The Oscar-tipped Tar and The Banshees Of Inisherin were the big winners at the London Critics’ Circle film awards, taking home three and five prizes respectively.
In psychological drama Tar, directed by Todd Field, Cate Blanchett plays the complicated genius conductor of a German orchestra at the peak of her career before it begins to unravel.
It was named Movie of the Year at Sunday’s May Fair Hotel ceremony, while Academy Award winner Blanchett was named Actress of the Year and Field Director of the Year.
It is Blanchett’s third time to win the award, following Elizabeth in 1998 and Blue Jasmine in 2013.
Meanwhile, British-Irish director Martin McDonagh’s dark comedy The Banshees Of Inisherin left the ceremony with five awards – including screenwriter of the year for McDonagh, actor of the year for Colin Farrell and both supporting actor and actress for Barry Keoghan and Kerry Condon respectively.
The win continues Farrell’s successful awards season after garnering his first Academy Award nomination for Best Actor and receiving a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild (SAG) gong for his performance as Padraic Suilleabhain.
The film about friendship, starring Brendan Gleeson, also won the Attenborough Award for British-Irish Film of the Year.
Another Irish title, The Quiet Girl, won Foreign Language Film of the Year in a tie alongside Park Chan-wook’s thriller Decision To Leave.
Meanwhile, Michelle Yeoh received the top prize from the critics, the Dilys Powell Award for excellence in film for her role as Evelyn Wang in the action epic Everything Everywhere All At Once.
It comes after the 60-year-old Malaysian actress received an Oscar nomination and a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Feature in the film about a Chinese immigrant responsible for saving the multiverse.
Florence Pugh and Bill Nighy were named British-Irish Actress and Actor for their body of work in 2022, with Nighy garnering his first Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of a veteran civil servant in Living.
The ceremony turned out to be a reunion for Aftersun stars Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio, who played father and daughter in writer-director Charlotte Wells’ film.
Teenager Corio won the Young British Irish Performer Award for her role as Sophie Paterson, while Paul was on hand to receive Wells’ Philip French Award for Pioneering British-Irish Filmmaker.
The technical achievement award went to Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio for animation and was won by Gregory Mann, who voiced the title character.
Meanwhile, Laura Poitras’ film All The Beauty And The Bloodshed, about the life and work of renowned photographer and activist Nan Goldin, was named Documentary of the Year and A Fox In The Night by Keeran Anwar Blessie won the Anglo-Irish short movie of the year.