1. An Education: Nick Hornby's sensitive adaptation of journlaist Lynn Barber's excellent memoir of her first boyfriend.
2. Tales From The Golden Age: Portmanteau film with five stories about the horrific final 15 years of the Ceausescu regime in Romania.
3. Fantastic Mr Fox: Wes Anderson’s take on Roald Dahl is full of quirky magic — with a sly George Clooney voicing Mr Fox.
4. Bright Star: Jane Campion's imaginative portrayal of the Keats/Brawne love affair.
5. Disney's A Christmas Carol: Starring Jim Carrey as Scrooge.

Critics' Choice

Fay Maschler

quote With a single dessert and just two glasses of wine our bill was kept in check - but the effort of doing so was not much fun quote

Babbo Film

Andrew O'Hagan

quote This is a film with beautiful performances and a visual style that urges you towards reflection quote

Bright Star Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quote Although the first half of Kwei-Armah’s production is pacy, funny and intelligent, the energy level then drops off quote

Seize The Day

Reader reviews

Film

Squiz, Islington

quote I loved this film from start to finish. Take the girlfriend, tell your mum - I'd see it again tomorrow and will buy the dvd. quote

An Education Theatre

Joe, London

quote I saw this last night and can't remember the last time I was so moved in the theatre. quote

This Much Is True Restaurants

Hiroshi Sugiyama

quote I have been to many of London's so-called best Japanese restaurants and none have been as good as the food that I've had at Aqua Kyoto quote

Aqua Kyoto

Dame Helen crowned queen of film awards

By Alexa Baracaia, Evening Standard 30.11.06

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Charles Dance and Dame Helen Mirren with her movie award

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Dame Helen Mirren has been crowned queen of the British Independent Film awards - despite the movie which features her acclaimed performance as the monarch failing to grab the main awards.

Mirren, 61, was given a special award for film achievement. Other winners included This Is England, about fascist skinheads, and Red Road, Andrea Arnold's big screen debut which wowed Cannes in May.

Controversial director Ken Loach won the special jury prize while actor Jim Broadbent, most recently on screen as Lord Longford, was given an award for outstanding contribution to British film.

This Is England, set in the Eighties and by British director Shane Meadows, beat The Queen, in which Mirren starred, to be best British independent film. Thomas

Turgoose, who plays the central role of the 12-year-old boy, took the award for most promising newcomer. The Last King of Scotland, about Ugandan dictator Idi Amin, won the prize for best director for Kevin Macdonald and the technical achievement award.

Red Road's Tony Curran was best actor and his co-star and fellow Glaswegian Katie Dickie was best actress. Screen veteran Leslie Phillips, 82, was best supporting actor for Venus, written by Hanif Kureishi.