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On October 26th, 2025, the actress and author Emma Thompson participated in a conversation with staff writer Helen Shaw at the 26th annual New Yorker Festival, a weekend showcasing discussions, screenings, performances, and various happenings. The Festival, the magazine’s preëminent occasion, occurred in New York City and gathered prominent figures from literature, cinema, comedy, television, politics, and healthcare.
Emma Thompson, O.B.E., stands as one of the globe’s most admired artistic figures. She is the only performer to have garnered Academy Awards for both acting (Best Actress, for “Howards End”) and screenwriting (“Sense and Sensibility”). Her cinematic résumé also encompasses “The Remains of the Day” and “In the Name of the Father,” for which she received Academy Award nominations; “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” which earned her nominations for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe; and “Nanny McPhee,” among others. This year, she will appear as a lead in two suspense films: “The Dead of Winter,” debuting in September, and “Down Cemetery Road,” launching in October. Thompson presides over the Helen Bamber Foundation, lends support to Greenpeace and Elect Her, and acts as a benefactor of the Food Foundation.
Helen Shaw, The New Yorker’s drama critic, became a part of the magazine in 2022. Prior to this, she functioned as the theatre reviewer at New York and its cultural offshoot, Vulture. She has also written concerning theatre and performance for 4Columns and Time Out New York, and has added to the New York Sun, American Theatre, the New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice, Art in America, and Artforum. She was given a 2025 Grace Dudley Prize for her contributions to The New Yorker, and was jointly awarded the 2017-18 George Jean Nathan Award for Theatrical Criticism.
Sourse: newyorker.com
