LIAM NEESON has won this year's Evening Standard British Film Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film Michael Collins.
In a ceremony broadcast live last night from the Savoy Hotel in London, the Ballymena born actor was presented with the award by the actress Patricia Hodge.
The presentation ceremony was attended by the film's director, Neil Jordan, and by Neeson's wife, the actress Natasha Richardson.
The Evening Standard awards are decided by a panel of film critics and journalists from the British media.
Accepting the award, Mr Neeson thanked "the British public and the British press for their fairness and tremendous support".
British press reaction to Michael Collins, on its release last October, was divided, with a broadly favourable response from critics, but negative comment in the editorial and opinion pages of several newspapers.
The film has since performed respectably at the UK box office, bolstered by its record breaking takings in Ireland (the two countries are regarded as one territory for the purposes of international film distribution). It is also in contention in several categories of the London Film Critics' Awards, which are due to be announced at the beginning of March.
Neeson's performance won him the Best Actor award at last year's Venice Film Festival, when Michael Collins also won the festival's Golden Lion award, but the film seems unlikely to figure prominently in this year's Oscar nominations, which are due to be announced on February 11th.
Michael Collins failed to pick up any awards at this year's Golden Globes ceremony, which is traditionally seen as an indicator of the Oscar contenders. This reflected the film's disappointing US box office takings of approximately $10 million.
In the other Evening Standard awards Sir Ian McKellen's 1930s version of Richard III was voted Best Film, while Kate Winslet won Best Actress for her performances in Jude and Sense and Sensibility.
Emma Thompson's script for Sense and Sensibility shared the Best Screenplay award with John Hodge's Trainspotting, while the award for Most Promising Newcomer went to Emily Watson for her role in Breaking the Waves.
