The UK’s leading film critics spread prizes around at the 37th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards tonight. Damien Chazelle’s musical La La Land added another laurel to its songbook with the Film of the Year award after having been nominated in six categories. There were some surprises in the mix, however, as last year’s Best Foreign Language Film Oscar winner, Laszlo Nemes, scored Director of the Year for Son Of Saul and Actress of the Year went to Isabelle Huppert — for Mia Hansen-Love’s Things To Come rather than Paul Verhoeven’s Elle. The latter film, for which she recently won the Golden Globe, does not release in the UK until March and was thus ineligible. Huppert also won the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film.
Barry Jenkins’ drama Moonlight and Whit Stillman’s comedy Love & Friendship led the nominations going in and each picked up two awards. Moonlight won for Naomie Harris in Supporting Actress and Mahershala Ali in Supporting Actor. The latter category was a tie with Love & Friendship‘s Tom Bennett. That film’s Kate Beckinsale won the British/Irish Actress prize. Andrew Garfield took the British/Irish Actor nod for his performances in both Hacksaw Ridge and Silence.
Manchester By The Sea was also doubly honored, for Kenneth Lonergan’s screenplay and for Casey Affleck as Actor of the Year. The Oscar-shortlisted Toni Erdmann was named Foreign-Language Film of the Year.
Here’s the full list of winners:
FILM OF THE YEAR
La La Land
FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Toni Erdmann
DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
Fire At Sea
BRITISH/IRISH FILM OF THE YEAR
I, Daniel Blake
ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Casey Affleck – Manchester By The Sea
ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Isabelle Huppert – Things to Come
SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR (tie)
Mahershala Ali – Moonlight
Tom Bennett – Love & Friendship
SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Naomie Harris – Moonlight
DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
László Nemes – Son Of Saul
SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Kenneth Lonergan – Manchester By The Sea
BRITISH/IRISH ACTOR
Andrew Garfield – Hacksaw Ridge, Silence
BRITISH/IRISH ACTRESS
Kate Beckinsale – Love & Friendship
YOUNG BRITISH/IRISH PERFORMER
Lewis MacDougall – A Monster Calls
BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH/IRISH FILMMAKER
Babak Anvari – Under The Shadow
BRITISH/IRISH SHORT FILM
Sweet Maddie Stone – Brady Hood
TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Victoria – Sturla Brandth Grovlen, cinematography
DILYS POWELL AWARD FOR EXCELLENCE IN FILM
Isabelle Huppert