London Critics pick Roma over The Favourite

The Awards Season favourite The Favourite has added to its trophy collection with another four prizes, courtesy of the London Film Critics Circle.

Olivia Colman (right) and Rachel Weisz won 2 of The Favourite’s 4 awards

The organisation – made up of about 150 UK film critics and writers – chose The Favourite as its British or Irish film of the year, gave it the Best Screenplay prize and picked its stars Olivia Colman and Rachel Weisz as the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress respectively.

But the two top prizes handed out at the May Fair Hotel in London, Film of the Year and Best Director, went to Alfonso Cuarón, for his semi-autobiographical Mexican drama Roma.

Peculiarly, although Roma was a Spanish-language film, the critics gave their Foreign-Language Film of the Year award to the British production Cold War, a Polish drama about star-crossed lovers, separated by the Iron Curtain.

Another quirk of some of the categories is that while Colman and Weisz were named the best actresses in their categories, they were both beaten in the contest for the British or Irish Actress of the Year by Beast’s Jessie Buckley.

Ethan Hawke’s performance in First Reformed earned him the Actor of the Year award, while Richard E Grant was named the Supporting Actor of the Year for his turn in Can You Ever Forgive Me? Grant missed out on the British or Irish Actor of the year prize – that went to Rupert Everett, the star of The Happy Prince.

The Critics recognised three up-and-coming film-makers – Apostasy’s Molly Wright was named the young British or Irish performer of the year; Beast earned Michael Pearce the Breakthrough British or Irish Filmmaker award; Lara Zeidan’s Three Centimetres won the British or Irish Short Film of the year prize.

At the other end of the spectrum, Pedro Almodóvar was honoured with the Dilys Powell Award for excellence in film.

And here is the full list of this year’s London Film Critics Circle Award winners:

FILM OF THE YEAR
Roma

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR
Cold War

DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR
Faces Places

BRITISH/IRISH FILM OF THE YEAR: The Attenborough Award
The Favourite

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR
Alfonso Cuarón – Roma

SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR
Deborah Davis and Tony McNamara – The Favourite

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR – sponsored by Heaven Skincare
Olivia Colman – The Favourite

ACTOR OF THE YEAR – sponsored by Millbank & Cooper Searle
Ethan Hawke – First Reformed

SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Rachel Weisz – The Favourite

SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Richard E Grant – Can You Ever Forgive Me?

BRITISH/IRISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR
Jessie Buckley – Beast

BRITISH/IRISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR
Rupert Everett – The Happy Prince

YOUNG BRITISH/IRISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR – sponsored by The May Fair Hotel
Molly Wright – Apostasy

BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH/IRISH FILMMAKER: The Philip French Award
Michael Pearce – Beast

BRITISH/IRISH SHORT FILM
Three Centimetres – directed by Lara Zeidan

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT AWARD
Cold War – cinematography, Lukasz Zal

THE DILYS POWELL AWARD for EXCELLENCE IN FILM
Pedro Almodóvar