The Richard Harris Award for outstanding contribution to British film by an actor was presented to Vanessa Redgrave by Richard Harris’ son Jared Harris and Redgrave’s daughter Joely Richardson. The award recognizes the global impact he has made throughout his career as an icon of British film and filmmaking. Gary Oldman – considered by many to be the front-runner for the best actor Oscar for his portrayal of Winston Churchill in “Darkest Hour” – was on hand at the ceremony to collect the Variety Award from Kristin Scott Thomas. The “Sherlock” scribe and actor – “that’s Mycroft Holmes over there,” said Christian Slater while presenting the best supporting actress award – went on to joke that the London crowd would probably rather be at home “watching Christopher Plummer classic ‘American Beauty,'” before riffing on Brexit and concluding that independent film would be one of the things that gets the country through tough times. Host Mark Gatiss opened proceedings by announcing “it’s been another dreadful year for planet Earth,” adding that “January saw a shock remake of Leni Riefenstahl’s ‘Triumph of the Will’…which turned out to be a live feed from the White House.”

Best movies 2017 december