The extraordinary ‘Rube Goldberg Machine’ video for OK Go’s This Too Shall Pass video won the top award of Video of the Year at the UK Music Video Awards 2010 last night in London, at a boisterous, emotional, and euphoric ceremony hosted by outrageous comedian Rich Fulcher.

The OK Go video, which has the band performing within a giant complicated domino-like ‘Rube Goldberg’ contraption – directed by the band in collaboration with LA art/tech collective Synn Labs and British director James Frost – also took the Best Rock Video award, on a night which also saw Daniel Wolfe win the Best Director award (sponsored by Promo News) for his exceptional series of videos for Plan B, and also the Best Pop Video award for Prayin’.

Also, for the special award on the night Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith – aka Hammer & Tongs – accepted the third MVA Icon Award from Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien for their contribution to the music video industry.

It was a night of high emotion, crackling atmosphere and much laughter at the Odeon West End in Leicester Square, as the British music video-making community came together to celebrate the best work of the past year, presided over in extraordinary fashion by Rich Fulcher, who took to the stage in a ‘crab dress’ – his attempt to outdo Lady Gaga’s meat dress – before presenting a hilarious short film he had made specifically for the occasion, called 10 Easy Steps To Become A Video Director.

Having landed a record 11 nominations, Daniel Wolfe’s Plan B videos then took the first two MVAs of the evening, with Sam Tidman grabbing the Best Art Direction award for his work on the Prayin’ video and Hannah Edwards winning the Best Styling prize for her work on Stay Too Long. The two Plan B videos took four awards in total at the ceremony, with Lol Crawley winning Best Cinematography for his work on Stay Too Long, while Tim Francis, who produced the videos, also took the Best Producer prize on a big night for the team that have brought the hip-hop artist turned soul singer’s hit album The Defamation of Strickland Banks to the screen.

British director Sam Brown’s video for hip-hop superstar Jay Z’s On To The Next One was another double award winner last night – Brown accepting the Best Urban Video award, and then Amanda James taking the Best Editing award for her work on the video.

Up and coming director Ben Newman also grabbed two MVAs on the night, winning one of the best budget video awards for his promo for Example’s Watch The Sun Come Up, then accepted the best new director award, emotionally dedicating it to his late father.

Other winners included Polydor commissioner Ross Anderson, for his work over the past year, and videos by Hot Chip, Audiobullys, Charlotte Gainsbourg and Beck, Sour, Biffy Clyro, Gorillaz and Lady Gaga. The Johnny Cash Project, the interactive video project directed by Chris Milk, won the Innovation Award while, in the non-music video prizes, Paul Dugdale won the Live Music Coverage award for The Prodigy’s Live At Milton Keynes Bowl, and Chris Boyle won Best Ad for his work on Dizzee Rascal’s Tongue N Cheek ad.

Several winning directors who were unable to make the ceremony sent video messages: Peter Serafinowicz, who won the Best Dance video award for Hot Chip’s I Feel Better (his video-directing debut) sent a video of himself in a car speeding down a US freeway that the MVA organizers received less than an hour before the show began. And Keith Schofield sent a video featuring a Sims-like representation of himself and many of the crew and cast of his video for Charlotte Gainsbourg & Beck’s Heaven Can Wait, which won the prize for Best Indie/Alternative Video.

The evening culminated with OK Go winning the Video of the Year award – for which they and James Frost sent a joint video message ending in them doing a new choreography, a line dance, while their manager Jamie Kitman collected the award. That was preceded by Garth Jennings and Nick Goldsmith receiving the MVA Icon Award for their extraordinary, life-affirming body of work in music videos, from Fatboy Slim’s Right Here Right Now, Supergrass’s Pumping On Your Stereo and Blur’s Coffee & TV, all the way to this year’s clip for Vampire Weekend’s Cousins.

The Icon Award was introduced by a film of Hammer & Tongs’ work and fascinating behind the scenes footage presented by Ken Korda – film nerd alter-ego of Adam Buxton – and then presented with their award by Radiohead’s Ed O’Brien. Both Garth and Nick spoke eloquently about the importance of music videos in their development as filmmakers, from making their videos to making their movies Hitchhikers Guide To The Galaxy and Son Of Rambow – with Goldsmith saying “there is no difference”, and finishing by calling the ‘third member’ of the Tongs, director/editor Dominic Leung, up to the stage.

After the awards – held at the ODEON West End in Leicester Square, the biggest night of the year for the British music video community continued with the aftershow party nearby.

To come: more pics from the UK MVAs 2010

UK Music Video Awards 2010 – all the winners:

Best Pop Video in association with Music Week
Plan B – Prayin’ (679 Recordings/Atlantic Records)
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producer: Tim Francis
Prod co: Partizan
Commissioner: Tim Nash

Best Dance Video
Hot Chip – I Feel Better (Parlophone)
Director: Peter Serafinowicz
Producer: Tamsin Glasson
Prod co: Colonel Blimp
Commissioner: James Hackett

Best Urban Video in association with Aimimage
Jay Z ft. Swizz Beatz – On To The Next One (Atlantic Records)
Director: Sam Brown
Producer: Jeremy Sullivan
Prod co: Flynn Productions/DNA
Commissioner: David Saslow

Best Rock Video
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Machine vsn) (EMI)
Director: James Frost, Synn Labs, OK Go
Producer: Shirley Moyers
Commissioner: OK Go

Best Indie/Alternative Video in association with 3 Mills Studios
Charlotte Gainsbourg ft. Beck – Heaven Can Wait (Because Music)
Director: Keith Schofield
Producer: Nick Diaz, Jules Dieng
Prod co: Caviar, El Niño
Commissioner: Nathalie Canguilhem

Best Budget Video – Rock, Indie, Alternative
Sour – Hibi No Neiro (Neutral Nine)
Director: Masashi Kawamura, Hal Kirkland, Who-fu (Magico&Masayoshi)
Prod co: Zeolot/Neutral Nine
Commissioner: Takeshi Matsuhashi/Neutral Nine/Sour

Best Budget Video – Pop, Dance, Urban
Example – Watch The Sun Come Up – Devil’s Gun Zeitgeist Remix (Data)
Director: Ben Newman
Producer: Annabelle Marshall, Ben Newman
Prod co: US3 Productions
Commissioner: Katie Collard

Best International Video
Lady Gaga – Bad Romance (Interscope)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Producer: Heather Heller
Prod co: DNA
Commissioner: Nicole Ehrich, Kathy Angstadt

Best Animation in a Video
Gorillaz – On Melancholy Hill (Parlophone)
Animation: Jamie Hewlett & Pete Candeland
Director: Jamie Hewlett & Pete Candeland
Producer: Cara Speller, Debbie Crosscup
Prod co: Zombie Flesh Eaters/Passion Pictures

Best Art Direction in a Video
Plan B – Prayin’ (679 Recordings/Atlantic Records)
Art Director: Sam Tidman
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producer: Tim Francis
Prod co: Partizan

Best Cinematography In A Video in association with Panalux
Plan B – Stay Too Long (679 Recordings/Atlantic Records)
DoP: Lol Crawley
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producer: Tim Francis
Prod co: Partizan

Best Editing in a Video
Jay-Z ft Swizz Beatz – On To The Next One (Atlantic Records)
Editor: Amanda James
Director: Sam Brown
Producer: Jeremy Sullivan
Prod co: Flynn/DNA

Best Styling in a Video
Plan B – Stay Too Long (679 Recordings/Atlantic Records)
Stylist: Hannah Edwards
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producer: Tim Francis
Prod co: Partizan

Best Telecine in a Video
Biffy Clyro – God & Satan (14th Floor)
TK: Simone Grattarola at Rushes
Director: Corin Hardy
Producer: Liz Kessler
Prod co: Academy Films

Best Visual Effects in a Video in association with BEAM
Audiobullys – Only Man (Three Size Group/Cooking Vinyl)
VFX: Mathematic Studio
Director: Jonas & Francois
Producer: Jules Dieng
Prod co: El Niño

The Innovation Award in association with Shots
The Johnny Cash Project
Johnny Cash – Ain’t No Grave (American Recordings)
Director: Chris Milk
Prod co: Radical Media
Commissioner: Rick Rubin

Best Live Music Coverage
The Prodigy – Take Me To The Hospital (Live at Milton Keynes Bowl)
Director: Paul Dugdale
Prod co: Family Values/Agile Films
Commissioner: John Fairs

Best Music Ad – TV or Online
Dizzee Rascal – Tongue N’ Cheek
Director: Chris Boyle
Prod co: JJ Stereo
Commissioner: Ian Dutt

Best Producer in association with Rushes
Tim Francis

Best Commissioner in association with IMD Fastrax
Ross Anderson

Best New Director in association with Locomotion
Ben Newman

Best Director in association with Promo News
Daniel Wolfe

The Icon Award
Hammer & Tongs

Video of the Year
OK Go – This Too Shall Pass (Rube Goldberg Machine vsn) (EMI)
Director: James Frost, Synn Labs, OK Go
Producer: Shirley Moyers
Commissioner: OK Go

UK MVAs 2010 press reports:
• Music Week
• BBC
• NME
• Telegraph