The movie Ma Rainey's Black Bottom won two prizes at the Bafta Film Awards, which are being split over two days for the first time. Both halves of the ceremony were presented by Edith Bowman and Dermot O'Leary from the Royal Albert Hall – with winners appearing virtually.

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom stars Viola Davis and the late Chadwick Boseman as members of a 1920s blues band. Other winners included Rocks, a low-budget British film starring a group of teenage girls, many of whom had not acted before; Christopher Nolan's time-bending thriller Tenet; and Mank, in which Gary Oldman plays Citizen Kane screenwriter Herman J Mankiewicz.

Dedicating his special award to "my young Black boys and girls out there that never believed it could happen to them", Kidulthood, Bulletproof and Doctor Who actor/creator Noel Clarke was also presented with the outstanding British contribution to cinema award. Riz Ahmed, Sir Anthony Hopkins, Vanessa Kirby and Daniel Kaluuya were among the stars also up for acting awards.

Nomadland, a drama about a woman who lives in a van in the American West after the financial crash, took top honours, scooping four prizes including best film, best actress for its star Frances McDormand and best director. It made Chloe Zhao only the second woman to win best director in 53 years of Bafta history.

Daniel Kaluuya was named best supporting actor for playing Black Panther leader Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah. The supporting actress trophy went to South Korea's Yuh-Jung Youn for playing a grandmother in Korean-American drama Minari. "Every award is meaningful, but this one especially recognised by British people, known as very snobbish people, and they approved me as a good actor so I'm very, very privileged," she said.

Other Bafta winners included Bukky Bakray. The 18-year-old was named rising star following her first ever acting role in Rocks, in which she played a teenage schoolgirl abandoned by her mother. The prize for best British film went to Promising Young Woman, a revenge thriller about a woman, played by Carey Mulligan, who pretends to be blind drunk when men pick her up in bars and clubs.

The Duke of Cambridge had been due to appear in a pre-recorded segment, but pulled out following the death of his grandfather, the Duke of Edinburgh. Host Clara Amfo paid tribute to Prince Philip, who was Bafta's first president from 1959-66.

Other major prizes including best film, director, screenplay and animated feature, as well as the acting awards, with shortlists including a diverse line-up of talent - following an outcry last year when voters only nominated white actors. 16 of the 24 acting contenders this year come from ethnic backgrounds.