It was a great night for British cinema as Anne-Marie Duff and Andy Serkis took the acting prizes at the Evening Standard Film Awards in London.
Duff took on the role John Lennon's mother in the critically acclaimed Nowhere Boy and she saw off competition from Oscar nominee Carey Mulligan for An Education and Kelly Macdonald for The Merry Gentleman to win Best Actress.
The actress is pregnant with her first child with husband James McAvoy and she thanked him during her speech saying: "I'd really like to be Mrs McAvoy for a minute and say thank you for seriously having to live with a flame-haired broken-hearted banjo player for quite some time."
Best actor was a tough category with Tom Hardy, Christian McKay, Alex McQueen and Andy Serkis all nominated.
But it was the Lord of the Rings actor who triumphed for his performance as Ian Dury in another biopic picture Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll.
The actor dedicated his award to Dury during his speech: "Ian wherever you are, this is for you."
After great critical acclaim on the festival circuit it was Andrea Arnold's gritty movie Fish Tank that took Best Film, seeing off Bright Star and Helen.
The movie sees a change in the life of teenager Mia when her mother brings home a new boyfriend, played by Michael Fassbender.
The film won rave reviews at the Cannes Film Festival throwing it's teenage star Kate Jarvis into the spotlight.
Sacha Baron Cohen made a rare awards appearance to pick up the Peter Sellers Award for Comedy
for Bruno. Ricky Gervais and Peter Capaldi were also nominated for The Invention of Lying and In The Loop.
Sacha Gervasi won the award for Best Documentary for Anvil! The Story of Anvil which followed the Canadian rock band.
There was success for comedy movie In The Loop as Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci, Tony Roche picked up the award for Best Screenplay.
Filmmaker Peter Strickland's work on movie Katalin Varga was recognised as he took home the Most Promising Newcomer.
List of winners:
Best film - Fish Tank
Best actor - Andy Serkis - Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
Best actress - Anne-Marie Duff - Nowhere Boy
London Film Museum award for technical achievement - Barry Ackroyd cinematographer - The Hurt Locker
Best screenplay - Jesse Armstrong/Simon Blackwell/Armando Iannucci/Tony Roche - In the Loop
Most promising newcomer - Peter Strickland for his direction and screenplay of Katalin Varga
Peter Sellers award for comedy - Sacha Baron Cohen - Bruno
Best documentary - Anvil! The Story of Anvil - Sacha Gervasi
Alexander Walker special award - Nicolas Roeg for his contribution to film.
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