Judi Dench to Receive Golden Icon Award at the Zurich Film Festival

Academy Award-®winning actress Judi Dench will receive the Golden Icon Award on October 3. Dench will also present her latest film, RED JOAN, a drama inspired by the life of Melita Norwood, in which she plays a woman whose tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she's arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia. Dench will present the film alongside co-star Sophie Cookson, who plays Young Joan.

The Golden Icon Award is the Festival's most prestigious symbol of recognition, given in appreciation of the lifetime achievements of an actor or actress. Dench will be honored with the award on Wednesday, 3 October.

RED JOAN is directed by legendary director Trevor Nunn (original London production of "Les Miserables", "Twelth Night or What You Will"). Judi Dench (SKYFALL, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE) co-stars alongside Sophie Cookson (GYPSY, KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE) and both are joined in the film by Stephen Campbell Moore (THE CHILD IN TIME, GOODBYE CHRISTOPHER ROBIN), Tom Hughes (VICTORIA, LONDON TOWN), Ben Miles (THE CROWN, WOMAN IN GOLD) and Tereza Srbova (EASTERN PROMISES, INKHEART).

The year is 2000 and Joan Stanley is living in contented retirement in suburbia at the turn of the millennium. Her tranquil life is suddenly disrupted when she's arrested by MI5 and accused of providing intelligence to Communist Russia. Cut to 1938 where Joan is a Cambridge physics student who falls for young communist Leo Galich and through him, begins to see the world in a new light. Working at a top-secret nuclear research facility during WWII, Joan comes to the realisation that the world is on the brink of mutually assured destruction. Confronted with an impossible question - what price would you pay for peace? - Joan must choose between betraying her country and loved ones or saving them.

Zurich Film Festival co-founders Nadja Schildknecht and Karl Spoerri commented: "We are honored to present Judi Dench with our Golden Icon Award at this year's Festival. With an Academy Award and six further Academy Award nominations to her name, along with numerous other awards, Judi is a true icon. She has enjoyed an extraordinary acting career across film, television and on stage. With a body of work spanning six decades, she has brought many unforgettable characters to life on the big screen in films including MRS BROWN, SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE, MRS HENDERSON PRESENTS, NOTES ON A SCANDAL, PHILOMENA, VICTORIA & ABDUL and not least the iconic M in seven Bond films. We are thrilled to welcome her to Zurich and to screen her latest film RED JOAN."

Since playing Ophelia in HAMLET at The Old Vic Theatre almost 60 years ago, Judi Dench has garnered wide popular and critical admiration for a career marked by outstanding performances in both classical and contemporary roles. She has won numerous major awards - including an Academy Award, ten BAFTA Awards and a record eight Laurence Olivier Awards - for work on both stage and screen, and in recognition of her many achievements she received an OBE (Order of the British Empire) in 1970, became a DBE (Dame of the British Empire) in 1988, and in 2005 was awarded a Companion of Honour. She has also received the Japan Arts Association's prestigious Praemium Imperiale Laureate Award for Film and Theatre.

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