Miranda Richardson accepted the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film at the London Critics’ Circle Awards on Sunday.

The Mapp and Lucia star was honoured at an intimate ceremony at The May Fair Hotel, hosted by Sightseers stars Alice Lowe and Steve Oram. She said of receiving the honour: “Well, they’re a hard bunch to please and you can’t please them all the time, so it’s very nice. On balance I’m winning!

“It feels very nice indeed. It is for a body of work, it’s not for one particular role, and that’s always nice to think that people have noticed work over time. So even if you don’t feel that that’s happening, somebody’s taking note.”

Richardson, 56, is perhaps best known for her role as Queenie in hit BBC sitcom Blackadder, but has enjoyed a long and successful career on the silver screen.

She has twice been nominated for an Oscar, for her portrayal of the poet T.S. Eliot’s first wife Vivienne Haigh-Wood Eliot in Tom and Viv in 1994 and for her performance in Louis Malle’s Damage in 1992. The latter also won her a Bafta for best supporting actress.

They’re a hard bunch to please and you can’t please them all the time, so it’s very nice

Richardson has also won two Golden Globe awards, for 1992’s Enchanted April and 1994 TV film Fatherland.

Her other big screen roles include Empire of the Sun (1987), The Crying Game (1992), Sleepy Hollow (1999), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005) and Made in Dagenham (2010).

She is currently appearing in Testament of Youth, the film adaptation of Vera Brittain’s memoir of World War I, in which she plays Brittain’s Oxford university tutor Miss Lorimer.

Richard Linklater with the awards for film of the year and director of the year for Boyhood.Richard Linklater with the awards for film of the year and director of the year for Boyhood.

Boyhood was the big winner of the evening scooping three awards, including film of the year, best director for Richard Linklater and best supporting actress for Patricia Arquette.

Linklater’s 12-year project, which chronicles the growing years of Mason Evans Jr, played by Ellar Coltrane, has already collected a number of awards, including three Golden Globes, and is tipped for Oscar glory. Linklater admitted getting an award from movie critics meant something special to him.

“To me it’s the top of the top because they’re people who know film history and they see every film. So as much as I’m touched by someone on the street saying, ‘I saw your film and here’s what it means to me,’ that’s great, but this is another level,” he said.

He said of Boyhood’s phenomenal awards success so far: “A bit of it feels like a roulette game, just luck of the draw, you have no control over it so, it feels like a big bonus when it happens. Happy for everybody who worked on the film. It’s exciting for everybody.”

Actor of the year went to Michael Keaton for his portrayal of a fallen Hollywood star trying to revive his career in Birdman, while Julianne Moore was named actress of the year for her moving performance as a professor diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease in Still Alice.

Rosmund Pike was awarded British actress of the year for her work in David Fincher’s thriller Gone Girl and her part in UK comedy What We Did On Our Holiday.

Timothy Spall was on hand to collect the British actor of the year award for playing the artist J.M.W. Turner in Mike Leigh’s Mr Turner.

He admitted his relationship with the critics fluctuated, but winning the award felt good.

Jonathan Glazer’s Under the Skin, starring Scarlett Johansson, won British film of the year and technical achievement for its score.

Top 10 films of 2014

1. Boyhood
2. Birdman
3. Under the Skin
4. Whiplash
5. Mr Turner
6. Leviathan
7. The Grand Budapest Hotel
8. Ida
9. Nightcrawler
10. The Theory of Everything

Full list of winners

Film of the year: Boyhood

Foreign language film of the year: Leviathan

British film of the year: Under the Skin

Documentary of the year: Citizenfour

Actor of the year: Michael Keaton for Birdman

Actress of the year: Julianne Moore for Still Alice

Supporting actor of the year: J.K. Simmons for Whiplash

Supporting actress of the year: Patricia Arquette for Boyhood

British actor of the year: Timothy Spall for Mr Turner

British actress of the year: Rosamund Pike for Gone Girl and What We Did on Our Holiday

Young British performer of the year: Alex Lawther for The Imitation Game

Director of the year: Richard Linklater for Boyhood

Screenwriter of the year: Wes Anderson for The Grand Budapest Hotel

Breakthrough British film-maker: Yann Demange for ’71

Technical achievement award: Mica Levi for the score to Under the Skin

Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film: Miranda Richardson

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