Helena Bonham Carter Nabs Britannia Award

Actress joins her “Harry Potter” director Peter Yates in winning top honor from BAFTA Los Angeles

The British Academy of Film and Television Arts Los Angeles has made a second nod toward the "Harry Potter" series, announcing on Wednesday that it will honor series costar Helena Bonham Carter as its British Artist of the Year at the 2011 Britannia Awards.

Helena Bonham CarterCarter joins the previously announced Peter Yates, director of the last four "Potter" movies, as a recipient of BAFTA Los Angeles' highest honor. Yates was voted the John Schlesinger Britannia Award for Excellence in Directing.

Pixar founder and Disney Animation chief John Lasseter will be given the Britannia Award for Worldwide Contribution to Filmed Entertainment at the Britannia ceremony, which takes place on November 30.

Additional honorees will also be announced.

In addition to her role as Bellatrix Lestrange in the "Harry Potter" movies, Carter is a two-time Oscar nominee, most recently for "The King's Speech." She was also Oscar nominated for "The Wings of the Dove" in 1997.

She has frequently worked with her husband, director Tim Burton, in films that include "Alice in Wonderland," Sweeney Todd," "Big Fish" and "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory."

“Helena Bonham Carter is an actress of immense versatility, and her range across movies of all genres is at once remarkable and fearless,” BAFTA Los Angeles chairman Nigel Lythgoe said in the press release announcing the honor.

Although Carter's role in the "Potter" movies is a supporting one and is overshadowed by her work in films like "The King's Speech," her only 2011 release is the new "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2," making BAFTA Los Angeles' choice of her as British Artist of the Year  a clear nod to the lucrative, long-running series that comes to an end this year.

Previous Britannia Awards have gone to Colin Firth, Tom Hanks, Dustin Hoffman, Helen Mirren, Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese and Christopher Nolan, among others.

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