36th London Critics' Circle Film Awards: in words and pictures

The UK's top film critics held their annual awards ceremony on Sunday night at The May Fair Hotel in London, with a superb lineup of red carpet guests. I happen to be the chair of the 36th London Critics' Circle Film Awards, which we started organising back in June, so it was great to see the evening unfold in such a joyous, celebratory way. The most memorable moment (pictured above) was when Kate Winslet led the audience into a spontaneous standing ovation for beloved actor-filmmaker Alan Rickman, who died on Thursday.

The ceremony was hosted by comic Robin Ince (left), who stepped in at the last minute due to the sudden illness of one of our planned host. He balanced the mood perfectly, with a witty look at movies that included a number of hilarious Brian Blessed anecdotes. On the right are nominated writer Emma Donoghue (Room) and the Critics' Circle Film Section Chair Anna Smith.

We had a new award this year. First, we handed out our inaugural prize for British/Irish Short Film of the Year, which went to Ben Cleary (left) and his lovely, and now Oscar-nominated, short Stutterer. And we rebranded our British/Irish Breakthrough Filmmaker prize as The Philip French Award, in honour of our esteemed colleague who passed away this year. It went to John Maclean (right) for Slow West.

Of course, Kate Winslet was one of the brightest stars on our red carpet, and she also took home the award for Supporting Actress of the Year for Steve Jobs. She also had a mini reunion with Judi Dench - they both played Iris Murdoch in Iris.

Maisie Williams won the Young British/Irish Performer of the Year award, and livened up the red carpet in her Mexican-wrestler themed dress, accompanied by fellow nominee Florence Pugh (left), her costar in The Falling. Along for the party were actor Blake Harrison and his fiancee Kerry (right).

Producer Sygne Byrge Sorensen (left) collected the Foreign-Language Film of the Year award for Joshua Oppenheimer's documentary The Look of Silence, while top producer Stephen Woolley (right) accepted the Technical Achievement Award for Ed Lachman's cinematography in Carol.

Two directors accepted awards on behalf of their actors. Rufus Norris (left) read a thank you message from Tom Hardy, who was named British/Irish Actor of the Year for his body of work in 2015, including Norris' London Road, The Revenant, Mad Max: Fury Road and Legend. And Brooklyn director John Crowley (right) relayed a hilarious thank you from Saoirse Ronan as British/Irish Actress of the Year.

Andrew Haigh (left) sent a video thank you for British/Irish Film of the Year for 45 Years. Producer Tristan Goligher took to the stage to grab the trophy. Meanwhile, Asif Kapadia (right) was on hand to collect the Documentary of the Year award for Amy.

Mark Rylance sent a surreal video to accept Supporting Actor of the Year, performed in character (left) from the set of the play he's doing in Boston. His Wolf Hall costar Thomas Brodie-Sangster (right) accepted the award for him.

And then there was George Miller, who sent two witty videos to gratefully accept the top awards for Director of the Year and Film of the Year for Mad Max: Fury Road.

And the ceremony wrapped up with the main event of the night, as Judi Dench took to the stage to present the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film to Kenneth Branagh. Both gave smart, gracious speeches that had the audience laughing and sighing.

Of course, I also have to shamelessly include two collages of photos that I appear in. As chair, one of my many jobs is to welcome all of our guests at the top of the red carpet, so I had a chance to talk with each of them before the event started. Below is a rather ridiculous photobombing session with Dame Judi and Sir Ken.

And I also feel I should share this series of photographs taken while I was chatting to Kate Winslet about the last time I saw her (when she was about to pop with her third child) and her next movie, Triple 9 - I saw it last week but she hasn't seen it yet. Of course she's awesome in it.

And to drop one more name, as I made my way home following the after-party, I received a lovely email from Tom Hardy, who was deeply apologetic that he had been unable to turn up to accept his award and join the party. He's shooting a film in London at the moment, and production ran over. Hopefully he'll make it next year.

35th London Critics' Circle Film Awards: words & pics

My third year as chair of the London Critics' Circle Film Awards at times felt like it might do me in, but after all the work, the night was another triumphant celebration of the year in cinema. On Sunday 18th January we gathered at The May Fair Hotel for our annual ceremony and party, joined by a smattering of wonderful guests.

Our ceremony hosts this year were Alice Lowe and Steve Oram (below left), who won our Breakthrough Filmmaker award two years ago for their Sightseers screenplay. They set the tone for the ceremony perfectly: irreverent humour mixed with a love of cinema. After the clatter of the red carpet (above with Miranda Richardson and below right with me and Richard Linklater), the ceremony felt intimate and almost conspiratorial because it was so much fun.

After a couple of introductions (from me and from our Film Section Chair Anna Smith), we were straight on to the awards themselves. Winners included Mica Levi (below left), who won the Technical Achievement Award for her score for Under the Skin, and Dirk Wilutzky and Mathilde Bonnefoy (below right), recently Oscar-nominated producers of the Documentary winner Citizenfour.

Three of our Young British Performer nominees were in the house, left to right: Corey McKinley ('71), Daniel Huttlestone (Into the Woods) and the winner Alex Lawther (The Imitation Game).

And we invited some potential future nominees along as well. Below left, that's Toby Sebastian (soon to be seen in Game of Thrones) and his sister Florence Pugh (star of Carol Morley's upcoming stunner The Falling). Below right are Ferdinand Kingsley (Dracula Untold) and Louise Brealey (Sherlock).

Quite a few British filmmakers were on hand, including Breakthrough Filmmaker nominees, left to right, Hossein Amini (The Two Faces of January), James Kent (Testament of Youth) and Jane Pollard and Iain Forsyth (20,000 Days on Earth), here flanking director Jonathan Glazer, whose film Under the Skin won the Attenborough Award for British Film of the Year.

Breakthrough British Filmmaker was won by Yann Demange for '71 - he accepted his award by video (below right), as did Andrey Zvyagintsev (below left), whose Leviathan won Foreign-Language Film of the Year.

More video messages were sent by Michael Keaton (bringing down the house with a trouser-free acceptance of Actor of the Year for Birdman), Rosamund Pike (British Actress of the Year), Patricia Arquette (Supporting Actress for Boyhood) and Wes Anderson (Screenwriter for The Grand Budapest Hotel. Actress of the Year winner Julianne Moore (Still Alice) sent a generous written speech, while Supporting Actor winner JK Simmons (Whiplash) was conspicuously absent.

And Richard Linklater took to the stage twice for Boyhood, winning Director of the Year and Film of the Year (the award I presented). Finally, Stanley Tucci presented our biggest honour to the gorgeous Miranda Richardson - The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film. Both gave speeches that combined sharp humour, warm friendship and a love of cinema.

Finally, at the after-party I was snapped in perhaps my luvviest picture of all time - with Miranda and our British Actor of the Year winner Timothy Spall. Darlings!

Photos by Dave Bennett

34th London Critics' Circle Film Awards

It's always my most glamorous night of the year, but Sunday night's 34th London Critics' Circle Film Awards was also the biggest event I've ever organised and hosted myself, with a lot of help of course. This was my second year as chair of the organising committee, but we had some extra challenges that added a lot more work than ever before - and we pulled a fabulous evening out of thin air thanks to the hard working committee, our generous sponsors (The May Fair Hotel, Beluga Vodka, Audi, Cameo, Novikov, Innerplace and Publicity Media) and press management from DDA.

Somehow my committee convinced me to host the ceremony - I've never done anything like that either! It was pretty daunting, especially since it was about 15 minutes before the ceremony started when the news was confirmed about the death in New York of Philip Seymour Hoffman, our best supporting actor last year. So Critics' Circle Film Section Chair Jason Solomons adjusted his opening monolog accordingly - the audience broke in to a spontaneous standing ovation. And after that it was good to celebrate the best in cinema in 2013 together. We opened with a terrific video compilation of the films of the year, then my job was to thank everyone, then keep things moving.

And the first award in our running order was Supporting Actor, won by Barkhad Abdi, who was attending with his director Paul Greengrass (two of the nominees you can see in the photo above). Supporting Actress went to Lupita Nyong'o, who was unable to attend, so her director Steve McQueen (left) read a statement from her to accept. Then the Technical Achievement Award went to Tim Webber (right) for the visual effects in Gravity. 

Here we shifted into our British awards, starting with Breakthrough British Filmmaker, which went to Filth director Jon S Baird, who collected his trophy from Mark Kermode and me (above).

After a montage of British films and performances, we presented Young British Performer to Conner Chapman, who brought his costar (and fellow nominee) Shaun Thomas on-stage with him. British Actor went to James McAvoy, who was in another part of London filming Frankenstein and sent a video thank you (top right) - his award was accepted by his Filth director Jon Baird. British Actress was won by Judi Dench, who sent a video thank you from India, where she's filming The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel 2 - her award was accepted by her Philomena costar and writer Steve Coogan. And finally, British Film of the Year went to The Selfish Giant. Director Clio Barnard, producer Tracy O'Riordan and cast members Conner Chapman, Shaun Thomas and Lorraine Ashbourne all took to the stage - presenter Tim Robey and I are there too (below).

Next up was Actress of the Year, which was won unsurprisingly by Cate Blanchett. She sent a hilarious thank you message, which was read out by her Middle Earth costar Andy Serkis (right with presenter Roger Clarke and me). Actor of the Year was also no surprise, going to Chiwetel Ejiofor. He sent a written thank you from New Zealand, where he's currently filming. Then Documentary of the Year went to The Act of Killing, which was accepted by producer Andre Gregory (photo below), who read a statement from director Joshua Oppenheimer about the ongoing issues in Indonesia.

And now it was time for our biggest honour, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film, which this year went to Gary Oldman. John Hurt (right) was on give a lovely introduction speech and introduce a clip-reel of Gary's best work, followed by a emotive and eloquent thank you from Gary. And lots of hugging.

Next up was Foreign-Language Film of the Year, which was won by Blue Is the Warmest Colour and accepted by an executive from the UK distributor Artificial Eye. Screenwriter of the Year was won by Joel & Ethan Coen, who weren't in attendance. So presenter David Gritten and I, with the help of committee members Pauline McLeod and Hilary Oliver, concocted a rather silly sketch in which the film's feline star Ulysses appeared on-stage to claim the award. Director of the Year went to Alfonso Cuaron, who sent us a video from Italy (pictured above with James and Judi). And finally it was time for Film of the Year, which went to 12 Years a Slave and was collected by Steve McQueen with a lovely speech.

And then it was on to the afterparty with Beluga Vodka cocktails at Novikov, where nominees and winners, as well as the critics and guests mixed in unexpected circles late into the night. I had a particularly nice chat with Howard Cummings, nominated for his Behind the Candelabra production design. And from the below evidence, will we see Barkhad Abdi in Steve McQueen's next movie ... or Andy Serkis in Paul Greengrass'?

Of course, things wrapped up with our now-legendary goody bags (that's mine to the right), thanks to our diligent committee members and some more generous sponsors. Here are a few more photos - of our two most glamorous red carpet stars, nominees Naomie Harris and Lindsay Duncan, and of nominee George MacKay, winner Andre Singer and Reece Shearsmith, star of nominated film A Field in England.

And finally, because it has to be done, Knowing Me Rich Cline, Knowing You Steve Coogan. Aha....

Photos by Dave Bennett