Timothy Spall wins best actor award for his performance in Mike Leigh’s biopic Mr Turner

Timothy Spall has won a top acting award for playing British painter JMW Turner but confessed that he had no idea he was in the running for it.

The 57-year-old Londoner won the New York Film Critics Circle best actor award for his performance in Mike Leigh’s acclaimed biopic Mr Turner. The awards are widely viewed as a leading guide to the Oscar nominations which will be announced next month.

Speaking at a reception for Mr Turner at Manhattan’s Pierre hotel hosted by The Peggy Siegal Company shortly after he’d heard the news, Spall told the Standard: “I had no idea about the award and didn’t know I was in the frame. But it couldn’t be better — I’m in New York to talk about the film.

“Mike [Leigh] and I have done seven collaborations over 33 years and when you work with him it's so intense that when the film goes down well the feeling is amplified a billion times.”

Spall also won best actor for Mr Turner at Cannes Film Festival in May and is a main contender at the Oscars, Baftas and Golden Globes. But he spoke of his bemusement at being in the awards race: “You’re only in it because people are talking about you for it. That in itself is very flattering. I certainly didn’t send in an application form.”

Mr Turner has made £6 million at the UK box office. Spall said: “I knew we were on to something when the other day I was walking down Holborn Viaduct and two black cab drivers shouted out to me and one called out ‘Mr Turner!’”