Bafta Scotland awards: Barney Thomson scoops best film

Robert Carlyle and Emma Thompson in The Legend of Barney Thomson.

The Legend of Barney Thomson, which opened this year’s Edinburgh International Film Festival, was named best feature film at the Bafta Scotland Awards in Glasgow.

And Carlyle’s co-star Emma Thompson, who played his on-screen mum in the Glasgow-set thriller, was named best film actress.

However Carlyle, who was unable to attend the ceremony due to filming commitments, lost out on the best director award to Don Coutts, who is at the helm of the Hebrides-set children’s TV series Katie Morag.

Little-known David Elliot won the coveted best film actor award for his portrayal in Kajaki of a real-life war hero from the city, Mark Wright, who died trying to rescue an injured colleague from a minefield in Afghanistan.

Elliot, who won the award ahead of both Carlyle and David Tennant, said: “They are both amazing and just to have my named mentioned with them in front of all those people that have looked up to is just incredible.

“This is a story that you wouldn’t believe if someone came in with a script and said they had an idea for a film.

“The thing that makes films like this so compelling is knowing the lengths that real human beings have gone to and the realities they have faced. To be charged with the responsibility of playing Mark is a massive honour and I’m really proud.”

My Mad Fat Diary star Sharon Rooney beat off the challenge of Doctor Who’s Michelle Gomez and Charlotte Spencer, one of the stars of the BBC adaptation of Iain Banks novel Stonemouth to win the best TV actress award.

Ken Stott was named best TV actor for his role in BBC drama The Missing, about the abduction of a five-year-old boy while on holiday with his family in France, which Stonemouth star Peter Mullan was also up for.

Gregory Burke, the writer behind the hit play Black Watch, was named best film and TV writer for ‘71, a thriller set at the height of the Belfast Troubles.

The live stage show of revived comedy Still Game lost out in the best comedy/entertainment category to Mrs Brown’s Boys, while Greg Hemphill, one half of the duo behind the show, lost out in the best short film category.

A BBC Scotland dramatisation of the story of the Glasgow Girls campaign against the treatment of asylum seekers in the city won best TV drama.

One of the real-life campaigners, Emma Clifford, who picked up the award with director Brian Welsh, said: “We thought things were tough 10 years ago, but we are facing the worst humanitarian crisis since the Second World War in terms of refugees. There are some serious issues we have to look at.

“After the tragic events in Paris I look at my Facebook and it is all anti-refugees and anti-Muslims. It makes me sad. I don’t want it to fracture our communities.

“We need to stand together and remember that refugees are on the run from the very people who carried out these atrocities.”

Actor Sanjeev Kohli and Actress Dawn Steele

Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese was among those to pay tribute to one of the unsung heroes of the Scottish film industry, “prop master” David Balfour, who received an outstanding contribution award for decades of work on blockbuster films.

Scorsese said: “David Balfour is about as good at what he does as anyone I’ve ever worked with and more so - I mean he is a legend. I really want you to thank you for asking me to honour David and I wish I could be there in person.”

Lord of the Rings star Andy Serkis, who has worked with Balfour on a new version of The Jungle Book, said: “You are the most talented, most brilliant, forensic, artistic, creative props man in the universe and I’m so, so lucky to have worked with you.”

A host of Channel 4’s leading broadcasters, including Jon Snow, Krishan Guru-Murthy and Michael Crick recorded a lengthy tribute to Dorothy Byrne, the channel’s Paisley-born head of news and current affairs, who received an outstanding contribution award for services to broadcasting.

Legendary Scottish film director Bill Forsyth was at the ceremony to pay tribute to Bill Paterson, the star of one of his best-known films, Comfort and Joy. The 70-year-old was honoured for an outstanding contribution to film and television.

In a video message shown at the event, Hollywood star Brian Cox, who appeared with the star of The Crow Road, Sea of Souls and Outlander star on stage recently in a new version of Waiting For Godot, said: “I know you don’t really like being the centre of attention, but if anyone deserves this award, it’s you, and it’s long overdue.”

Actress Juliet Stephenson, who appeared with Paterson in the film Truly Madly Deeply, said: “Everyone that has spent two minutes with him on screen knows he has whiplash timing. He has a stillness on screen that is very enviable.”

There was a major surprise when the nominations were announced when it emerged that Outlander, the hit US time-travel series set and filmed in Scotland, had completely missed out. Its stars Sam Heughan and Caitriona Balfe are being heavily touted for the Golden Globes.

Paterson said: “I am surprised and amazed it didn’t get any nominations, maybe that’s why I am here. There is a huge amount of good acting and great wonderful values in it. Sam Heughan is wonderful in it.”

Macbeth, the big-screen version of the Shakespeare story, which has wowed critics since its world premiere at Cannes in May, was not entered for any awards, despite being partly made on the Isle of Skye, and it is not clear if it would have met the Scottish academy’s strict criteria.

The new big-screen version of Sunset Song, which had its world premiere at Toronto in September, was not eligible for this year’s awards as it was screened too late in the calendar year, but is expected to be a major contender in 2017.