Naomi Watts to Receive Zurich Film Festival's Golden Eye Award for The Housewife
Naomi Watts will receive the Zurich Film Festival's Golden Eye Award for her performance in Ben Shirinian's The Housewife, festival CEO Christian Jungen announced on Thursday. Watts will accept the honour in person on 26 September and lead a festival masterclass. The 2026 Zurich Film Festival runs 24 September through 4 October.
The Housewife is a 1960s-set drama based on a true story. Tye Sheridan plays a young New York Times journalist who tracks down a man he suspects of being a Nazi officer living secretly in Queens. Luke Evans plays that suspect. Watts plays the suspect's elegant and enigmatic wife. The film is the feature directorial debut of Ben Shirinian, who previously worked as a short-film and commercial director. The Hollywood Reporter
The film will have its world premiere at the Toronto Film Festival — an open-captioned screening is set for 18 September, per the festival's website — before heading to Zurich. Neon International, the sales arm of the distributor behind titles like Parasite and Anora, launched international sales for the project at the European Film Market in Berlin in February 2024, with principal photography set to begin that June. Screen Daily
Watts is a two-time Academy Award nominee: best actress for 21 Grams in 2004 and again for The Impossible in 2013. She also earned an Emmy nomination for her turn as Baby Paley in the second season of Ryan Murphy's Feud.
The Golden Eye Award recognises a body of work and a current performance. Previous recipients include Kristen Stewart, Jude Law, Benedict Cumberbatch, and Dakota Johnson. The Zurich festival, now in its latest edition, programmes roughly 150 films each year and serves as a late-summer showcase ahead of the awards corridor — the stretch of autumn release dates where studios position titles for year-end honours.
For Watts, the Zurich tribute adds a festival stop to what is shaping into a busy awards-season position for The Housewife. A Toronto premiere followed by a European festival honour is the kind of itinerary that keeps a performance visible to the voters who matter later in the year.
