon accepting her award.

Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers racked up the most trophies for the night, lording over the visual effects and costume categories and winning the mantle of Orange Film of the Year, a category voted on by fans and sponsored by Orange, the cell phone company that puts on the BAFTAs.

Spanish auteur Pedro Almodóvar's Talk to Her snagged Best Foreign Film and Best Original Screenplay, allowing the outspoken filmmaker to express his opposition to the impending U.S. war on Iraq by saying, "We have to stop this army of darkness."

Chicago and The Hours were also double winners, with Chicago picking up the Best Sound award and The Hours receiving a trophy for Philip Glass' score.

Best Adapted Screenplay went to Charlie Kaufman--and fictional twin Donald--for their brainy Adaptation.

The late Conrad Hall was honored posthumously with the Best Cinematography prize for his work on Road to Perdition.

This is the third year organizers have handed out BAFTAs before the Academy Awards, a move that has raised the profile of the ceremonies from a post-Oscar afterthought to a leading momentum-booster.

To that end, Polanski's double win could give The Pianist a late push in the Oscar derby.

The film's star Adrien Brody, who lost the Best Actor award despite literally starving himself for the part of emaciated ivory tickler, paid tribute to Polanski, who was MIA.

"The important thing to acknowledge is that Roman has overcome a tremendous amount of loss in his life, particularly in this case to the hands of the Nazis," Brody said upon accepting the director's award.

As a boy, Polanski managed to flee his native Poland when the Nazis invaded. The director also endured the death of his first wife, actress Sharon Tate, who was pregnant with the couple's child when she was brutally murdered by the Manson family in 1969. He has been living in exile in France since pleading guilty to having sex with a teen girl in California and fleeing the United States in the late 1970s.

The 69-year-old helmer, now a French citizen, faces arrest if he returns to the U.S. and is certain to be a no-show at this year's Academy Awards. (A quick aside: Polanski's victim, now a happily married mother of three, wrote in a Los Angeles Times editorial that the director's behavior toward her--though "scary" and creepy"--shouldn't cloud his chances with Oscar voters).

Meanwhile, Polanski's Pianist played to an even better reception at France's top cinema awards, the Césars. The film tallied seven trophies on Saturday, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Brody.

Streep was also presented with France's highest honor, the title of Commander of the Order of Arts and Letters at the ceremony, while director Spike Lee was honored with a Césars for career achievement. And maverick filmmaker Michael Moore took home the Best Foreign Film award for his documentary on American gun culture, Bowling for Columbine.