Shane Meadows' fifth full-length feature, the 1980s set This Is England, took the Best Film award at the 2006 British Independent Film Awards in London on 29 November - the traditional kick-off for the annual film awards season which culminates in the Academy Awards.

Best Director prize went to Kevin Macdonald for his adaptation of the Giles Foden novel The Last King of Scotland, a fictionalised account of Idi Amin and his Scottish doctor.

Top acting honours went to Kate Dickie and Tony Curran, in Andrea Arnold's surveillance thriller Red Road. Kate Dickie has been chosen by the British Council to represent the UK in European Film Promotion's Shooting Stars presentation at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival.

Full list of BIFA winners:

BEST BRITISH INDEPENDENT FILM This is England

BEST DIRECTOR Kevin Macdonald for The Last King of Scotland

BEST ACTOR Tony Curran - Red Road

BEST ACTRESS Kate Dickie - Red Road

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR / ACTRESS Leslie Phillips - Venus

MOST PROMISING NEWCOMER (ON SCREEN) Thomas Turgoose - This is England

BEST SCREENPLAY Peter Morgan - The Queen

BEST FOREIGN INDEPENDENT FILM Hidden [Caché]

THE DOUGLAS HICKOX AWARD - (BEST DEBUT DIRECTOR) Menhaj Huda - Kidulthood

BEST BRITISH DOCUMENTARY The Road to Guantanamo

BEST TECHNICAL ACHIEVEMENT Anthony Dod Mantle - Cinematography - The Last King of Scotland

BEST ACHIEVEMENT IN PRODUCTION London to Brighton

BEST BRITISH SHORT Cubs

THE RAINDANCE AWARD The Ballad of AJ Weberman

BEST 15 SECOND SHORT What's the Point?

THE VARIETY UK FILM ACHIEVEMENT AWARD Helen Mirren

THE RICHARD HARRIS AWARD (OUTSTANDING CONTRIBUTION TO BRITISH FILM BY AN ACTOR) Jim Broadbent

THE SPECIAL JURY PRIZE  Ken Loach

A film will be eligible for a BIFA award if:

• It is intended for theatrical release, and has had a public screening to a paying audience either on general release in the UK or at a British-based film festival between 1st December 2005 and 30th November 2006.
• It is not solely funded by a single studio OR has a budget of £8M ($15M) or less.
• It has been produced or majority co-produced by a British company OR is in receipt of at least 51% of its budget from a British source or sources OR it qualifies as a British Film under the DCMS guidelines.
• When the majority of finance has come from a British source the film must also include sufficient creative elements from the UK.
• BIFA also consider foreign independent films for the Best Foreign Independent Film category. Foreign films must have a theatrical release during the eligibility period stated above.
• Films that have been entered previously are not eligible. Inclusion and consideration of films that do not strictly comply with the above criteria will be subject to the discretion of the British Independent Film Awards Advisory Committee. All films submitted for consideration are viewed by the Advisory Committee with the help of a nominated screening panel. The Advisory Committee then decide the nominations by ballot. All nominated films are then viewed by the Jury.

For more information on BIFA rules please go to www.bifa.org.uk. For further information, please contact Thomas Bunn or Nick Rogers at Mission on 020 7491 6680 or email nick@mission-media.co.uk