The Zurich Film Festival (ZFF) is honoring actress Naomi Watts with the Golden Eye Award for her outstanding performance in Ben Shirinian’s THE HOUSEWIFE. In Zurich, she will present her latest work, in which she portrays the enigmatic wife of a suspected Nazi. The award-winning actress will personally accept the award on September 26 and offer insights into her career during a ZFF Masters session.
Naomi Watts has been one of Hollywood’s most exceptional talents for more than two decades. An artist renowned for her emotional depth, versatility, and unwavering commitment to her roles, she has earned two Academy Award nominations along with numerous other international honors. She achieved her international breakthrough in 2001 with David Lynch’s mystery drama MULHOLLAND DRIVE, for which she won multiple critics' awards. Since then, she has moved effortlessly between intimate independent productions and major Hollywood successes.
Besides David Lynch, she has collaborated with directors including David Cronenberg, Alejandro González Iñárritu, and Peter Jackson, consistently demonstrating a remarkable instinct for portraying women grappling with societal expectations. 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.
«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, and we are proud to honor her with the Golden Eye Award», says Christian Jungen, CEO of the Zurich Film Festival.
«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», says Naomi Watts.
From Shoreham to Sydney to Hollywood
Naomi Watts was born in 1968 in Shoreham, Kent. She later lived in Wales before moving to Australia with her mother. In Sydney, she attended the same acting school as Nicole Kidman, with whom she has remained close since her teenage years.
After working as a model and appearing in smaller roles in Australian television productions, Watts moved to Los Angeles in the 1990s, where she gradually established herself in the film industry through supporting roles and independent productions.
Following MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2001), she delivered a series of internationally acclaimed performances. For her portrayal of a grieving mother in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 21 GRAMS (2003), she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Actress. A second nomination followed in 2013 for her role as a survivor of the 2004 tsunami in THE IMPOSSIBLE (2012). She also established herself in the horror and fantasy genres with films such as THE RING (2002) and Peter Jackson’s KING KONG (2005), while simultaneously impressing audiences in arthouse films such as BIRDMAN OR (THE UNEXPECTED VIRTUE OF IGNORANCE) (2014). On television, she attracted attention from 2017 onward as Diane Evans in the third season of TWIN PEAKS, directed by David Lynch. In 2024, her performance as Babe Paley in FEUD: CAPOTE VS. THE SWANS earned nominations for the Emmy Awards, Golden Globes, and Critics’ Choice Awards.
Her portrayal of a grieving writer in THE FRIEND (2024), opposite a Great Dane, brought renewed attention during the 2025 awards season. With THE HOUSEWIFE, Naomi Watts once again demonstrates how effortlessly she can move between emotional vulnerability and quiet inscrutability.
You can find the official media release here.
