Prince William hails strength and diversity of competition in Bafta categories

The Prince of Wales has said he has a list of movies to watch after attending the Baftas, hailing the strength and diversity of the competition within each category.

William, who is president of the arts charity, sat in the front row of the 2,400-seat auditorium at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday in his first high-profile royal engagement since his wife's operation.

At the prestigious film event last year, he was accompanied by the Princess of Wales, who had abdominal surgery on January 16 at the London Clinic and has since returned home to Adelaide Cottage in Windsor to be with their three children.

The prince made apologies for Kate's absence at a short meet and greet before the ceremony, saying she loves the Bafta film awards.

After all the gongs had been awarded, William met with some of the nominees of the rising star award won by the star of coming-of-age film How To Have Sex, Mia McKenna-Bruce.

He told them: "The category was so strong, all of you, it was like who is going to pull this off? It was incredible. It was very close between all of you."

He congratulated Ms McKenna-Bruce and admitted he had not watched her film yet, but said: "It looked like you had a lot of fun the whole way through."

Upon her recommendation to watch it, William said: "I've got a lot of films to catch up on.

"Normally I get quite ahead of the awards ceremony, I get to see quite a few of them. I haven't managed to get that many through."

He added that he now has a list of films to watch.

William reiterated the strength of the competition when speaking to the director and two producers of Earth Mama which won outstanding debut by a British writer, director or producer.

He told the three women: "The competition in all the categories were