Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Rungano Nyoni Win Women in Film & TV U.K. Awards

Phoebe Waller-Bridge has won the top writing award and Rungano Nyoni the newcomer accolade from influential British industry organization Women in Film & TV. Actress Juliet Stevenson, whose numerous film credits include “Truly, Madly, Deeply” and “Bend it Like Beckham,” will be honored with a lifetime achievement award at a ceremony Friday.

Waller-Bridge broke out with 2016’s “Fleabag” and this year’s cat-and-mouse drama “Killing Eve.” Nyoni is the director of “I Am Not a Witch,” a freshman feature-length film that is Britain’s submission for next year’s foreign-language Oscar.

Jameela Jamil won WFTV’s award for achievement of the year. The former presenter stars in U.S. sitcom “The Good Place” and has actively campaigned on body-image issues.

American-born documentary filmmaker and producer Norma Percy picked up the award for contribution to the medium for her work on factual projects including “Inside Obama’s White House.” The factual category was won by Deeyah Khan, the founder of Fuuse, which specializes in projects with women, minorities, and kids raised in cultures different from those of their parents.

“Sifting through the huge numbers of nominations for our awards, it quickly becomes apparent just how many extraordinarily talented women there are working in film and TV today,” said WFTV chair Liz Tucker. She added that she hoped the winners’ achievements “will give inspiration across the industry to all women battling to make a difference.”

WFTV has members from across the film, TV, and media business. It has been a prominent voice for women in the industry, notably in the past year as the #MeToo and Time’s Up movements gained ground.

“One of the most striking aspects of our unique awards is the huge diversity of our winners,” said Ade Rawcliffe, a WFTV board member and head of diversity for ITV commissioning. “What our annual awards ceremony clearly shows is the huge achievements women from all backgrounds can make when they are given the right opportunities.”

The winners of the 2018 Women in Film & Television awards:

The Barclays Business Award

Lucy Ainsworth Taylor, Angela Barson (BlueBolt)

The Technicolor Creative Technology Award

Selina MacArthur

The Panalux Craft Award

Eunice Huthart

The ENVY Producer Award

Gill Isles

The EIKON Presenter Award

Sandi Toksvig

The Film Finances Project Management Award

Arabella Gilbert

The Netflix New Talent Award

Rungano Nyoni

The ITV Studios Achievement of the Year Award

Jameela Jamil

The Deluxe Director Award

Hettie Macdonald

The Screen Skills Writing Award

Phoebe Waller-Bridge

The Pinewood Studios Best Performance Award

Nicola Walker

The BBC News and Factual Award

Deeyah Khan

The Argonon Contribution to the Medium Award

Norma Percy

The EON Productions Lifetime Achievement Award

Juliet Stevenson

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