Romain Gavras swept the major honours at the UK Music Video Awards 2012 last night in London, winning the Best Director award and the Video Of The Year for his video for M.I.A’s Bad Girls.

At the fifth annual ceremony celebrating the most creative work in music video of the past year, the French director also picked up the Best Pop Video – UK award for his epic Middle Eastern reimagining of the hip-hop music video – famously featuring M.I.A. sitting on a BMW driving on two wheels – to huge cheers from the 700-strong audience at the Empire cinema in Leicester Square.

Young American director AG Rojas won the Best New Director award, while his video for Spiritualized’s Hey Jane won Best Indie/Rock Video – UK. Lee Groombridge accepted the Best Producer award, while veteran freelance commissioner John Moule won the Best Commissioner prize, making it a quartet of first time winners of the major individual honours at the MVAs.

At a typically boisterous, euphoric and sometimes emotional occasion, hosted once again by Adam Buxton – a surprised Jamie Thraves received the Icon Award from the actor Aiden Gillen, in honour of his contribution to the art of music videos spanning 17 years, and following a special film featuring contributions from numerous colleagues and artists including Travis, Kristina Train and Blur’s Alex James.

And Promo News editor and the UK Music Video Awards editorial director David Knight found himself the recipient of the other special accolade of the evening, the Outstanding Achievement Award – secretly organised by his colleagues Louise Stevens and Phil Tidy, and the involvement of many others – accepting the honour from Tim Pope after a remarkable tribute film (No doubt we’ll get back to this on PN in the next few days…! – DK)

The night also saw several previous MVA winners take awards home once again: Hannah Edwards won the Best Styling in a Video award for the third year in a row, for her work on the Bad Girls video. Tom Lindsay won his third MVA for Best Editing, for his work on the epic video for The Shoes’ Time To Dance, directed by Daniel Wolfe and starring Jake Gyllenghal, which also won Best Dance Video – UK. Directing team Daniels won Best Indie/Rock International for the second year running, for The Shins’ Simple Song. And as in 2011, Roger Bellés won the Best Art Direction in a Video for his work on Justice’s New Lands, directed by Canada. And John Paveley won the Best Music Ad award for his commercial for Kasabian’s album Veloceraptor!

Keith Schofield won Best Dance Video International for Duck Sauce’s Big Bad Wolf, and was one of several winners who sent entertaining acceptance videos in lieu of attending the show. Nabil’s taped message for winning Best Urban Video International for Frank Ocean’s Novocane featured him being knocked out of shot by Frank Ocean himself.

But numerous music video makers from Europe and America were in attendance at the UK’s premier music video event of the year: producers Mourad Belkeddar and Roman Pichoin accepted the awards for Woodkid’s Run Boy Run, winner of the Best VFX – one of two Yoann Lemoine-directed videos to win on the night; the French team behind the interactive video for ALB’s Golden Chains were there to accept this year’s Innovation Award; an ecstatic Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen charged the stage to accept the award for Best Indie/Rock Video budget category for his When Saints Go Machine video for Parix. Young American director Ellis Bahl flew in to accept the Best Alternative Video UK for his video for Alt-J’s Breezeblocks, and Sean Pecknold arrived from the West Coast to collect his Best Animation award for his work on the Fleet Foxes video for The Shrine/An Argument.

And in a first at the MVAs, two winners were announced for an award. Adam Smith’s Chemical Brothers concert film Don’t Think, and Will Lovelace and Dylan Southern’s LCD Soundsystem film Shut Up And Play The Hits both won the Live Music Coverage award. – the category of Live Music Coverage: Don’t Think, Adam Smith’s concert film of Chemical Brothers.

And the one award chosen by public vote, after over 25,000 votes were cast on VEVO’s Facebook page, the People’s Choice award was won by the One Direction video for Live While We’re Young, directed Vaughan Arnell, and collected by its commissioner, Mike O’Keefe.

UK MUSIC VIDEO AWARDS 2012 – THE WINNERS

Best Pop Video – UK in association with 4Music
M.I.A . – Bad Girls
Director: Romain Gavras
Producer: Khalid Tahhar
Prod co: Iconoclast
Commissioner: Michelle Ann for Interscope

Best Dance Video – UK in association with Rudeye Dance Agency
The Shoes – Time to Dance
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producers: Lee Groombridge & Dougal Meese
Prod co: Somesuch & Co
Commissioner: Pierre Le Ny for Green United Music

Best Urban Video – UK in association with East End Studios
Plan B – Ill Manors
Director: Yann Demange
Producer: Ben Sullivan
Prod co: Rokkit
Commissioner: Dan Curwin for Atlantic Records

Best Indie/Rock Video – UK in association with Music Week
Spiritualized – Hey Jane
Director: AG Rojas
Producer: Anna Rau
Prod co: Caviar/Somesuch & Co
Commissioner: Juliette Larthe for Double Six/Domino Records

Best Alternative Video – UK
Alt-J – Breezeblocks
Director: Ellis Bahl
Producer: Jessica Birmingham
Prod co: Project Fathom
Commissioner: Connie Meade for Infectious Music

Best Pop Video – International
Lana Del Rey – Born To Die
Director: Yoann Lemoine
Producer: Emmanual Reye
Prod co: Iconoclast
Commissioner: Emily Tedrake for Polydor

Best Dance Video – International
Duck Sauce – Big Bad Wolf
Director: Keith Schofield
Producer: Natasha Tan
Prod co: Somesuch & Co
Commissioner: Duck Sauce

Best Urban Video – International
Frank Ocean – Novacane
Director: Nabil
Producer: Kathleen Heffernan
Prod co: A+
Commissioner: Frank Ocean

Best Indie/Rock Video – International
The Shins – Simple Song
Director: Daniels
Producer: Jonathan Wang
Prod co: Prettybird US
Commissioner: Saul Levitz for Columbia US

Best Alternative Video – International
The Hickey Underworld – The Frog
Director: Joe Vanhoutteghem
Producer: Nele Carlier
Prod co: Czar.be
Commissioner: PIAS

Best Pop Video – Budget
Rent Boys – Shoot The Shot
Director: Zac Ella
Producer: Posy Dixon
Prod co: B A D Productions
Commissioner: Andrew Swaine for German Bite

Best Dance Video – Budget
Todd Terje – Inspector Norse
Director: Kristoffer Borgli
Producer: Kristoffer Borgli
Prod co: FRIEND
Commissioner: Todd Terje

Best Urban Video – Budget
Noisses ft RTKAL, Lady Leshurr & Foreign Beggars – Run Your Mouth
Director: Drew Cox
Producer: Lucy Barber
Production co: Slanted Eyes & Lullabys
Commissioner: Ollywood for Black Butter Records

Best Indie/Rock Video – Budget
When Saints Go Machine – Parix
Director: Daniel Kragh-Jacobsen
Producer: Thor Brammer Jacobsen
Prod co: Spoiled Productions
Commissioner: Jan-Erik Stig for EMI Records Denmark

Best Alternative Video – Budget
The Death Set – They Come To Get Us
Director: Guillaume Panariello
Producer: Guillaume Panariello & Julie Fabre
Prod co: Supergoober
Commissioner: The Death Set

Best Art Direction & Design in a Video
Justice – New Lands
Art Director: Roger Bellés
Director: Canada
Producers: Oscar Romagosa for Canada, Arthur Cantin for Partizan
Prod co: Partizan
Record co: Ed Banger/Because Music

Best Styling in a Video
M.I.A. – Bad Girls
Stylist: Hannah Edwards
Director: Romain Gavras
Producer: Khalid Tahhar
Prod co: Iconoclast
Record co: Interscope / XL Recordings

Best Choreography in a Video
Will Young – Losing Myself
Choreographer: Aletta Collins
Director: Henry Scholfield
Producer: Louise Gagen
Prod co: Partizan
Record co: Sony Music

Best Cinematography in A Video, in association with Panalux
Feist – The Bad In Each Other
DoP: Kasper Tuxen
Director: Martin de Thurah
Producer: Dom Thomas
Prod co: A+
Record co: Polydor

Best Telecine in a Video
Temper Trap – Trembling Hands
TK: James Tillett at Moving Picture Co
Director: Tom Haines
Producer: Tiernan Hanby
Prod co: Colonel Blimp
Record co: Infectious Music

Best Animation in a Video
Fleet Foxes – The Shrine/An Argument
Animation: Sean Pecknold & Britta Johnson
Director: Sean Pecknold
Producer: Aaron Ball
Prod co: Grandchildren
Record co: Sub Pop

Best Editing in a Video, in association with Vanderquest
The Shoes – Time To Dance
Editor: Tom Lindsay
Director: Daniel Wolfe
Producer: Lee Groombridge & Dougal Meese
Prod co: Somesuch & Co
Record co: Green United Music

Best Visual Effects in a Video
Woodkid – Run Boy Run
VFX: One More Productions
Director: Yoann Lemoine
Producer: Roman Pichon
Prod co: Iconoclast / HSI
Record co: Green United Music

The Innovation Award
ALB – Golden Chains
Director: Johnatan Broda
Prod co: BBDO / CARNIBIRD / ACNE
Commissioner: ALB
Record co: Green United Music

Best Live Music Coverage
Joint winner:
Chemical Brothers – Don’t Think
Director: Adam Smith
Prod co: Black Dog Films
Commissioner: Stefan Demetriou
Record co: EMI

Joint winner:
LCD Soundsystem – Shut Up And Play The Hits
Director: Dylan Southern & Will Lovelace (AKA thirtytwo)
Prod co: Pulse Films
Commissioner: Keith Wood & Eddy Moretti
Record co: DFA

Best Music Ad – TV or Online
Kasabian – Velociraptor
Director: John Pavely
Prod co: JJ Stereo
Commissioner: Ian Dutt
Record co: Sony Columbia Records

The Outstanding Contribution Award
David Knight

The People’s Choice Award, in association with VEVO
One Direction – Live While We’re Young
Director: Vaughan Arnell
Producer: Astrid Edwards & James Chad
Prod co: Rokkit
Commissioner: Mike O’Keefe for Syco / Sony Music

Best Producer, in association with Rushes
Lee Groombridge

Best Commissioner
John Moule

Best New Director, in association with Locomotion
AG Rojas

Best Director, in association with Promo News
Romain Gavras

The Icon Award
Jamie Thraves

Video of the Year
M.I.A . – Bad Girls
Director: Romain Gavras
Producer: Khalid Tahhar
Prod co: Iconoclast
Commissioner: Michelle Ann for Interscope