Tom Cruise, Arnold Schwarzenegger and Hugh Jackman receive honorary awards at the Empire Awards.

The best films and filmmakers of the past year, as voted for by the public, were honoured in London last night at the 19th Jameson Empire Awards.

Empire bestowed two special Lifetime awards on star guests Tom Cruise and Arnold Schwarzenegger. Cruise was presented with Empire’s Legend of Our Lifetime award by Rosamund Pike and highlighted his work on Top Gun, Mission Impossible, Jerry Maguire and Interview with the Vampire.

The Action Hero of Our Lifetime award was given to Schwarzenegger who was honoured for his performances in movies including True Lies, The Terminator series and Total Recall.

Two further special awards were presented by Empire to Hugh Jackman and Simon Pegg. Jackman attended the ceremony to receive the Empire Icon award while Simon Pegg collected the Empire Hero award.

Pegg’s recent film The World’s End scooped Best British Film while James McAvoy and Emma Thompson won Best Actor and Best Actress for their roles in Filth and Saving Mr Banks respectively

Alan Partridge: Alpha Papa was awarded Best Comedy while Sally Hawkins received the award for Best Supporting Actress for Blue Jasmine and Michael Fassbender won Best Supporting Actor for his role in 12 Years a Slave.

Margot Robbie collected the award for Best Female Newcomer for her performance in The Wolf of Wall Street while Aidan Turner collected Best Male Newcomer for his role in The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug. Peter Jackson’s epic sequel also took a second award for Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film.

Another film scooping multiple awards was Gravity for which director Alfonso Cuarón triumphed in the Best Director category and which received the Best Film accolade.

As previously announced, British director Paul Greengrass received the Empire Inspiration Award for his work on the Bourne trilogy and recent hit Captain Phillips.

Best Horror went toThe Conjuring, and Best Thriller went to The Hunger Games: Catching Fire.

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