Rufus Norris’ Broken led the pack of nominees going into the British Independent Film Awards ceremony tonight, but it was Peter Strickland’s Berberian Sound Studio which won the most prizes. Norris’ coming of age tale that debuted in Cannes’ Critics’ Week last year was named Best British Film and also scooped the Best Supporting Actor prize for Rory Kinnear. Best Director went to Strickland for horror pic Berberian Sound Studio for which Toby Jones was also named Best Actor. The movie won four prizes in total, also nabbing kudos for Best Achievement in Production and Best Technical Achievement. Best Actress went to Andrea Riseborough for Shadow Dancer and Olivia Colman scored her second BIFA in a row for her supporting turn in Hyde Park On Hudson. (Colman was named Best Actress last year for Tyrannosaur.) Bart Layton’s The Imposter was named Best Documentary. A full list of winners follows:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM
Broken

BEST DIRECTOR
Peter Strickland – Berberian Sound Studio

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD [BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR]
Bart Layton – The Imposter

BEST SCREENPLAY
Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Amy Jump – Sightseers

BEST ACTRESS
Andrea Riseborough (Colette McVeigh) – Shadow Dancer

BEST ACTOR
Toby Jones (Gilderoy) – Berberian Sound Studio

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Olivia Colman (Queen Elizabeth) – Hyde Park On Hudson

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Rory Kinnear (Bob Oswald) – Broken

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER
James Floyd (Rashid) – My Brother The Devil

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION
Berberian Sound Studio

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT
Nic Knowland BSC– Cinematography – Berberian Sound Studio

BEST DOCUMENTARY
The Imposter

BEST INTERNATIONAL INDEPENDENT FILM
The Hunt

THE RAINDANCE AWARD
Strings

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (for outstanding contribution by an actor to British Film)
Sir Michael Gambon

THE VARIETY AWARD
Jude Law

THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE
Sandra Hebron

Michael Haneke’s Amour was named best picture today in voting by the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. The tender study of an elderly couple in their twilight years also was named best picture at Cannes and at the recent European Film Awards. Paul Thomas Anderson was voted best director for The Master, which presents a portrait of a charismatic cult-like figure. The Master also took best actor for Joaquin Phoenix supporting actor for Amy Adams. The LA vote halted earlier momentum for Zero Dark Thirty, which won best picture and directing nods for Kathryn Bigelow from the New York Circle of Film Critics, National Board of Review and the Boston Society of Film Critics. Bigelow was the LA group’s runner-up. The LA critics vote resulted in a best actress tie between Emmanuelle Riva for Amour and Jennifer Lawrence for David O. Russell’s Silver Linings Playbook. These and other results are posted below.

BEST PICTURE: Amour
Runner-up: The Master

BEST DIRECTOR: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master
Runner-up: Kathryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty

BEST ACTRESS (TIE): Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook; Emmanuelle Riva, Amour

BEST ACTOR: Joaquin Phoenix, The Master
Runner-up: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Amy Adams, The Master
Runner-up: Anne Hathaway, The Dark Knight Rises & Les Miserables

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Dwight Henry, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Runner-up: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

BEST SCREENPLAY: Chris Terrio, Argo
Runner-up: David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook

BEST EDITING: Dylan Tichenor and William Goldenberg, Zero Dark Thirty
Runner-up: William Goldenberg, Argo

BEST ANIMATION: Frankenweenie
Runner-up: It’s Such A Beautiful Day

BEST FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM: Holy Motors
Runner-up: Footnote

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Roger Deakins, Skyfall
Runner-up: Mihai Malaimare Jr., The Master

BEST DOCUMENTARY: The Gatekeepers
Runner-up: Searching For Sugar Man

NEW GENERATION AWARD: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts Of The Southern Wild.

BEST MUSIC SCORE Winner: Dan Romer and Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild
Runner-up: Jonny Greenwood, The Master

BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN, Winner: David Crank and Jack Fisk, The Master
Runner-up: Adam Stockhausen, “Moonrise Kingdom

DOUGLAS EDWARDS EXPERIMENTAL/INDEPENDENT FILM/VIDEO AWARD: Leviathan

Sony Pictures’ Zero Dark Thirty was named best picture in voting today by the Boston Society of Film Critics. Katheryn Bigelow took the best director trophy for Zero Dark Thirty, which was also honored its editing by William Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor. Steven Spielberg’s Lincoln also took three prizes — Daniel Day-Lewis for Best Actor, Sally Field for Best Supporting Actress and Tony Kushner for best screenplay. Bigelow’s look at the years-long effort to capture Osama Bin Laden has also won best picture and directing kudos from the New York Circle of Film Critics and the National Board of Review.

List of Boston film critics honorees:

Best Picture: Zero Dark Thirty
Runners-up: Runner-up: Amour and Moonrise Kingdom

Best Actor: Daniel Day-Lewis, Lincoln
Runner-up: Denis Lavant, Holy Motors

Best Actress: Emmanuelle Riva, Amour
Runner-up: Deanie Yip, A Simple Life

Best Supporting Actor: Ezra Miller, The Perks Of Being A Wallflower
Runner-up: Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained

Best Supporting Actress: Sally Field, Lincoln
Runner-up: Emma Watson, The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Best Director: Katheryn Bigelow, Zero Dark Thirty
Runner-up: Paul Thomas Anderson, The Master

Best Screenplay: Tony Kushner, Lincoln
Runner-up: Wes Anderson, Roman Coppola, Moonrise Kingdom

Best Cinematography: The Master, Mihai Malaimare Jr.
Runner-up: (TIE) Robert Yeoman, Moonrise Kingdom; Claudio Miranda, Life of Pi

Best Documentary: How To Survive A Plague
Runner-up: The Queen Of Versailles

Best Animated Film – Frankenweenie
Runner-up: ParaNorman

Best Film Editing: Zero Dark Thirty, William Goldenberg and Dylan Tichenor (in honor of Karen Shmeer)
Runner-up: Argo, William Goldenberg

Best New Filmmaker: David France, How To Survive A Plague
Runner-up: Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild

Best Ensemble Cast: Seven Psychopaths
Runner-up: Moonrise Kingdom)

Best Use of Music in a Film: Moonrise Kingdom, Alexandre Desplat, Mark Mothersbaugh
Runner-up: Django Unchained, music editor Robb Boyd, music supervisor Mary Ramos

Robert De Niro on Saturday night became the latest recipient of the Kirk Douglas Award for Excellence In Film at a Black Tie gala at Bacara Resort. The award is presented annually by the legendary actor to benefit the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. Past recipients include Harrison Ford, Quentin Tarantino, John Travolta, Ed Harris, Kirk’s son Michael Douglas and of course, Kirk himself in the inaugural year.

De Niro is being heavily Oscar-buzzed for his supporting performance in Silver Linings Playbook and director David O. Russell and co-star Bradley Cooper both made the trip north to help honor De Niro along with Douglas of course. SBIFF President Douglas Stone and Executive Director Roger Durling praised the evening’s honoree as well as the legendary star the award is named for. In fact Durling led the crowd (which included several well-known Academy voters from the area including Carol Burnett sitting at SBIFF Chairman Jeffrey Barbakow’s table) in singing a rousing Happy Birthday to Douglas on the eve of his 96th birthday. He called both stars “heroes” and noted Douglas broke the Hollywood Blacklist in 1960 by hiring Dalton Trumbo to adapt Spartacus, and De Niro helped heal New York by bringing business back to NYC in creating the Tribeca Film Festival in the aftermath of 9/11.

Some very well-chosen clips highlighted De Niro’s long career including The Godfather Part II, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas, Mean Streets, The Deer Hunter, Cape Fear and many others plus the current Silver Linings Playbook which could mark the first Oscar nomination in over two decades for the two-time winner. An especially effective sequence was the juxtaposition of two immortal boxing dramas to open the show: Douglas in his Oscar-nominated turn in Champion (1949) and De Niro’s Jake La Motta biopic Raging Bull (1980). As a special birthday gift for Douglas, De Niro at the end of his acceptance speech presented Kirk with an autographed script of that film signed by himself, Joe Pesci and director Martin Scorsese (“Marty was actually going to sell this on ebay,”  he joked ).

Cooper, who has worked with De Niro twice and considers him a mentor, said “You can see so many different people in all those different roles. What is it about him that affects all of us to celebrate this work? It’s one word: ‘family’… He makes you feel like you are a part of his family. I am so happy Bob you invited all of us into your family”.

David O. Russell shared anecdotes of his earliest meetings with De Niro including seeing him at a Starbucks as he was working on The Good Shepherd. “One of the greatest actors, if not the greatest actor of our time was sitting in a Starbucks, a small, bearded Rabbi-looking man in a hat, and nobody noticed him. As I joined him at his table he couldn’t conceal the joy gleaming in his eyes. The joy at disappearing  into a character. As Picasso said it takes a long time to become young. Inside the accomplished artist of Robert De Niro is a very young, gleeful person very close to the spirits of children who play with fierceness, intensity, passion and committment,”  Russell said.

Douglas, bounding to the stage, told the crowd he had decided after presenting to his son Michael last year that he would no longer present the award, but a few weeks ago he got a call saying De Niro had agreed to accept. “I said, ‘wonderful. Who is going to present?’ They said ‘you’ . I said ‘Me? You talking to me? (laughs). When I first saw Robert in Taxi Driver I was a fan for life. He always wanted to be an actor and studied with Lee Strasberg and worked with actors portraying characters. But Robert De Niro never portrays a character. He becomes the character,” he said in bringing De Niro up to the stage to accept his award.

De Niro, noting he has received many awards (“mostly from foreign countries. I think this is an example that maybe my acting is best appreciated by reading subtitles”, he laughed) but said he was pleased to get this from Kirk and the Santa Barbara International Film Festival. “I run a festival myself in New York  and I know how difficult it can be… I should be giving you this award Kirk. I have admired you my entire career, not just as an actor or producer but for your entire life as a philanthropist, good will ambassador, best-selling author and as a moral man of the world… If there ever is a Robert De Niro award, not just for excellence in film but as a human being the first recipient will be Kirk Douglas, ” he said to much applause.

Words from one screen legend to another.