"The Social Network" knocked "The King's Speech" off its perch at the London Film Critics' Circle Awards on Thursday, with the Facebook saga movie scooping four prizes to the royal story's three.

Both movies were nominated seven times, but "The Social Network" won the top accolade, film of the year, as well as best director for David Fincher, best British actor in a supporting role for Andrew Garfield and best script for writer Aaron Sorkin.

"The King's Speech," which leads the Academy Award nominations field with 12 ahead of 10 for "True Grit" and eight each for "The Social Network" and "Inception," was named best British film of the year.

It also picked up awards for best British director (Tom Hooper) and best actor (Colin Firth).

In the actress category, Annette Bening's turn in lesbian family drama "The Kids Are All Right" beat Natalie Portman as a troubled ballerina in "Black Swan."

Christian Bale was named British actor of the year for "The Fighter" and the British actress prize went to Lesley Manville for "Another Year."

Breakthrough British filmmaker was won by Gareth Edwards for his feature debut "Monsters" and the foreign language film category was won by "Of Gods and Men," based on the true story of a group of French monks murdered in Algeria.

The awards were held to aid charity the BFI Archive, which is seeking to restore and preserve old British films, in particular Alfred Hitchcock's nine silent features.