Despite a complete lack of the letters “V” or “G” in the acronym, the British Academy of Film and Television Arts has been recognizing excellence in video games since 1998. Although BAFTA is much easier to say than BAFTVGA.

Either way, at an award ceremony yesterday, the prestigious academy handed out statues of shiny gold faces to the best of the best in video games for 2010.

Although there may have been a distinct lack of skanky psuedo-celebs or awkward Neil Patrick Harris joke deliveries, there was no shortage of praise going to some very familiar titles this year.

Taking home the BAFTA Fellowship prize was Lionhead Studios top man, Peter Molyneux. The Fellowship award is akin to a lifetime achievement award. It’s a huge honor for anyone to have bestowed upon them, and in winning, Molyneux joins the likes of Nintendo legend Shigeru Miyamoto, who won the award last year.

Have a look at the winners:

As for the game awards themselves, there are a couple of surprises and notable winners in there. For example, mobile phone game Cut the Rope was able to prevail over handheld heavy-hitters like God of War: Ghost of Sparta and Professor Layton and the Lost Future (UK Title). Kinect Sports managed to top other Kinect favorites like Dance Central and Kinect Adventures for its prize. Also somewhat of a surprise, Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit’s multiplayer was able to get the best of Ezio and Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood’s much talked about unique multiplayer mode. And while Mass Effect 2 took home the Best Game prize, it was Heavy Rain that walked away with three total awards.

There are also a few notable absences on the list as well. Indie sensation Limbo wasn’t able to grab any wins, despite being nominated in five categories. Call of Duty: Black Ops did manage to win the GAME Award, a fan-voted category, but failed to receive anything from the academy.

Finally, Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption is probably the biggest omission from the list. In fact, it didn’t even receive any nominations, except for in the GAME category, despite taking home the top prize at the VGAs. It turns out that the game’s mysterious absence isn’t so mysterious. BAFTA only nominates games that have been submitted for consideration, and Rockstar failed to submit Red Dead Redemption. While there are no concrete explanations as to why they wouldn’t throw their critically acclaimed western into the ring, it has been suggested that Rockstar is still a little irked by the fact that Grand Theft Auto IV failed to take home any BAFTA awards in 2009 and might just be acting stubborn.

How does the list of winners look to the Game Rant crowd? Are there any surprises, or does this look like a pretty good assessment of the last year in gaming?

You can check out the full list of nominees at the BAFTA website.