The Artist wins best film at London Film Critics' Circle Awards

The Artist continued its awards charge last night as it was named Film of the Year at the London Critics Circle Film Awards. Its director, Michel Hazanavicius, also won best director and Jean Dujardin won best actor.

Foreign Language Film of the year was A Separation, with Asghar Farhadi also winning screenwriter of the year and Sareh Bayat winning for supporting actress.

Actress of the year was shared by Anna Paquin for Margaret and Meryl Streep for The Iron Lady. Kenneth Branagh won supporting actor for My Week With Marilyn.

The Attenborough Award for British Film of the Year went to Lynne Ramsay’s We Need To Talk About Kevin. British Actor of the year was Michael Fassbender for both Shame and A Dangerous Method. British Actress (sponsored by Moet & Chandon) was Olivia Colman for The Iron Lady and Tyrannosaur. This comes as the lauded Colman was surprisingly snubbed for a BAFTA nomination earlier this week.

Documentary of the year was Senna.

The Virgin Atlantic Award for Breakthrough British Film-maker went to Andrew Haigh for Weekend and Craig Roberts of Submarine was named Young British Performer of the Year.

The Sky 3D award for Technical Achievement went to Maria Djurkovic, production designer for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

The Dilys Powell Award, previously announced, went to Nic Roeg.

The Critics Circle Top 10 Films of 2011 were:
The Artist
A Separation
Drive
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy
The Tree of Life
We Need to Talk About Kevin
Melancholia
Shame
Margaret
The Descendants

The 32nd annual awards were held at the BFI Southbank.

Chairman of the London Film Critics Circle, Jason Solomons, said: “Judging from the quality of films and performances honoured tonight, it is clear that the critics - who see every film, not just those with ‘awards campaigns’ behind them - have an increasingly influential voice in awards races. Our wide-range of viewing has thrown up great surprises and championed small films, shining a light on new, exciting, challenging and thrilling work from around the world of film. Without the enthusiasm of critics, terrific films such as ‘The Artist’, ‘A Separation’ and ‘Margaret’ and amazing performances such as those by Olivia Colman and Michael Fassbender would not be receiving the wider, global attention occasions such as this can inspire. It was also a thrill to see director Nic Roeg honoured and witness the huge respect and admiration from film-makers and critics for this artist’s incredible, still-groundbreaking body of work.”