Predictably and no doubt justly, it was a good night for The Artist at tonight’s London Critics’ Circle Film Awards. It won Film of the Year, Director of the Year for Michel Hazanavicius and Actor of the Year for its dashing lead Jean Dujardin. Both were at BFI Southbank this evening to pick up their gongs. Fans of Iranian cinema will be cheered to see A Separation also pick three awards, Foreign Language Film of the Year, Screenwriter of the Year for Asghar Farhadi and Supporting Actress of the Year for Sareh Bayat.
Of the surprises, the biggest was that Meryl Streep did not walk away with the Best Actress award for her performance in The Iron Lady. She had to budge up and share it with Anna Paquin, in the highly praised but barely distributed Margaret. Streep’s co-star Olivia Colman, whose early career was confined to comedy, was awarded with British Actress of the Year for her performance as Carol Thatcher and her towering role in Tyrannosaur. From the many films he’s appeared in, Michael Fassbender won the British Actor of the Year for his performances in Shame and David Cronenberg's as yet unreleased A Dangerous Method.
- The Attenborough Award for British Film of the Year: We Need to Talk About Kevin
- Foreign Language Film of the Year: A Separation
- Documentary of the Year: Senna
- Director of the Year: Michel Hazanavicius (The Artist)
- Screenwriter of the Year: Asghar Farhadi (A Separation)
- Breakthrough British filmmaker: Andrew Haigh (Weekend)
- Actor of the Year: Jean Dujardin (The Artist)
- Actress of the Year: Anna Paquin (Margaret), Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady)
- Supporting Actor of the Year: Kenneth Branagh (My Week with Marilyn)
- Supporting Actress of the Year: Sareh Bayat (A Separation)
- British Actor of the Year: Michael Fassbender (A Dangerous Method, Shame)
- British Actress of the Year: Olivia Colman (The Iron Lady, Tyrannosaur)
- Young British Performer of the Year: Craig Roberts (Submarine)
- Technical Achievement: Maria Djurkovic, production design (Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)
- The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film: Nicolas Roeg
