Sherlock stars Andrew Scott and Benedict Cumberbatch were both championed at the Moet British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs).

Scott - famous for playing the Sherlock's nemesis Moriarty - was awarded the Best Supporting Actor gong for his role in Pride, the heartwarming true story of how a group of gay and lesbian activists raised money to help support the families of striking Welsh miners in the 1980s.

Meanwhile, Cumberbatch - whose film roles this year have varied from playing codebreaker Alan Turing in The Imitation Game to voicing a wolf in animation Penguins of Madgascar - was honoured with the Variety Award at the star-studded ceremony at Old Billingsgate in London.

Cumberbatch missed out on the Best Actor accolade for his turn as Turing to Harry Potter star Brendan Gleeson for his performance as a troubled Catholic priest in Calvary.

Pride won the most awards of the night, also scooping Best British Independent Film and Imelda Staunton taking home Best Supporting Actress for her role as a Welsh union activist in the comedy.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw was named Best Actress for her title role in Belle, the true story of Dido Elizabeth Belle, the illegitimate mixed-race daughter of a Royal Navy Admiral, raised by her aristocratic great-uncle Lord Mansfield who as Lord Chief Justice helped end slavery in England.

Emma Thompson was presented with the Richard Harris award for outstanding contribution by an actor to British film.

And the Special Jury Prize honoured 81-year-old director John Boorman, whose films include Deliverance, Point Blank, Excalibur and Hope and Glory.

The Best International Independent Film award went to Richard Linklater's Boyhood. The film - hotly tipped for Oscar success - was filmed over 12 years, charting a boy's life as he grows up from five to 18.

The BIFAs, created in 1998 by Raindance Film Festival founder Elliot Grove to celebrate independently funded British movie-making, began as a low-key event but have gathered momentum over the years and now regularly boast a glamorous guest list.

Cumberbatch said it was a "huge honour" to be presented with the Variety Award at the Moet British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs), held last night.

The Sherlock star said: "It's a huge honour. The past recipients have had volume and quality of their work - Kenneth Branagh, Jude Law, I think Paul Greengrass won it a couple of years ago. It's a hell of a category to be included, so I'm incredibly flattered by the fact that I am.

"I'm a huge fan of independent cinema. And as a Brit it makes you very proud. That's what it's about recognition wise.

"I'm very lucky."

Accepting the Variety award on stage Cumberbatch said: "I've never been more terrified in my life."

He dedicated the gong to all the people he had worked with on independent film down to the costume designers and the caterers.

He thanked his parents and his theatre director fiancee Sophie Hunter.

Speaking backstage Cumberbatch said 2014 had been a very special year for him, both in terms of his career and his personal life.

He said: "I've obvious had the most important news of my life as far as my life goes. But that's also sort of private, I don't want to talk about that too much, but my engagement to the woman I love is obviously the most important thing of 2014 for me."

Asked about his nerves on stage at the ceremony he said: "Just imagine watching a home movie of everything you've done, in the last 10 years and some very personal stuff thrown in as well.

"Imagine watching that, and then you've got to sit there and compose yourself before getting on stage to say thank you for it.

"You feel utterly spoilt, embarrassed, overwhelmed, moved, because there are lots of people who aren't in this room who I'd have love to have shared that moment with. You feel a hot mess up there on stage."

Andrew Scott admitted he "couldn't be prouder" to win the Best Supporting Actor for Pride.

The Irish actor has just been announced as starring in the new Bond film Spectre, but vowed to keep making independent movies. He said: "It's cool being in Bond. I'm so thrilled to be there. I just can't really believe I'm in that one. To be able to balance a bit of both. I'll hopefully have he opportunity to keep doing that for a while."

Accepting her Richard Harris award, Emma Thompson confessed: "I don't know who to thank. I could thank everyone I've ever worked with, but that would be tedious and pointless because most of them are dead."