Gravity has won the first award of the night at the Baftas 2014, for outstanding British film.

The outer-space thriller starring George Clooney and Sandra Bullock, and helmed by Alfonso Cuarón (who is up for best director later in the evening), became phenomenally successful as well as critically acclaimed, grossing almost $700m (£418m) worldwide.

While its stars may be American and its director Mexican, Gravity is a very British success. Its producer is David Heyman, who oversaw the entire Harry Potter series, and he accepted the award saying it would help make his cold better. He hailed an "incredible, unbelievable" team on the film.

Its visual effects, meanwhile, were by London studio Framestore, who spent three years creating an accurate simulation of outer space, inventing with liberal use of CGI everything from space shuttles and space suits to the International space station.

Heyman called them "incomparable". He described his stars as "the heart of the film" and added that "we wouldn't be here without our wonderful director Alfonso Cuarón," who also accepted the award as co-producer.

• The Baftas ceremony is on BBC1 from 9pm. You can watchalong with Xan Brooks' liveblog, which begins at 8pm