Anne-Marie Duff and Andy Serkis have scooped best acting film awards, both for portrayals of real-life people.

Anne-Marie, who plays John Lennon's spirited mother Julia in the biopic Nowhere Boy, beat Oscar hopeful Carey Mulligan among others to be named best actress at the London Evening Standard British Film Awards.

She gave a loving "thank you" to her husband James McAvoy as she scooped the best actress gong. Anne-Marie, who is expecting her first child with McAvoy, said she was "blown away" to win the award.

Meanwhile, Andy's embodiment of singer Ian Dury in warts-and-all film Sex And Drugs And Rock And Roll won him the best actor gong, beating Tom Hardy for Bronson, Christian McKay for Me And Orson Welles and Alex MacQueen for The Hide.

Carey was nominated as best actress for An Education, based on the memoirs of journalist Lynn Barber, while Kelly Macdonald was also in the running for playing a lonely fugitive in Michael Keaton's directorial debut The Merry Gentleman.

Sacha Baron Cohen's latest alter-ego, the flamboyant Austrian fashion reporter Bruno, secured him the Peter Sellers award for comedy - an award he also won in 2006 for his film Borat.

Veteran film director and cinematographer Nicolas Roeg received the Alexander Walker special award for his contribution to film from Jenny Agutter, star of his film Walkabout.

Armando Iannucci's Oscar-nominated writing team behind In The Loop won best screenplay for the movie spin-off of The Thick of It.

Gritty drama Fish Tank, starring newcomer Katie Jarvis, followed up on its Cannes jury prize success with the award for best film.