Carey Mulligan and Robert De Niro among winners at Hollywood Film Awards

Robert De Niro, Carey Mulligan and Will Smith were among the big winners at the first major ceremony of the film awards season. De Niro was presented with the Hollywood Career Achievement Award at the 19th annual Hollywood Film Awards in Beverly Hills. Mulligan was given the Hollywood Actress Award for her role in Suffragette and Smith took home the Hollywood Actor Award for his portrayal of a doctor in new film Concussion, about the discovery of brain trauma in a professional American football player.

I thought it was an experience I could tell my grandkids about, that I went to this Hollywood awards thing and saw all these people I looked up to and admired.

Alicia Vikander, winner of the Breakout Actress award for her role in The Danish Girl

British director Tom Hooper, who is responsible for The King’s Speech and Les Miserables, was given the Hollywood Director Award for his new movie The Danish Girl, which stars Oscar winner Eddie Redmayne as a transgender pioneer in the 1920s. The ceremony marks the start of a long run of awards shows in Los Angeles leading up to the Oscars on February 28, 2016, including the Golden Globes and the Screen Actors Guild Awards.