The 2002 Empire Awards

A goodly proportion of The Lord of the Rings cast donned their party gear tonight to help celebrate the Empire Awards 2002. Christopher Lee, Sir Ian McKellen, and the youthful LOTR contingent of Orlando Bloom, Billy Boyd and Dominic Monaghan joined a clutch of British stars as honoured guests at our annual celebration of all that's good and right in the world of film. Other stars of the screen who popped in to show support included Saffron Burrows, James Nesbitt, Bond Girl Rosamund Pike, Jason Isaacs, Kelly MacDonald, director Michael Mann and Kate Winslet. Once the likes of Ewan McGregor, Olivia Williams and Tim Roth had sipped champagne demurely at London's Dorchester hotel, it was time to move on to nuts and bolts of the evening - the awards themselves, voted for by the esteemed readers of Empire. First award of the evening was the Best Debut award which went to Orlando Bloom putting the Middle-earth contingent into an early lead. 'This is really surreal,' Bloom beamed, 'Oh my word, thank you so much.' Two of the nominees for Best British Actress - Kate Winslet and Olivia Williams - waited anxiously for their category to be announced. In the event, Kate was the happy winner, presented with her award by Tim Roth, and thanked her daughter Mia for making her 'fabulously frumpy' in Enigma. No less than three of the actors vying for Best British actor turned up on the night, but it was Ewan McGregor who went home with the award for his performance in Moulin Rouge. McGregor's was the first of a hat trick of awards for the musical; Nicole Kidman won for Best Actress and Baz Luhrmann won the coveted Best Director award. Neither were able to be at tonight's ceremony, but Ewan picked up the award for Luhrmann and Kidman sent a video thank-you from the set of Lars Von Trier's Dogville in Sweden. British comedy Bridget Jones's Diary picked up the award for Best British Film and its director Sharon Maguire got roars of laughter when she said; 'I'd just like to thank Ewan for being here - I've always fancied him.' Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar was clearly delighted to have been chosen as the recipient for Empire's inaugural Independent Spirit Award and thanked Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman 'for their incredible support from the beginning to the end.'. Then it was the turn, once more, for The Lord of the Rings to reassert itself as an Empire reader favourite. Best Actor went to Elijah Wood and the big award of the evening, Best Film, also went to Peter Jackson's first instalment in the Tolkien trilogy. The final awards of the evening went to two cinematic greats, with Michael Mann picking up Empire's Inspiration Award and Christopher Lee who was presented with the Empire Lifetime Achievement Award by his Rings co-star Sir Ian McKellen. 'I don't know exactly what I've inspired,' said Mann. 'I've only done what I wanted to do.' Lee, who received a standing ovation, was visibly moved by the crowd's reaction and thanked Empire readers for their continued support. The Empire Online team will be bringing you more news and gossip from the awards throughout the night - so stay tuned.