Queer star Daniel Craig will be awarded the U.K.’s leading film critics’ top honor, the Dilys Powell Award for Excellence in Film.
The James Bond actor will receive the prize at the 45th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Feb. 2 at London’s May Fair Hotel. Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist and Sean Baker’s Anora lead the nominees.
“This is such an immense honor and I’m incredibly grateful to the London Film Critics’ Circle,” Craig said on receiving news of the award.
Rich Cline, Chair of the Critics’ Circle Film Section, said: “As critics, we were already fans of Daniel Craig for the adventurous roles he took on even before he became James Bond. We honored him for his roles in The Mother (2003) and Enduring Love (2004), and then of course we also enjoyed his superb take on 007 as well. Over the decades, he has consistently made bold choices and pushed against the boundaries that often limit other top stars. We love the Knives Out movies, and have nominated him this year for Queer. We are looking forward to celebrating his career at our ceremony.”
Before starring as 007, Craig received critical acclaim for his performances in films such as John Maybury’s Love Is the Devil: Study for a Portrait of Francis Bacon and Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition in 2002. He starred in Steven Spielberg’s Munich that same year.
In 2006, Craig assumed the iconic role as the legendary James Bond in the critically acclaimed Casino Royale. The actor then went on to portray the MI6 agent in four more films: Quantum of Solace in 2008, Skyfall in 2012 and Spectre in 2015, with his run as Bond culminating with the release of No Time to Die in 2021.
In recent years, Craig has branched out with roles such as detective Benoit Blanc in Rian Johnson’s hit mystery Knives Out (2019), reprising the role in Glass Onion and the forthcoming Wake Up Dead Man.
Last year, the London critics presented the Dilys Powell Award to Jeffrey Wright. Other recent recipients have included Michelle Yeoh, Sandy Powell, Sally Potter, Pedro Almodovar, and Kate Winslet.
