In its final ever appearance, Potter picked up Best Cast, and Best Hero (decided on twitter votes).

Well done to everyone and thanks to you dedicated fans for voting! Watch Emma Watson’s lovely acceptance speech for Best Cast below:

I don’t think I will ever accept an award on behalf of so many people. From Ralph Fiennes to Helena Bonham Carter to Hedwig and Dobby and all of them, this is amazing! We had over 200 cast members and I wish they could all be up here with me now. Sadly, they can’t. Obviously, I share this award, in particular, with Dan and Rupert. Wherever you are, I hope you’re watching and I miss you both dearly. Just thank you! I really, really appreciate it. Thank you!

Emma also presented the first full trailer for her new film The Perks of Being a Wallflower before the show began. Here is a recording of that, featuring lots of footage of Emma in her first big role since hanging up Hermione’s robes.

In contrast to the disappointment of most of the mainstream award shows, especially the Oscars, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 is very well represented with ten nominations, including Best Fantasy Film, Supporting Actor and Actress, Direction, Production Design and more!

See the full list of the categories they are nominated in below.

Best Fantasy Film

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2

Hugo

Immortals

Midnight in Paris

The Muppets

Thor

Best Supporting Actor:

Ralph Fiennes, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Harrison Ford, Cowboys and Aliens

Tom Hiddleston, Thor

Alan Rickman, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Andy Serkis, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Stanley Tucci, Captain America: The First Avenger

Best Supporting Actress:

Elena Anaya, The Skin I Live In

Emily Blunt, The Adjustment Bureau

Charlotte Gainsbourg, Melancholia

Paula Patton, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Lin Shaye, Insidious

Emma Watson, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Best Direction:

J.J. Abrams, Super 8

Brad Bird, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Martin Scorsese, Hugo

Steven Spielberg, The Adventures of Tintin

Rupert Wyatt, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

David Yates, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Best Production Design:

Stuart Craig, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Dante Ferretti, Hugo

Tom Foden, Immortals

Rick Heinrichs, Captain America: The First Avenger

Kim Sinclair, The Adventures of Tintin

Bo Welch, Thor

Best Editing:

Maryann Brandon, Mary Jo Markey, Super 8

Mark Day, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Paul Hirsch, Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol

Michael Kahn, The Adventures of Tintin

Kelly Matsumoto, Fred Raskin, Christian Watner, Five Five

Thelma Schoonmaker, Hugo

Best Costume:

Jenny Beavan, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

Alexandra Byrne, Thor

Lisy Christl, Anonymous Sony

Sandy Powell, Hugo

Anna B. Sheppard, Captain America: The First Avenger

Jany Temime, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Best Make-Up:

Shaun Smith, Scott Wheeler, Conan the Barbarian

Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Annick Chartier, Adrien Morot, Nikoletta Skarlatos, Immortals

Tamar Aviv, The Skin I Live In

Tom Woodruff Jr., Alec Gillis, The Thing

Dave Elsey, Fran Needham, Conor O’ Sullivan, X-Men: First Class

Best Special Effects:

Scott E. Anderson, Matt Aitken, Joe Letteri, Matthias Menz, Keith Miller, The Adventures of Tintin

Tim Burke, Greg Butler, John Richardson, David Vickery, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2

Dan Lemmon, Joe Letteri, R. Christopher White, Daniel Barrett, Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Steven Riley, Russell Earl, Kim Libreri, Dennis Muren, Super 8

Scott Benza, John Frazier, Matthew Butler, Scott Farar, Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Hugo, a film by Martin Scorsese (who is a favourite of the Academy), was the night’s biggest winner along with The Artist, and it beat out Harry Potter to take home the Art Direction and Visual Effects awards. And The Iron Lady won ahead of Deathly Hallows Part 2 in the Makeup category for their work in making Meryl Streep look like Margaret Thatcher. (View a complete list of winners here)

That means that after eight films, the Harry Potter series has and now never will win a single Oscar. According to Eonline, that makes it the most snubbed series of all time.

But did they honour the series with a special tribute or contribution award like the Baftas did last year? Nope, they did not. In fact the series only very briefly got a mention in a joke about taxes.

We think it is a great shame that for whatever strange reason, Harry Potter has been completely ignored by The Academy, the most prestigious of awards shows and the one which the whole world listens to. But we can be pretty sure that this won’t affect Harry’s place in cinematic history. Star Wars, for example, only ever received a handful of Oscar statues, and yet to this day is a huge phenomenon looked backed on as one the greatest movie series ever produced. Harry Potter will certainly leave a similar, perhaps even greater legacy, while the big winners here will be mostly forgotten.

Courtesy of Entertainment Weekly, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 took home the Excellence in Fantasy Film when the Costume Designers Guild Awards were announced Tuesday night. The guild represents costume designers, assistant costume designers, and costume illustrators working at the highest levels of skill and expertise in motion pictures, television and commercials.

A big congratulations goes to Jany Temime and the rest of her team for this wonderful honor. The complete list of winners can be seen below.

• Excellence in Contemporary Film : Trish Summerville, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo
• Excellence in Period Film : Arianne Phillips, W.E.
• Excellence in Fantasy Film : Jany Temime, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2
• Outstanding Contemporary Television Series : Lou Eyrich & Jennifer Eve, Glee
• Outstanding Period/Fantasy Television Series : John A. Dunn & Lisa Padovani, Boardwalk Empire
• Outstanding Made for Television Movie or Miniseries : Susannah Buxton, Downton Abbey
• Excellence in Commercial Costume Designs : Roseanne Fiedler, Swiffer: “Country Dirt Cowgirl”
• Lacoste Spotlight Award : Kate Beckinsale
• DiSaronno Career Achievement in Film Award : Marlene Stewart
• Career Achievement in Television Award : Lou Eyrich
• Distinguished Collaborator Award : Deborah Hooper and Clint Eastwood
• Service Award : Western Costume

The BAFTA film awards took place tonight in London, and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 picked up the award for Special Visual Effects! Congratulations to the team: John Richardson, Tim Burke, Greg Butler, David Vickery and all the others who contributed to bring the books spectacularly to life.

Unfortunately, Deathly Hallows Part 2 missed out on the other awards it was nominated for – Production Design, Makeup & Hair, and Sound.

Also of note on the night was legendary Ollivander actor John Hurt receiving the special award for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema, an award which was given to the Harry Potter series at the BAFTAs last year.

You can see lots of pictures from the event here in our galleries, with photos of Harry Potter stars on red carpet including Dan Radcliffe, Ralph Fiennes, Jim Broadbent, fiancées Bonnie Wright and Jamie Campbell Bower, Helena Bonham Carter, Kenneth Branagh, John Hurt and Gary Oldman, who saw success on the night with his film Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, although he didn’t win for Leading Actor.

Over in Beverley Hills last night he took home a much deserved prize in the fantasy film category at the prestigious Art Directors Guild awards for ‘Excellence in Production Design for a Feature Film in 2011′, for his work on Deathly Hallows Part 2.

Update: The brilliant people behind the Harry Potter films were also recognised by the Guild with a special award for Outstanding Contribution to Cinematic Imagery! The press release names David Heyman, David Barron, Chris Columbus, Alfonso cuaron, Mike Newell, David Yates, Steve Kloves, Michael Goldenberg, Stuart Craig, Neil Lamont, Stephanie McMillan and JK Rowling as the recipients.

This should boost  the film’s chances in this category at the Oscars in a couple of weeks time, although it faces tough competition from the other big ADG winner, Hugo.

Although veteran Craig has won three Oscars in the past (1982, 1988 and 1996), none of them have been for Harry Potter even though his work is probably the standout feature of the whole production. We hope that can finally change!

The full list of ADG winners for the feature film section is below. You can also see the TV winners right here.

Period Film

Hugo (Production Designer: Dante Ferretti)

Fantasy Film

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (Production Designer: Stuart Craig)

Contemporary Film

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (Production Designer: Donald Graham Burt)

Many Potter fans had rightly hoped that this might be Harry Potter’s year to pull off some big award wins which have been missing in previous years. The finale of the series this summer, Deathly Hallows Part 2, was widely praised by critics (it was rated higher than nearly all the other nominees), was very well loved by fans and general movie-goers alike, and was one of the biggest box office hits ever.

Unfortunately, the film’s many merits don’t seem to have rubbed off on the Academy and couldn’t outweigh the many factors that were standing against it. You can read more about some of these factors in detail here.

Deathly Hallows Part 2 has had a complete lack of buzz in the weeks leading up to today, and this showed in the lack of recognition in the nominations. On top of the reasons outlined in the article linked above, this lack of love is partly due to it being a summer release, meaning it was not fresh in people’s minds and making Warner Brothers’ big campaign less effective.

The film became overshadowed by films more appealing to the tastes of those voters over in Hollywood (they rarely reward fantasy and sci-fi), many of which have purposely been released only in the last few weeks in order to grab the attention of voters and the media when it matters most.

The Artist, a silent, black-and-white film paying homage to the old days of Hollywood, making it a popular and obvious choice, was one of the biggest nomination winners. It was beaten only by Hugo, another stylish and charming period piece helmed by Oscar favourite Martin Scorsese. Rounding out the Best Picture nominees is The Descendants, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, The Help, Midnight in Paris, Moneyball, The Tree of Life and War Horse.

Harry Potter wasn’t completely absent, however. It got much deserved nominations for Art Direction (Stuart Craig, Stephanie McMillan), Makeup (Nick Dudman, Amanda Knight and Lisa Tomblin), and Visual Effects (Tim Burke, David Vickery, Greg Butler and John Richardson). We hope it can win at least one of the awards, although it faces big competition.

Also of note to HP fans is the Best Actor category, where Sirius actor Gary Oldman has been nominated for his role in Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. And in the Supporting Actor category (no, we didn’t get Alan Rickman ), Kenneth Branagh, who played Gilderoy Lockhart, got a nomination for his portrayal of Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn.

The final Oscar awards ceremony will take place on February 26th.

Outside of the main categories, Harry Potter got four nominations for the following:

• Production Design
• Makeup & Hair
• Special Visual Effects
• Sound

Deathly Hallows Part 2 was initially long-listed in a further seven categories which it sadly missed out on: Outstanding British Film, Editing, Adapted Screenplay, Cinematography, Costume Design, Original Music and Supporting Actor – Alan Rickman.

However, there was much more success for many of the older Potter stars. Sirius actor Gary Oldman is up for Leading Actor for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Jim Broadbent (Slughorn) and Kenneth Branagh (Lockhart) are both nominated for Supporting actor for their roles in The Iron Lady and My Week with Marilyn, respectively.

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy also starred a few other HP alumni (John Hurt [Ollivander], Ciaran Hinds [Aberforth], Toby Jones [voice of Dobby]) and is nominated for a whole host of other awards including Best Film. Emma Watson had a supporting role in My Week With Marilyn which is up for Outstanding British Film and more. Finally, Voldemort actor Ralph Fiennes has received a nomination for ‘Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer’ for Corialanus, a film which he directed and had the leading role in.

Video: Daniel Radcliffe and Holliday Grainger announce the BAFTA main category nominations:

Video: Daniel Radcliffe and Holliday Grainger discuss the nominations after the announcement:

Chris Columbus, director of Philosopher’s Stone and Chamber of Secrets, was an apt recipient at the awards gala. Even though he only directed two of the films, Chris must be given much credit for determining many long-running aspects of the series as a whole, notably the casting of the actors, young and old. The photos below come via Snitchseeker and show the director holding the certificate along with fellow winners.