Newport Beach Film Festival hosts 2023 UK honours event in London

In a star-studded celebration of the best of UK and Irish talent from film and television, Visit Newport Beach and the Newport Beach Film Festival kicked off BAFTA weekend with the Newport Beach Film Festival UK Honours at The Londoner Hotel. It marked the first in-person ceremony to be hosted by the festival in London since the COVID-19 pandemic.

The evening was hosted by Edith Bowman, and featured speeches by Gary Sherwin, President and CEO of Visit Newport Beach, and Gregg Schwenk, Founder and CEO of Newport Film Festival.

Bill Nighy was celebrated with the prestigious ICON Award at the ceremony, which recognised his vast and accomplished portfolio of high-calibre work across film and television. During his acceptance speech, he joked “The cool thing about this award is that for the next 24 hours or so, people will put the word ‘icon’ and my name in the same sentence. I might become unbearable.”

Bill Nighy’s critically acclaimed new film Living was recognised as the recipient of this year’s Outstanding Achievement In British Cinema Award. Stephen Woolley, Elizabeth Karlsen (producers) and Kazuo Ishiguro (writer) all attended the ceremony to accept the award, ahead of BAFTA on Sunday where the film has three nominations.

Nighy’s co-star, BAFTA award-winning actress Aimee Lou Wood, was recognised in the BREAKOUT category for her role as Margaret Harris in the film. Upon accepting the award, she commented “Thank you to team Living who really did give me the best time of my life. It was the happiest I’ve ever been.”

Nicola Coughlan (Bridgerton), also a Breakout Honouree, said: “Thank you to Newport Beach! I have a special connection to it, because I had an imaginary relationship with Seth from The O.C.”

Additional BREAKOUT Award recipients included Micheal Ward (Empire of Light), Dafne Keen (His Dark Materials) and Lydia West (Inside Man). The award is dedicated to rising British stars in celebration of unique and distinct performances they have given early on in their careers.

Paul Mescal (Aftersun), Toby Jones (Empire of Light, The Wonder), Naomi Ackie (I Wanna Dance with Somebody), Gemma Chan (Don’t Worry Darling), Taron Egerton (Blackbird) and Letitia Wright (Black Panther: Wakanda Forever) were each recognised as ARTISTS OF DISTINCTION. These actors were celebrated for their stellar performances in a range of roles, captivating audiences around the world on the big and small screen.

In his acceptance of the award, Paul Mescal commented “This is a crazy honour, it feels like yesterday I graduated from drama school. It feels like a short time and so much water has passed under the bridge. This lady here [Frankie Corio] is going to take over the world”.

Meanwhile, in a moving speech, Letitia Wright noted: “You can get lost in all of this, the hard work on set, missing your family and early call times. Today, someone who was interviewing me asked, ‘what are you grateful for?’ and it really took me by surprise. All that we go through to make cinema happen, I’m grateful to be a part of that. I hope you all are too, because we get to change lives. I want you to remember that what we do has purpose.”

Also honoured on the night were Variety’s 10 Brits to Watch, with this year’s cohort including Dolly Alderton, India Amarteifio, Frankie Corio, Benjamin Caron, Yasmin Finney, Jonah Hauer-King, Jenn Nkiru, Ripley Parker, Bella Ramsey and Leo Woodall.

Additional attendees at this year’s awards included Nicola Coughlan’s former Derry Girls co-star Dylan Llewellyn, and director Ol Parker and his daughter Nico Parker (The Last of Us) who were there to support Ripley Parker. Nico was wearing shoes and a dress formerly owned by her mother, Thandiwe Newton. Co-founder of Neal Street Productions, Dame Pippa Harris, was also in attendance.