Kate Winslet at the Critics' Circle Film Awards in January 2016
The London-based media group Dover Street Entertainment is announced as headline sponsor for the event, which will be held at The May Fair Hotel in late-January.
As voting gets underway for the 38th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards presented by Dover Street Entertainment, the UK’s top film critics have announced that Kate Winslet will be awarded their highest accolade, The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film, at the awards ceremony on Sunday 28th January.
Kate Winslet made her screen debut in 1991 in the BBC sci-fi series Dark Season. Her first film performance was in Peter Jackson’s iconic 1994 thriller Heavenly Creatures, a lead role she won after an audition process that involved nearly 200 actresses. She went on to star in Ang Lee’s Sense and Sensibility (1995), Michael Winterbottom’s Jude (1996) and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet (1996) before bursting onto the international scene with her iconic role in James Cameron’s Titanic (1997). Since then, her career has featured a varied range of strong female roles in comedies, dramas, thrillers and animation. She has been nominated for nine Critics’ Circle Film Awards, winning four: for Heavenly Creatures, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2005), The Reader and Revolutionary Road (2008), and Steve Jobs (2015).
Winslet has also been nominated for seven Oscars, winning for her role in The Reader, and she has received eight Bafta nominations, winning three. She was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in 2012. This past year, Winslet appeared in Woody Allen’s Wonder Wheel, The Mountain Between Us and as the voice of Madam Mumblechook in Mary and the Witch’s Flower. She is about to film a role in James Cameron’s forthcoming Avatar sequel.
Dilys Powell was an iconic British author and film critic who pioneered a new style of cinematic journalism. The British Film Institute famously described her as “open to new directions in cinema … not constrained by the middle class shibboleths of ‘good taste’.” Her final review, of Kubrick’s Barry Lyndon, was published in The Times on the day of her death in June 1995.
Recent Dilys Powell Award honourees include Kristin Scott Thomas, Kenneth Branagh, Gary Oldman, Helena Bonham Carter, Miranda Richardson and last year’s recipient Isabelle Huppert. The award has been given out annually since 1991, when it was presented to Dirk Bogarde.
The 38th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards is presented by Dover Street Entertainment, the London-based media group. In addition to Dover Street, the red carpet event is sponsored by The May Fair Hotel, Sacred Gin, Remy Martin, Voss and talent agencies Millbank and Cooper Searle. Audi is the official car of the London Critics’ Circle Film Awards.
Nominations will be announced at a lunchtime event on Tuesday 19th December at The May Fair Hotel by actor-producer Thomas Brodie-Sangster (The Maze Runner trilogy, Game of Thrones, Godless) and actress Morfydd Clark (The Falling, Love & Friendship, The Man Who Invented Christmas).
The awards ceremony will be held at The May Fair Hotel on Sunday 28th January 2018, hosted by actor-filmmakers Alice Lowe and Steve Oram.
NOTES:
For further information, please contact: londonfilmcritics@gmail.com
Media contact: Julia Boccanera at DDA: 020 7932 9800 / julia.boccanera@ddapr.com
About The Critics’ Circle:
Established in 1913, The Critics’ Circle is the oldest organisation of its kind in the world, with more than 400 members who work in the UK media as critics of drama, books, art and architecture, music, film, and dance. Chaired by Anna Smith, who also currently serves as the Circle’s President, the Film Section membership is made up of more than 145 UK film critics, broadcasters and writers, including Guardian critic Peter Bradshaw, the BBC’s Mark Kermode and Metro’s Larushka Ivan-Zadeh, and has presented its awards annually since 1980. www.criticscircle.org.uk
About Dover Street Entertainment:
Founded by producers Graeme A Scott and Kathy A LoPrimo, the Dover Street Entertainment team has delivered films to cinema screens across the globe and produced television series with broadcasters including the BBC, Channel 4, ITV, Showtime, HBO and PBS. With each production, Dover Street works with internationally recognised and talented professionals, from Academy Award-winning documentary filmmakers to Emmy-nominated television producers, ensuring that when a story is told it is told right. Current projects include the television documentary series Warriors Code, featuring IBO super-middleweight boxing champion Chris Eubank Jr, and An Irish Heartbeat, a feature-length thriller based on the Paul Ferris novel. www.doverstreet.xyz
About The May Fair Hotel:
The luxury May Fair Hotel, opened by King George V in 1927 and owned and operated by Edwardian Group London, is located in the heart of London and boasts over 400 luxury bedrooms, including 40 of the capital’s most memorable signature suites. The residence encapsulates its Mayfair locality throughout, with the meat and seafood restaurant, May Fair Kitchen; The May Fair Bar; The May Fair Terrace and the relaxing May Fair Spa. The May Fair Hotel has an established partnership as the official hotel partner for both London Fashion Week and the BFI London Film Festival. www.themayfairhotel.co.uk
About the 38th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards:
Britain’s top film critics vote annually for the Critics’ Circle Film Awards, with eligible films having been released in UK cinemas between mid-February 2017 and mid-February 2018. Nominations ballots are due on 15th December, with the nominees announced on Tuesday 19th December. Final-round votes will be due on 9th January. In addition to the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film and citations for Technical Achievement, the members of the The Critics’ Circle Film Section will vote in the following categories:
• Film of the Year
• Foreign Language Film of the Year
• Documentary of the Year
• Director of the Year
• Actor of the Year
• Actress of the Year
• Supporting Actor of the Year
• Supporting Actress of the Year
• Screenwriter of the Year
• The Attenborough Award: British/Irish Film of the Year
• The Philip French Award: Breakthrough British/Irish Filmmaker
• British/Irish Actor of the Year
• British/Irish Actress of the Year
• Young British/Irish Performer of the Year
• British/Irish Short Film of the Year
The Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film:
1991 Dirk Bogarde
1992 Freddie Young
1993 Christopher Lee
1994 Richard Attenborough
1995 Wendy Hiller
1996 John Mills
1997 Michael Caine
1998 John Hurt and Albert Finney
1999 Mike Leigh
2000 Richard Harris
2001 Charlotte Rampling
2002 Lewis Gilbert
2003 Tom Courtenay
2004 Ken Loach
2005 Bryan Forbes
2006 Leslie Phillips
2007 Julie Walters
2008 Judi Dench
2009 Quentin Tarantino
2010 Kristin Scott Thomas
2011 Nicolas Roeg
2012 Helena Bonham Carter
2013 Gary Oldman
2014 Miranda Richardson
2015 Kenneth Branagh
2016 Isabelle Huppert