The European Film Academy has spread its top awards across films from both this year and last year.
The biggest prizes of the night – Best Film and Best Director – went to Michael Haneke, for the black-and-white, early twentieth century drama The White Ribbon. He also picked up the Best Screenplay Award.
The Best Actor trophy went to Tahar Rahim, the star of the French prison drama A Prophet, which lost out to The White Ribbon for the Palme d’Or at Cannes but won the inaugural Star of London for best film at this year’s London Film Festival.
The two-thousand member Academy awarded the Best Actress prize to Kate Winslet, for her lead role in The Reader, which saw her pick up a slew of honours and nominations during last year’s awards season.
Another film from last year, the multi-Oscar winning the Slumdog Millionaire, won the People’s Choice Award for Best European Film at the award, in Bochum in Germany.
The director Ken Loach was honoured with a lifetime achievement award.