'Mad Max: Fury Road' and 'Spectre' were also big winners.
Just when you thought film awards season was over, the 2016 Jameson Empire Awards rolled in last night (March 20th 2016) to heap some much deserved praise on the epic of the year 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'; a film which didn't manage to land an Oscar and wasn't even recognised at the Golden Globes in spite of its enormous appeal.
Daisy Ridley wins for 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
The film won Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy, beating 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2', 'Jurassic World', 'Mad Max: Fury Road' and 'The Martian'. However, it was beaten to Best Film (presented by Sky Movies) over all by Leonardo DiCaprio's 'The Revenant'. It also lost out on Best Costume Design to 'Mad Max: Fury Road', which was another major winner at the awards show when it also landed Best Soundtrack.
Of course, 'Star Wars' still took home the gongs for Best Male and Female Newcomer (and John Boyega and Daisy Ridley) and Best Director (J.J. Abrams).
More: Read our review of 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'
Meanwhile, the Empire Awards matched the Academy Awards by landing Adam McKay and Charles Randolph an award for Best Screenplay for 'The Big Short', 'Inside Out' won Best Animated Film and 'Amy' took home Best Documentary. While there isn't a category for Best Supporting Actress, Alicia Vikander from 'The Danish Girl' was still named Best Actress though co-star Eddie Redmayne wasn't even nominated for Best Actor; that instead went to Matt Damon for 'The Martian'.
More genre category accolades went to 'Spy' (Best Comedy presented by Absolute Radio), 'The Hallow' (Best Horror) and 'Spectre' (Best Thriller presented by Corinthia Hotel London), the latter of which was also given Best British Film presented by The Hollywood Reporter.
Spectre is named Best British Film
Elsewhere, 'This Is England '90' beat the likes of 'Marvel's Daredevil', 'Fargo', 'Game Of Thrones' and 'Marvel's Jessica Jones' to Best TV Series, while best game was named 'Batman: Arkham Knight'.
Special honourees at the event were 'The World's End' actor Paddy Considine as Empire Inspiration, the late 'Harry Potter' star Alan Rickman as 'Empire Legend, and Stanley Tucci from 'Spotlight' as Empire Hero.
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