SPECTRE wins at Empire Awards 2016

SPECTRE won Best British Film and Best Thriller at last night's Jameson Empire Awards in London.

The Empire Awards is an annual British awards ceremony honoring cinematic achievements in the local and global film industry. The winners are voted by the readers of British film magazine Empire.

The award for Best British Film was collected by director Sam Mendes, watch his acceptance speech below:

Sam Mendes told Empire yesterday about the possible return of Daniel Craig as James Bond in Bond 25: "It did feel to me like Daniel was saying goodbye to Bond at the end, but there’s clearly a way he can easily come back. Bond isn’t dead! So that’s clearly Daniel’s call. But I think you’ve got to feel 100% to come back, and I think he knows that. He needs to have a break and do another role and see how he feels after that. I’ll be watching with as much interest as you guys."

The award for Best Thriller was collected by some of the SPECTRE film crew including costume designer Jany Temime and special effects supervisor Chris Corbould (both who just attended the Bond In Motion celebrations the day before in the London Film Museum) and writers Neil Purvis and Robert Wade.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens was the big winner, taking home five prizes in total including two acting awards for stars John Boyega and Daisy Ridley. Director J.J. Abrams won the Best Director Award. The latest Star Wars film was also rewarded for Best Visual Effects and Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy. Mad Max: Fury Road took home four awards.

Actor Matt Damon received Best Actor award for his performance in The Martian while Swedish actress Alicia Vikander, who will appear next to Damon in the new Jason Bourne film, was awarded Best Actress for The Danish Girl.

Grosvenor House, London

Grosvenor House
The awards ceremony was attended by many celebrities and nominees and was held at Grosvenor House in London's Park Lane. Bond Trivia about this location:

Bond Trivia 1: Kim Basinger landed the role of Domino in Never Say Never Again after a chance meeting in Grosvenor House Hotel with Sean Connery's wife (source: Some Kind Of Hero: the remarkable story of the James Bond films, page 367).

Bond Trivia 2: When Bond producers Cubby Broccoli and Harry Saltzman were testing George Lazenby for the role of James Bond, they put up Lazenby in an apartment at Grosvenor House where, according to Lazenby, his sexuality was tested to ensure he was not gay. A male employee brought up girls on separate occassions and stayed while Lazenby made love to them. Soon after, Lazenby was crowned the new James Bond, only a few doors down from Grosvenor House, at the Dorchester Hotel, also on Park Lane (source: Some Kind Of Hero: the remarkable story of the James Bond films, page 181).

See the full list of Empire Awards results, acceptance speeches and photos on Empire online.