Film London and Channel 4 in association with the Whitechapel Gallery have announced the winners of this year's prestigious Jarman Award are Anja Kirschner and David Panos.

Following an extensive programme of screening events at arts venues and cinemas across the UK, profiling work by this year's extended shortlist, Kirchner and Panos were announced as winners at an Award event at the Whitechapel Gallery last night.

Anja Kirschner and David Panos create ambitious, richly layered films that consider the possibilities for political art and social transformation. As winners, the artist duo will receive £10,000 in prize money and a Channel 4 short film commission, for new strand 'Random Acts', worth £20,000.

They were selected from a shortlist of 10 artists by an acclaimed jury panel including Stuart Comer (Chair) Film Curator, Tate Modern; Iwona Blazwick, Director, Whitechapel Gallery; Sandra Hebron, Artistic Director, BFI London Film Festival; Avi Grewal, Documentaries Commissioning, Channel 4 and Mark Rappolt, Editor, ArtReview.

The Jury Panel said of Kirschner & Panos: "Working fluidly between cinema and gallery practice, their collaboration draws on a broad range of genres from film, theatre and literature. They mine different registers of cultural history to unmask elusive narratives of conflict and corruption. Kirschner and Panos have produced a distinguished body of work whose sophistication and activist spirit impressed the jury, who are delighted to award them the 2011 Jarman Award."

The shortlist also included Ed Atkins, Claire Hooper, Torsten Lauschmann, Elizabeth Price, Laure Prouvost, Hilary Koob-Sassen, Clio Barnard, Corin Sworn and Imogen Stidworthy. The 2011 Award saw the shortlist expanded from four to 10 artists, in order to offer a more comprehensive survey of the work and practice of UK film and video artists, and celebrate the rich and eclectic array of work emerging in recent years.

Launched in 2008 the Film London Jarman Award gives recognition and support to artists working with the moving image and whose work, like Jarman's, resists conventional definition, encompassing innovation and excellence.

The winner of the 2010 Jarman Award, Emily Wardill, is currently completing work on her Channel 4 commissioned films which will be broadcast this Autumn.