Colin Firth named best British actor by 30th annual London Film Critics' Circle Awards

Colin Firth and Carey Mulligan have been named Best British Actor and Actress at the 30th annual London Film Critics' Circle Awards.

Firth, 49, was honoured for his role as a gay professor in Tom Ford's directorial debut A Single Man, while Mulligan, 24, received the award for her part in An Education, written by Nick Hornby, reports the Telegraph.

Others awarded included director Quentin Tarantino, who was given the highest accolade for "Excellence in Cinema", while Christoph Waltz, star of "Inglourious Basterds", received the gong for Actor of the Year.

The Actress of the Year award went to Mo'Nique for her impressive performance as an abusive mother in dark drama Precious.

British drama Fish Tank received four awards, with Andrea Arnold being named British Director of the Year and Michael Fassbender picking up the British Actor in a Supporting Role award.

French prison drama A Prophet was named Film of the Year and Swedish horror movie Let The Right One In won Foreign Language Film of the Year. Kathryn Bigelow was given the director of the Year award for Iraq war drama The Hurt Locker.

Screenwriter of the Year went to Jesse Armstrong, Simon Blackwell, Armando Iannucci and Toni Roche for political satire In The Loop, while Duncan Jones won the Breakthrough British Film-Maker award for sci-fi thriller Moon.

Francis Ford Coppola's Vietnam War film Apocalypse Now was named the London Film Critics' Circle best film of the last 30 years.