A 14-minute video of several small children sitting in the back of a van and trying to hold their breath for the length of the Clyde tunnel has won the UK's biggest art prize.

The inaugural £24,000 Beck's Futures award, presented last night at a celebrity-studded event by Beck's and the Institute of Contemporary Arts, went to Gobstopper, by the Scottish artist Roderick Buchanan. The other nine finalists for the prize, including Elizabeth Wright, who produced a Mini car that was 30 per cent over size, and Stephen Murphy, who created a video wall of a computer-generated snowfall, received £4,000.

The winning video, which has been variously described as "an empathic battle of wills conducted across time, space, age and class", and something that simply "makes you laugh out loud", is said to reflect the artist's interest in social anthropology and popular culture.

The competition, intended to showcase the next generation of young British artists, was judged by a panel that included Jane and Louise Wilson, from last year's Turner Prize shortlist, the pop star Jarvis Cocker, and Emma Dexter, the curator of Tate Modern.

The shortlist of 10, which was dominated by Scottish artists, was whittled down from 200 entries nominated by curators and critics around Britain. Seven were Scottish or had trained and worked in Scotland.

The competition received a boost when two of the finalists sold their entries to Charles Saatchi before their work went on display to the public. Their identity was kept secret until the prizegiving at the ICA in central London. After the exhibition of the works leaves the ICA it will tour the country, appearing at the Cornerhouse in Manchester from 26 May, and on to Glasgow in the autumn.

The Beck's Futures Student Film and Video Prize of £2,000 went to Henrik Vibskov, a student at Central St Martin's. The competition was judged by the rock star Dave Stewart and the designer Agnes B.