Zurich Film Festival to honor Naomi Watts

Zurich Film Festival is to honor actress Naomi Watts with the Golden Eye Award for her performance in Ben Shirinian’s “The Housewife.”

In Zurich, she will present the film, in which she portrays the enigmatic wife of a suspected Nazi. The actress will personally accept the award on Sept. 26 and offer insights into her career during a ZFF Masters session.

The festival described Watts, who has earned two Academy Award nominations, as “an artist renowned for her emotional depth, versatility and unwavering commitment to her roles.”

In “The Housewife,” she plays an elegant and inscrutable woman living in 1960s New York whose flawless façade gradually begins to crack when a young journalist from the New York Times uncovers clues about her husband’s dark past.

Christian Jungen, CEO of the festival, said, “Since her breakthrough in David Lynch’s ‘Mulholland Drive,’ Naomi Watts has been one of the most fascinating actresses of our time. Her greatest performances thrive on the tension between glamour and darkness, between what a character reveals and what she conceals – making her the kind of character actress Hitchcock would have loved.

“In ‘The Housewife,’ she masters this ambiguity as an elegant and mysterious woman. At the same time, the film tells a true story that powerfully illustrates how indispensable investigative journalism is in uncovering historical crimes. Naomi Watts delivers one of the most compelling performances of her career.”

Watts said, “It is such an honor to be presented with the Golden Eye Award from Zurich Film Festival. I cannot wait to be there, accepting this award among such great company, and I thank the film festival for honoring my role in this film.”

-Variety