James McAvoy wins over Gerard Butler

James McAvoy beat fellow Scottish actor Gerard Butler at Sunday's Empire Awards in the Best Actor category for his role in Atonement. The film also won awards in the Best Actress (Keira Knightley) and in the Best British Film categories. According to Top News one million online users voted for the the epic film. For those of you who missed the show or do not live in the UK here is James McAvoy's acceptance speech from Empire Online:

"That was The Fratellis, they're from Scotland, they're from Glasgow I think and that was cool. I'm truly nervous. I really want to thank Working Title, you do good films and you make a lot of them and you make money with them sometimes, not all the time, you may not have made money with this one but you made it and that's because you believed in the film and Joe and us. Thank you very much for letting me be a part of that. Thanks to Paul Webster as well.

"Thank you Ruth, the best goddamn agent in town and I'd also like to thank Empire as well. I used to get it all the time as a kid, I still get it now if I'm being honest, not all the time, but sometimes.

"And this year's been an amazing for intelligent film, for good film, not just Transformers. What Empire has done is to tell people what to see and well done this year for getting people to see the good stuff and still saying the bad stuff is shit. And this is it, thanks very much."

I'll post more on the award ceremony soon.