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

Critical Week: Caught in the act

This week's big press screening in London was for Wes Anderson's The Grand Budapest Hotel, which won a top award at Berlin last weekend and is far and away my favourite film of 2014 to date. It may only be February, but this is Anderson's most accomplished film yet, with a terrific ensemble including Ralph Fiennes and promising newcomer Tony Revolori and a story that's funny, scary and ultimately moving. Another pleasant discovery was Jonathan Glazer's Under the Skin, a dreamy horror movie starring Scarlett Johansson as an alien devouring men in Scotland - it's simply stunning.

The only other A-list film was much more problematic: A New York Winter's Tale (original title Winter's Tale) stars Colin Farrell, Jessica Brown Findlay and Russell Crowe in a magical romance that's infused with brutal violence. This week we also saw the low-key but inventive British black comedy 8 Minutes Idle, the uneven and undercooked German thriller The Passenger and the utterly charming doc A Story of Children and Film. And we saw another Berlinale entry, the oddly dull French biopic Yves Saint Laurent, worth seeing for the performances and, of course, super-stylish production design.

Sunday night in London, the British Academy Film Awards - better known as the Baftas - were held in the Royal Opera House, spreading out the trophies among the nominated films. 12 Years a Slave won best film and actor, but Gravity picked up six awards including British film and director. The host for the evening was Stephen Fry, who pretty much just recycled his knowing schtick from eight previous turns as host. It's time for fresh blood. The red carpet was awash in glamour, with Lupita Nyong'o, Amy Adams and Helen Mirren taking the fashion prizes. Mirren was the classiest winner, giving a witty, erudite speech as she accepted her Bafta Fellowship.

Screenings coming this week include the comedies Hairbrained and Southern Baptist Sissies, the offbeat Odd Thomas, the festival film Blue Ruin and something called 112 Weddings. I'm also in the midst of screenings for the upcoming London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival - full coverage of those films next month.