London Film School (LFS) has announced writer, director and actor, Clint Dyer, and actor, Sarah Niles, as the 2023 Honorary Associates. The film school has appointed the leading industry figures who will be awarded at the School’s annual Graduate Showcase ceremony on Friday 27 January. Chairman of the School, Greg Dyke will announce the Honorary Association at the Curzon Soho.
The Honorary Associates will be an integral part of the School’s wide-ranging pool of industry experts and student mentors for years to come. As part of the Honorary Associate role, they will visit the School during the coming year as part of its long-running Masterclass programme, an exclusive series of industry and alumni-focused events dedicated to the School’s filmmaking students.
The School’s Honouree programme is possible with the generous assistance of the School’s Graduation sponsors: Panalux, Sargent-Disc, a Cast & Crew company, and Final Draft.
Honorary Associates are announced each year as part of the LFS’ Graduate Showcase and the January 2023 event marks a return to the usual annual in-person schedule. The week-long event will be held at Curzon Bloomsbury and Curzon Soho, representing a special connection for LFS – Curzon CEO Philip Knatchbull is a former student.
The first of the LFS 2023 Honorary Associates, Clint Dyer, was appointed as Deputy Artistic Director of the National Theatre in 2021, where he recently directed Othello, the first Black director to do so at the theatre. Clint Dyer reopened the National Theatre in 2020 with Death of England: Delroy (directed and co-written with Roy Williams), the sequel to the celebrated Death of England (nominated for Best Director, Black British Theatre). This made him the first Black artist to act, write and direct at the National Theatre. Death of England: Face to Face, his feature-length film for the National Theatre and SKY TV, was nominated for Best Single Drama at the BAFTA TV awards, Royal Television Society Awards, Broadcast Digital Media Awards, Broadcast Awards and C21 International Awards. As an actor, his work includes Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom (Best Actor, I.A.R. Awards) at the National Theatre. Over the course of his extensive acting career he has won awards across film and television, most notably for his starring role in the film SUS.
Sarah Niles, the second LFS Honorary Associate, is one of the UK’s finest actors. Niles stars in Rocks directed by Sarah Gavron which was touted by the head of TIFF Cameron Bailey who called it his favourite movie of the 2019 Festival. This year Niles was nominated for an Emmy Award for Best Supporting Actress for her critically lauded work as Dr. Sharon Fieldstone in the second series of Ted Lasso for AppleTV+ which broke the record of most Emmy nominations for a new comedy. Niles can currently be seen in a starring role in the breakout hit Riches for Amazon Prime and ITVX and appears in the DC Comic success series Sandman by Neil Gaiman for Netflix.
Niles also starred in Netflix’s Dracula for creators Mark Gatiss and Steven Moffat and in BBC Studios’ film Danny Boy for director Sam Miller whom she worked with prior in I May Destroy You. Previous roles have included working opposite Sharon Horgan in Catastrophe, Sally Hawkins in Mike Leigh’s Happy-Go Lucky, and a series regular in BBC’s Beautiful People with Olivia Colman. Niles has appeared in numerous theatre productions at the National, Royal Court, The Old Vic, and The Bush Theatre where she received an award and rave reviews for her starring performance in the hit Leave Taking.
