After collecting an Oscar, a BAFTA and a Golden Globe for her leading role as Queen Anne in The Favourite, Olivia Colman has rounded off Awards Season by being honoured with the BFI’s most prestigious accolade, its Fellowship, at a star-studded event in London.
Accepting the honour at the annual BFI Chairman’s Dinner, Colman told the film industry luminaries, “I didn’t know what to expect, this evening. Turns out it’s a bit like a surprise birthday party…on the back of a lovely year.”
The trophy was presented to her by Yorgos Lanthimos, who directed her in The Favourite and The Lobster. He told the gathering, “There isn’t an actor who can infuse each moment onscreen with such great humanity, drama and humour. No-one can appear so fragile, magnetic, fierce, funny and real from one second to the next, or all at the same time.”
The chairman f the BFI, Josh Berger, said he was thrilled to have given Colman the Fellowship at such an exciting point in her career. “Olivia is a brilliant comic actor and one of the industry’s finest dramatic performers,” he said. “Her ability to be relatable in such a diverse range of roles generates incredible warmth and admiration from audiences.”
Other guests at the event included her fellow 2019 Oscar nominee Richard E Grant and other BFI Fellows, including the actresses Helena Bonham-Carter and Vanessa Redgrave and the writer Peter Morgan.
After months of travelling the world, promoting The Favourite and collecting awards, Colman can finally get back to work, in earnest, playing another Queen, Elizabeth II, in Morgan’s Netflix drama The Crown.