2nd Empire Awards

The 2nd Empire Awards ceremony, presented by the British film magazine Empire, honored the best films of 1996 and took place on 5 March 1997 at the Park Lane Hotel in London, England.^[1] During the ceremony, Empire presented Empire Awards in nine categories as well as two honorary awards. The award for Best British Director and the honorary Empire Inspiration Award were first introduced this year. The awards were sponsored by Miller Brewing Company.^[1]

2nd Empire Awards
The logo for the 2nd Empire Awards
Date	5 March 1997 (1997-03-05)[1]
Site	Park Lane Hotel, London, England[1]
Empire issue	#95 (May 1997)
Highlights
Best Film	Seven
Best British Film	Trainspotting
Most awards	Trainspotting (4)
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Trainspotting won the most awards with four including Best British Film, Best British Director for Danny Boyle and Best British Actor for Ewan McGregor. Other winners included Seven with two awards including Best Film and 12 Monkeys, Fargo and Secrets & Lies with one. The Monty Python team received the Empire Inspiration Award and Freddie Francis received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Winners and nominees

Winners are listed first and highlighted in boldface.^[2]

Best Film Seven	Best British Film Trainspotting
Best Director[3] Terry Gilliam — 12 Monkeys	Best British Director[3] Danny Boyle — Trainspotting
Best Actor Morgan Freeman — Seven	Best British Actor Ewan McGregor — Trainspotting
Best Actress Frances McDormand — Fargo	Best British Actress Brenda Blethyn — Secrets & Lies
Best Debut Ewen Bremner — Trainspotting	Honorary Awards Empire Inspiration Award: The Monty Python team Lifetime Achievement Award: Freddie Francis

Multiple awards

The following two films received multiple awards:

Awards	Film
4	Trainspotting
2	Seven