Tyrannosaur named top British indie film

Paddy Considine's wrenching character study Tyrannosaur has been named the year's best feature at the Moet British Independent Film Awards, which took place on Sunday night in London.

The film topped a field that included Steve McQueen's sexually explicit drama Shame and Tomas Alfredson's subtle espionage thriller Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. The three films had tied for the most nominations, with seven.

Other movies nominated for the top award were the documentary Senna and Lynne Ramsay's We Need to Talk About Kevin.

Ramsay won the award for Best Director.

Tyrannosaur won three awards, more than any other film. The film's Olivia Colman was named Best Actress, and actor-turned-director Considine won the award for the best debut by a British director.

The other lead acting award went to Michael Fassbender for Shame. Vanessa Redgrave won the Supporting Actress award for Coriolanus, while Michael Smiley was named Best Supporting Actor for Kill List.

The Most Promising Newcomer award went to Tom Cullen for Weekend.

As it has at most awards announced this year, the Iranian film A Separation was named Best Foreign Independent Film. Senna won for Best Documentary.

Honorary awards went to actor/directors Kenneth Branagh and Ralph Fiennes and financier Graham Easton.

The awards were spread out among a varied and almost uniformly strong group of nominees, none of whom are considered Oscar favorites but many of whom -- including Fassbender, Colman and Redgrave -- are at least in the running.

The show took place at Old Billingsgate in London. It was hosted by Irish actor/comedian Chris O'Dowd (Bridesmaids), who appeared to be thoroughly drunk by about the halfway point.

The winners were selected by a jury that was chaired by producer Andrew Eaton (The Killer Inside Me) and included actress Gemma Arterton (Tamara Drewe), actor David Thewlis (War Horse, The Lady), casting director Lucy Bevan (An Education) and producer Tracey Seaward (The Queen).

Past BIFA winners include Oscar Best Picture champs The King's Speech and Slumdog Millionaire, as well as Moon, Control, This Is England, The Constant Gardener and Vera Drake.

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM:

Tyrannosaur

BEST DIRECTOR:

Lynne Ramsay, We Need to Talk About Kevin

BEST ACTOR:

Michael Fassbender, Shame

BEST ACTRESS:

Olivia Colman, Tyrannosaur

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:

Michael Smiley, Kill List

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:

Vanessa Redgrave, Coriolanus