BIFA awards for Sherlock stars

Benedict – whose film roles this year have varied from playing codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game to voicing a wolf in animation Penguins Of Madgascar – was honoured with the Variety Award at the star-studded ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London.

Accepting the trophy on stage, the actor said: “I’ve never been more terrified in my life.”

He dedicated the gong to all the people he had worked with on independent film down to the costume designers and the caterers. He also thanked his parents and his theatre director fiancee Sophie Hunter.

The Sherlock star said: “It’s a huge honour. The past recipients have had volume and quality of their work – Kenneth Branagh, Jude Law, I think Paul Greengrass won it a couple of years ago. It’s a hell of a category to be included, so I’m incredibly flattered by the fact that I am.

“I’m a huge fan of independent cinema. And as a Brit it makes you very proud. That’s what it’s about recognition wise. I’m very lucky.”

The heartthrob missed out on the Best Actor accolade for his turn as Turing to Harry Potter star Brendan Gleeson, for his performance as a troubled Catholic priest in Calvary.

Speaking backstage, Benedict said 2014 had been a very special year for him, both in terms of his career and his personal life.

He said: “I’ve obviously had the most important news of my life as far as my life goes. But that’s also sort of private, I don’t want to talk about that too much, but my engagement to the woman I love is obviously the most important thing of 2014 for me.”

Asked about his nerves on stage at the ceremony, he said: “Just imagine watching a home movie of everything you’ve done, in the last 10 years and some very personal stuff thrown in as well. Imagine watching that, and then you’ve got to sit there and compose yourself before getting on stage to say thank you for it.

“You feel utterly spoilt, embarrassed, overwhelmed, moved, because there are lots of people who aren’t in this room who I’d have love to have shared that moment with. You feel a hot mess up there on stage.”

Andrew Scott – famous for playing the Sherlock’s nemesis Moriarty – was awarded the Best Supporting Actor gong for his role in Pride, the heartwarming true story of how a group of gay and lesbian activists raised money to help support the families of striking Welsh miners in the 1980s.

Pride won the most awards of the night, also scooping Best British Independent Film.

Imelda Staunton took home Best Supporting Actress for her role as a Welsh union activist in the comedy.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw was named Best Actress for her title role in Belle, the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral, raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield who as Lord Chief Justice helped end slavery in England.

Emma Thompson was presented with the Richard Harris award for outstanding contribution by an actor to British film.

And the Special Jury Prize honoured 81-year-old director John Boorman, whose films include Deliverance, Point Blank, Excalibur and Hope And Glory.

The Best International Independent Film award went to Richard Linklater’s Boyhood.

The movie – hotly tipped for Oscar success – was filmed over 12 years, charting a boy’s life as he grows up from five to 18.

The Hunger Games star Stanley Tucci attended the ceremony with his pregnant wife Felicity Blunt, sister of the actress Emily Blunt.

Stanley was on the jury for the BIFAs this year and was full of praise for British Independent cinema, and the level of government funding it receives, which he feels is lacking in America.

He said: “It’s a big deal. BBC and companies like Film Four, BFI, it really makes a huge, huge difference.”

Father and son Timothy Spall and Rafe Spall were proud to both be nominated for awards.

Timothy was nominated for Best Actor for his portrayal of artist JMW Turner in Mike Leigh’s new film Mr Turner, while his son was up for Best Supporting Actor for X+Y about a child maths prodigy.

Rafe said: “It’s an extraordinary thing. It’s strange, it’s weird. All of the people that are nominated are of such an amazing calibre that I’m just chuffed to be spoken of in the same breath. And to have my dad, who is not only my dad but is also my idol, is quite a moving experience actually.”

Timothy said: “It’s delightful. I’m very, very proud of him. He’s my boy.”

The BIFAs, created in 1998 by Raindance Film Festival founder Elliot Grove to celebrate independently funded British movie-making, began as a low-key event but have gathered momentum over the years and now regularly boast a glamorous guest list.