Zoe Saldaña will be honoured with the Derek Malcolm Award for Innovation at the 45th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards on Sunday, 2nd February 2025. The Emilia Pérez actress will become the second recipient of the annual award, named in memory of the legendary critic Derek Malcolm, who died at 91 in August 2023. Cinematic trailblazer Actor and filmmaker Colman Domingo was the inaugural recipient earlier this year.

“I’m honoured and thrilled to receive the Derek Malcolm Award for Innovation from the London Film Critics’ Circle, a group I greatly admire and respect,” says Saldaña. “This has been a wonderful year for film with so many striking and indelible roles for women. To have had the opportunity to work in this industry for 25 years has been a privilege and to perform the role of Rita in Emilia Pérez has been the opportunity of a lifetime.”

Saldaña, a prolific and impactful actor and producer, is also nominated for Supporting Actress of the Year for her dynamic work in Jacques Audiard’s musical drama Emilia Pérez. Throughout her broad-ranging career, Saldaña has starred in four of the highest-grossing films of all time, including Avatar and Avengers: Endgame, and has made her mark in numerous sci-fi franchises, from Star Trek to Guardians of the Galaxy. Her work in James Cameron’s Avatar series, performed via motion-capture, has notably embraced ground-breaking technical advances in filmmaking and earned both critical and awards recognition.

The breadth of her talent and work can also be seen from her breakout role in the 2000 film Centre Stage, through to Out of the Furnace, Colombiana and the mini-series Rosemary’s Baby. Saldaña’s efforts as a producer have helped bring diverse narratives and honest portrayals of women in particular to the screen, including her acclaimed TV series Special Ops: Lioness, in which she also stars, and her recent film The Absence of Eden, which shed a light on trafficking across the US-Mexico border. Earlier this year, Saldaña won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actress for Emilia Pérez alongside her costars Karla Sofía Gascón, Selena Gomez and Adriana Paz.

“Critics have long been fans of Zoe Saldaña’s ground-breaking work,” says Rich Cline, chair of London Film Critics’ Circle, “from her astonishingly nuanced turns in genre pieces like Avatar and Guardians of the Galaxy to her pioneering role producing complex female narratives. And in Emilia Pérez she wowed us with a beautifully nuanced, full-bodied performance from the heart.”

Malcolm was a long-standing member of the Critics’ Circle and served a term as its president. As chief critic for The Guardian and The Evening Standard, he had a huge impact on the film industry and was widely respected as a champion of world cinema. In addition to hosting The Film Club on the BBC and publishing several books, he was honorary president of Fipresci, a former director of London Film Festival and governor of the British Film Institute.

The nominations for the 45th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards were announced yesterday, with Sean Baker’s Anora and Brady Corbet’s The Brutalist leading with seven nods each. Edward Berger’s Conclave and Coralie Fargeat’s The Substance followed with six nominations each, while Emilia Pérez gained five nominations. Mike Leigh’s Hard Truths and Rich Peppiat’s Kneecap both earned four nominations.

The winners in all categories will be announced at London’s May Fair Hotel on 2nd February 2025 during a ceremony hosted by venerable critic Mark Kermode. Last year’s awards saw Jonathan Glazer’s The Zone of Interest and Andrew Haigh’s All of Us Strangers lead the 44th annual London Critics’ Circle Film Awards with three wins apiece.

The 45th London Critics’ Circle Film Awards are voted by the 208-member Film Section of the Critics’ Circle, the U.K.’s longest-standing and most prestigious critics’ organisation. Films are automatically eligible if they are released in U.K. cinemas or on premiere streaming services between mid-February 2024 and mid-February 2025.

The May Fair Hotel, part of Edwardian Hotels London, is the main sponsor of the event, while awards sponsors include Reddit and Seesaw Media. In-kind sponsors include Wild Idol non-alcoholic sparkling wine, cocktail specialists Gattertop Drinks Co, print solutions experts MTA Digital, Excel Executive cars and Onlooker.tv, the video production group that will once again live-stream the ceremony on the Critics’ Circle YouTube Channel @criticscirclefilmsection.