25 November 2025
Newsdesk
Emily Watson will receive the Richard Harris Award at the 2025 British Independent Film Awards (BIFAs).
Introduced in 2002, The Richard Harris Award recognises an outstanding contribution by an actor to British film. It has previously been awarded to, amongst others, Samantha Morton, Riz Ahmed, Kristin Scott Thomas, Daniel Day-Lewis, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Julie Walters, Stephen Graham and Sophie Okonedo in 2024.
One of the UK’s most celebrated actors, Emily Watson burst onto cinema screens and the world stage with a debut feature role so beguiling and accomplished that it netted her an Academy Award nomination. That first recognition heralded a career packed with acclaimed, magnetic performances alongside a who’s who of talented co-stars and with a rollcall of fêted filmmakers.
Mindful to choose projects with creative integrity, Emily is known for her ability to disappear into roles and imbue complex characters with an emotional depth that brings them to vivid, compelling life. Her filmography is a jaw-dropping list of independent and studio greats and serves as a showcase for what makes her one of the most respected and sought-after actors working across film, stage and television. Emily was awarded an OBE for her services to drama in 2015.
A keen theatregoer from childhood, she was honing her talent as a member of the Royal Shakespeare Company when Lars von Trier cast her in Breaking the Waves (1996) opposite Stellan Skarsgård, and her multi award-winning, Oscar and BAFTA nominated performance catapulted her to the top of filmmakers’ wish lists everywhere.
Emily has worked constantly since. Philip Saville’s Metroland with Christian Bale and Jim Sheridan’s The Boxer with Daniel Day Lewis followed (she would work with Bale again on Kurt Wimmer’s dystopian sci-fi Equilibrium in 2002) and in 1998 she was Oscar nominated a second time, for her extraordinary performance as the brilliant, wild and tragic cellist Jacqueline du Pré in Anand Tucker’s Hilary & Jackie, for which she won a Best Actress BIFA and a slew of other nods. 1999 saw her lead Alan Parker’s adaptation of Frank McCourt’s Angela’s Ashes, and in 2000 she received her second BIFA nomination for her role in Marleen Gorris’s The Luzhin Defence. She was a member of the all-star ensemble of hit upstairs/downstairs whodunnitGosford Park (2001), describing working with Altman as “anarchy, in a good way” and starred alongside Adam Sandler in Punch Drunk Love (2002), Paul Thomas Anderson’s foray into romantic comedy. The director had only ever wanted her in the role and of him she said “He’s so original. Making a movie with him is just the adventure of being around him”. Emily’s third and fourth BIFA nominations came in 2005 for her performance in Richard E Grant’s autobiographical debut feature Wah-Wah and in 2022 for her performance as a mother desperate to protect her son in God’s Creatures.
Working in the UK and internationally throughout her career, Emily has won awards and plaudits for performances in work as diverse as Brett Ratners’ Red Dragon, Jim Loach’s Oranges and Sunshine and Charlie Kaufman’s Synecdoche, New York as well as a string of British independent gems including Belle,On Chesil Beach, The Proposition, The Life and Death of Peter Sellers and Separate Lies. In 2024 Emily won the Berlin Silver Bear Best Supporting Performance award for her captivating portrayal of the formidable Mother Superior of the Magdalene Laundries in Tim Mielants’ Small Things Like These. All this alongside an extensive, and much-garlanded, array of performances on stage and on television.
Emily’s recent projects include reform school drama Steve, which reunited her with Tim Mielants and Cillian Murphy, and she will star once more in HBO/Max series Dune: Prophecy, back for season two. On the big screen, she’ll be next seen alongside Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley in Chloe Zhao’s highly anticipated Hamnet, releasing in UK cinemas in January.
Emily Watson said: “I’m delighted and deeply honoured to be receiving this award. I’ve had the great privilege of spending time with Jared as an actor and raconteur, hearing thrilling wild tales of his dad and the force that he was. I’m so grateful to the Harris family for thinking of me. Truly an honour. Thank you BIFA.”
Damian, Jared and Jamie Harris, in whose father’s memory the award is presented, commented: “Emily’s first film was Lars von Trier’s epic Breaking the Waves, which is like saying the first mountain she climbed was Everest. It was a fearless and devastating performance and was rightly recognised with multiple honours, and her first Oscar nomination. Since then, there have been a succession of Emily Watson performances that have again rightly been acknowledged with nominations, honours and awards, including a BIFA. Emily is too young to be called a national treasure, but any performance of hers is a cultural event and she enhances the quality of everything in which she appears. She rightly takes her place alongside the past recipients of the Richard Harris Award.”
