The National Film Awards UK are presented in an annual award show hosted by the
National Film Academy (NFA).[1] As of 2015, it has taken place in Central London at the
Porchester Hall. The most recent 9th National Film Awards UK was held on 4 July 2023.
History
The National Film Academy (NFA) was founded in 1999 and went on to launch the National Film Awards UK in 2015 as an annual awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of established and independent filmmakers, actors, actresses, casting directors, production companies, and crew who make up the motion picture industry. The National Film Awards is scheduled to produce four award ceremonies annually in the
United Kingdom,
United States,
South America,
Africa, and
Australia. All nominations and voting for the NFA are submitted and voted for by movie fans, which is similar to the now-defunct award ceremony, the
Daily Mail National Film Awards, that was held between 1946–1951.
National Film Academy has as its core mission to support, develop, promote and celebrate the achievements of the motion picture industry worldwide. The Academy has over 275,000 members worldwide and runs a year-round programme of premieres, festivals, seminars, conferences, educational events including film screenings and tribute evenings.
Annual ceremony
The ceremony takes place annually in March.[2] The awards are mostly open to all nationalities but all nominees or films must be based in the country of origin except the Best Foreign Film category.
Sponsorship
In 2016, the mobile network
O2 sponsored the awards.[3]
During the ceremony, National Film Awards UK pauses to pay tribute to those in the industry who died over the previous twelve months, with a montage of images accompanied by music. In 2016 the legendary late actor
Alan Rickman was honored.
National Film Academy Honorary Awards
In 2015, Dame
Judi Dench was voted by Academy members to receive the Lifetime Achievement Award, whilst the 2016 recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award was Dame
Helen Mirren.[12]David Jason and
Nicholas Lyndhurst were awarded the 2017 Lifetime Achievement Award,[9] Anna Sher the 2018 award,[8] and Rowan Atkinson the 2021 award.[5]