With awards season up and running in America, the Brits are also getting involved as their independent group (British Independent Film Awards) announced their 2012 winners last night.

The thriller Berberian Sound Studio, which focuses on an engineer who travels to Italy to work on a horror film, clinched four awards including Best Director for Peter Strickland, Best Achievement in Production and Best Technical Achievement. It’s main actor Toby Jones won the Best Actor prize beating off competition from the likes of Tim Roth and Terence Stamp.

However Roth was to have the last laugh as his film Broken secured the main award of Best Film ahead of Berberian, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Sightseers with cast member Rory Kinnear winning Best Supporting Actor (ahead of Billy Connolly, co-star Cillian Murphy and Tom Wilkinson).

Best Actress went to Andrea Riseborough for her role in the IRA thriller Shadow Dancer as she beat off competition from this year’s Oscar winner for Best Actress Meryl Streep (The Iron Lady) as well as Judi Dench (Marigold Hotel), Elle Fanning (Ginger & Rosa) and Alice Lowe (Sightseers). An unusual win saw Olivia Colman secure the Best Supporting Actress award for the disappointing Hyde Park on Hudson at the expense of veterans Vanessa Redgrave (Song for Marion) and more surprisingly Maggie Smith (Marigold Hotel).

Despite missing out on Best Actress, Alice Lowe did win the Best Screenplay gong along with her co-star Steve Oram for their writing of the hilarious dark comedy (Sightseers) while a big upset in the Best International Independent Film category saw The Hunt defeat Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild and Rust and Bone to secure the award. The Imposter claimed two prizes for Best Documentary and Best Debut Director for Bart Layton.

Michael Gambon was named the recipient of the Richard Harris Award for his contribution to British film while Jude Law won the Variety Award.

The full list of winners are below:

Best British Independent Film
Berberian Sound Studio

Best Director
Peter Strickland (Berberian Sound Studio)

The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director
Bart Layton (The Imposter)

Best Actress
Andrea Riseborough (Shadow Dancer)

Best Actor
Toby Jones (Berberian Sound Studio)

Best Supporting Actress
Olivia Colman (Hyde Park on Hudson)

Best Supporting Actor
Rory Kinnear (Broken)

Most Promising Newcomer
James Floyd (My Brother the Devil)

Best Screenplay
Alice Lowe, Steve Oram, Amy Jump (Sightseers)

Best Achievement in Production
Berberian Sound Studio

Best Technical Achievement
Nic Knowland – Cinematography (Berberian Sound Studio)

Best Documentary
The Imposter

Best British Short
Volume

Best International Independent Film
The Hunt

The Raindance Award
Strings

The Richard Harris Award (for Outstanding Contribution to British Cinema)
Michael Gambon

The Variety Award
Jude Law