The Richard Harris Award recognises an outstanding contribution by an actor to British film.
It has previously been bestowed upon, amongst others, Riz Ahmed, Kristin Scott Thomas, Judi Dench, Vanessa Redgrave, Daniel Day-Lewis, Helena Bonham Carter, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, John Hurt, Emma Thompson, Jim Broadbent and Glenda Jackson.
Hailed as one of the greatest performers of her generation, with a multi award-winning career spanning theatre, television and film, both in front and behind the camera, acclaimed actor, director, writer and activist Samantha Morton is this year’s BIFA Richard Harris Award recipient. Described as whip smart, driven and fiercely uncompromising, her work is consistently reviewed in awed tones as ‘extraordinary’, bursting with poetic force and raw intensity, whilst her prolific output sees her navigate independent features, high-end television series and blockbuster movies with ease, sought out by internationally renowned filmmakers including Lynne Ramsay, Michael Winterbottom, Woody Allen, David Cronenberg, Darren Aronofsky, Harmony Korine, Spike Jonze and Steven Spielberg to name a few.
Morton made her first steps into acting in Nottingham’s Central Junior Television Workshop at age 13, quickly winning roles in prominent TV dramas Soldier Soldier (1991), Cracker (1994) and Band of Gold (1995). Film roles followed, as lead in Emma (1996), Jane Eyre (1997) and Carine Adler’s multi award-winning and BIFA nominated Under the Skin, which earned Samantha her first BIFA Best Actress nomination in 1998. It also caught the attention of Woody Allen, who cast her in his 1999 film Sweet and Lowdown, where her emotive performance as a mute in love with Sean Penn’s jazz musician saw her receive Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations for Best Supporting Actress. That same year, Samantha also starred alongside Billy Crudup in Jesus’ Son, which was nominated for the Best International Independent Film BIFA and Catherine Lindstum’s Dreaming of Joseph Lees, for which she won the Evening Standard Award for Best Actress.
Her second BIFA Best Actress nomination came in 2001, with Julien Temple’s Coleridge biopic Pandaemonium, in which she played the poet’s wife Sara, and blockbuster glory followed in 2002, when she starred alongside Tom Cruise in Stephen Spielberg’s hit film Minority Report. Also in 2002, Samantha found time to take on the titular role of Morvern in Lynn Ramsey’s acclaimed second feature Morvern Callar for which she won the BIFA Best Actress award. In 2003 her role in Jim Sheridan’s In America saw her nominated for a second Academy Award and her fourth BIFA, amongst other accolades.
To date, Samantha has been nominated for eight BIFAs. Her fifth – Best Supporting Actress – was for Roger Michell’s Enduring Love (2004) and her sixth for her beautiful, painful, age-defying performance as Debbie Curtis in Anton Corbijn’s multi-nominated Control – which won Best Debut Director and Best British Independent Film in 2007. In 2009 Samantha was again nominated for a Best Actress BIFA for The Daisy Chain, playing a grieving parent alongside Steven Mackintosh. A passionate campaigner for reform and resources for Child Protection services – Samantha’s first-hand experience of the British care system inspired her autobiographical directorial debut The Unloved, which won her another BAFTA and her eighth BIFA nomination in 2009, this time The Douglas Hickox Award for Best Debut Director. She has also won a Golden Globe for her portrayal of Myra Hindley in Tom Hooper’s Longford (2006), for which she was also BAFTA- and Emmy-nominated.
Characteristically busy, Samantha can currently be seen in Lionsgate+ hit series The Serpent Queen, and recent film work includes Sarah Sugarman’s Save the Cinema, Darren Aronofsky’s The Whale and Maria Schrader’s She Said and is currently filming a lead role in new television drama The Burning Girls.
Samantha Morton said: “I am moved beyond words that the British Independent Film Awards have chosen me to receive this year’s Richard Harris award. This means the world to me. Independent cinema is my true home, the reason for my art, and Richard Harris was my first teacher. It is a great privilege to join such an esteemed group of former honourees, each of them champions of the British screen, and to be able to continue shining a light on the immense wealth and diversity of talented filmmakers and artists we have on these islands.”
Damian, Jared and Jamie Harris, in whose father’s memory the award is presented, commented: “Samantha Morton seemed to arrive like a meteor, her performances in Under the Skin, Sweet and Lowdown, Jesus’ Son and Morvern Callar impacted not only British cinema. After having worked with Samantha on This Is the Sea, Richard was as impressed with her work as I had ever seen him. He told me ‘If you ever get the opportunity to work with her, grab it. She is the real effing deal’.”
The 25th British Independent Film Awards take place on Sunday 4 December at Old Billingsgate. Craft award winners will be announced on 18 November.
