Do the British Academy Awards mean anything to the American academy voters? It’s hard to say. Probably not. But on Sunday “12 Years a Slave” and “Gravity” divided most of the BAFTA big awards. And there were a couple of crazy upsets in the acting categories that must have award-centric websites going crazy. They basically got everything wrong.

While “12 Years” won Best Picture, “Gravity” won Best British picture– so weird since “Gravity” other than its producer, David Heyman, is an American film from a US company (Warner Bros) with two American actors (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney). Go figure. “Gravity” director Alfonso Cuaron, who is Mexican, won Best Director.

Cate Blanchett was the only actor who was a cinch and won Best Actress for “Blue Jasmine” (take that, Farrow family). Otherwise, the other acting wins were upside down– and just fine, but different from almost everything else we’ve thought was going on.

Chiwetel Ejiofor won Best Actor and beat Bruce Dern, Christian Bale, Tom Hanks, and Leonardo DiCaprio, et al for his work in “12 Years.” Bravo! Of course, he is British. Just saying, that doesn’t hurt.

First timer Barkhad Abdi won Best Supporting Actor for “Captain Phillips.” He knocked out Matt Damon, Bradley Cooper, Michael Fassbender, and Daniel Bruhl (who’s British).

Best Supporting Actress went to Jennifer Lawrence for “American Hustle.” Lawrence knocked off Brit Sally Hawkins, Julia Roberts, Oprah Winfrey and more importantly, Lupita Nyongo, who was the favorite.

Otherwise “Philomena” and “American Hustle” split the screenplay awards — adapted and original, respectively. “Gravity” picked up the technical awards.

Everyone got something. But there must have been some dropped jaws. For Ejiofor, the award counters the conventional wisdom that Brits don’t win the BAFTAs. But no Brits won the other acting awards. So there.

All of this means nada. It just means three of the four acting races are wide open. Leto is a little more vulnerable than previously thought. “Captain Phillips” could be stronger in some quarters. Barkhad Abdi is a long shot win in the U.S. but why not? And the way voting works with the Academy, anything could happen. It’s frustrating for the actors and the prognosticators, but great for TV ratings on Oscar night. Everyone loves a nail-biter!

I’ve often said that there are so many good choices this year, you could take any combination of the actors and actresses for the winners, and it would be all right. We were lucky to have such a bumper crop of excellent films!

Last night Leonardo DiCaprio’s mom was in the audience at the Ziegfeld Theater for a brief, but informative Q&A with the star of “Wolf of Wall Street” as well as editor Thelma Schoonmaker and screenwriter Terence Winter. Director Martin Scorsese was somewhere between the Berlin Film Festival and scouting locations in Asia for “Silence.”

DiCaprio– who’s in a hard charging race for Best Actor with Matthew McConaughey and Bruce Dern–drew in a full crowd including about a hundred or so people who paid just to see him and didn’t stay for the screening of “Wolf of Wall Street.” (Most had seen it, and had just watched Scorsese’s Oscar winning “The Departed.”)

Will DiCaprio win the Oscar? He’s turned into an excellent campaigner, and one who can express the sentiment of his movie and how it was made very articulately.

Moderate Kent Jones asked Leo about the great scene in “Wolf” where Jordan Belfort invites the FBI agents onto his massive yacht floating in the World Trade Center marina.

“Jordan tries to slightly blackmail him [the FBI agent] in his own way,” Di Caprio said. “We asked how much do we want to push this?…This movie comes from… no matter what anyone thinks of it, ultimately it is a rare film nowadays. I really want more films like this to get made in today’s world. It’s a reflection back to movies of the 70s that I was so influenced by and so moved by…the director was able to put their vision on screen without too much interference.  This is the director’s cut. This is the culmination of artists that got together ans aid this is the movie we want to do.”

Thelma Schoonmaker: “The actors were very brave in this movie. I can’t believe some of the things Leo did!”  [Ed. note: We’ve tried, but it’s difficult in a G rated column. But maybe you’ve seen the movie.]

DiCaprio: “I always feel like I’m a kid. I’m going to get my foot in the door and run with it. I’ve been making movies for 26years, and I’m almost 40. In the middle of it is this collaboration with Marty. I can’t put into words what I’ve learned from him.”

By the way, Schoonmaker did talk about shooting the key sequence in the film– when DiCaprio as Belfort has to slither across a parking lot into his sports car, high on Quaaludes. Schoonmaker– who I can’t believe was not nominated for an Oscar this year– says Scorsese shot it only as a ‘master shot’– with no closeups– meaning it was just one long tracking shot and very wide. You never see Leo’s face up close or any angles inside the car. It’s just from left to right, as DiCaprio does maybe the best acting of his life.

“He was dead right,” said Schoonmaker. “The humor is there. It’s just great. And Marty knew.”