25/09/2012 - British actress gets European Achievement award

The European Film Academy (EFA) is presenting revered British actress Dame Helen Mirren with the honorary award European Achievement In World Cinema 2012 for her body of work. Mirren said, “It was discovering the immense diversity of European filmmaking that gave me an enduring love and respect for the art form. This award is therefore a very meaningful honour. I would be proud to be counted as an actor in the European tradition.”

Mirren was first noticed in Michael Powell’s Age Of Consent and shot to fame with John Mackenzie’s The Long Good Friday. Her acclaimed performances include turns in John Boorman’s Excalibur, Peter Greenaway’s The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover and Charles Sturridge’s Where Angels Fear To Tread. She won the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Pat O’Connor’s Cal and Nicholas Hytner’s The Madness Of King George.

For her bravura performance in Stephen Frears’ The Queen [+see also:
film review
trailer
interview: Andy Harries
interview: Stephen Frears
film profile], Mirren won Best Actress BAFTA, Oscar, Golden Globe and the Volpi Cup in Venice. Her current films include István Szabó’s The Door [+see also:
trailer
film profile] and Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchcock.

Dame Helen Mirren will be an honorary guest at the 25th European Film Awards Ceremony on 1 December 2012 in Malta.