LONDON – Michel Hazanavicius’s The Artist silently walked away with a trio of awards at this year’s London Film Critics’ Circle awards, winning film of the year, director and a best actor nod for Jean Dujardin.

Both Hazanavicius and Dujardin were on hand to pick up the plaudits at the ceremony held at the BFI Southbank in the British capital.

But Meryl Streep, nominated for her turn in The Iron Lady, shared the evening’s best actress gong with Anna Paquin for her outing in Margaret, directed by Kenneth Lonergan.

Kenneth Branagh was on hand to pick up his supporting actor plaudit for his outing as Laurence Olivier in My Week With Marilyn while Michael Fassbender collected the British actor of the year award for brace of performances as Carl Jung in A Dangerous Method and as a sex addict in Shame.

Olivia Colman’s turns in low-budget movie Tyrannosaur and The Iron Lady earned her the British actress of the year award.

Elsewhere, Lynne Ramsay picked up the evening’s British film of the year award for We Need To Talk About Kevin and Asif Kapadia was on hand to collect the best documentary award for his motor-racing picture Senna.

Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation took home three awards winning foreign language film of the year, screenwriter of the year for Farhadi while actress Sareh Bayat won the supporting actress nod.

All three awards were collected on behalf of the film by executive producer Negar Eskandarfar.

Voted for by over 120 UK film critics, broadcasters and writers, this year’s breakthrough British filmmaker plaudit went to Andrew Haigh for his gay drama Weekend while Craig Roberts picked up the night’s young British performer of the year for his outing in Submarine.

The evening also honored Nicolas Roeg who collected The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film from his friend and collaborator Donald Sutherland.

The 32^nd London Critics’ Circle Film Awards were in aid of its charity partner, the British Film Institute, to help with the preservation and restoration of British film, in particular Hitchcock’s nine silent features, as part of the BFI’s landmark Rescue the Hitchcock 9 campaign.

The 32nd London Critics’ Circle Film Awards winners:

FILM OF THE YEAR The Artist

The Attenborough Award:

BRITISH FILM OF THE YEAR We Need to Talk About Kevin

FOREIGN-LANGUAGE FILM OF THE YEAR A Separation

DOCUMENTARY OF THE YEAR Senna

DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR Michel Hazanavicius- The Artist

SCREENWRITER OF THE YEAR Asghar Farhadi- A Separation

The Virgin Atlantic Award:

BREAKTHROUGH BRITISH FILM-MAKER AndrewHaigh – Weekend

ACTOR OF THE YEAR JeanDujardin – The Artist

ACTRESS OF THE YEAR (Tied) Anna Paquin– Margaret / Meryl Streep- The Iron Lady

SUPPORTING ACTOR OF THE YEAR Kenneth Branagh – My Week With Marilyn

SUPPORTING ACTRESS OF THE YEAR Sareh Bayat- A Separation

BRITISH ACTOR OF THE YEAR MichaelFassbender – A Dangerous Method, Shame

The Moët & Chandon Award:

BRITISH ACTRESS OF THE YEAR OliviaColman – The Iron Lady, Tyrannosaur

YOUNG BRITISH PERFORMER OF THE YEAR Craig Roberts- Submarine

The Sky 3D Award:

TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT

MariaDjurkovic, production design – Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy

The Dilys Powell Award: EXCELLENCE IN FILM Nicolas Roeg

via Michel Hazanavicius, ‘The Artist’ Tops 2012 London Film Critics’ Circle Awards – Hollywood Reporter.