Slumdog Millionaire, an urban fairytale from the director of Trainspotting set in Mumbai, was the big winner at the British Independent Film Awards. It won three awards: Best Film, Best Director (for Danny Boyle) and Most Promising Newcomer for Dev Patel, the lead actor.

The film, which closed The Times BFI London Film Festival last month, had been tipped as an Oscar contender and commercial hit long before last week’s terrorist attacks gave it an unintended resonance.

Hunger, the story of Bobby Sands, the IRA hunger striker, by Steve McQueen, the artist, won the Douglas Hickox award for the Best First-time Director, while Michael Fassbender, who shed a quarter of his body weight in ten weeks to play Sands, won the Best Actor category.

Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go-Lucky picked up awards for Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress. In Bruges won the Best Screenplay prize for Martin McDonagh. David Thewlis and Michael Sheen received lifetime achievement awards.

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