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On October 26, 2025, the performer and author Emma Thompson participated in a discussion with staff writer Helen Shaw at the 26th yearly New Yorker Festival, a stretch of days filled with dialogues, showings, presentations, and similar occasions. The Festival, the magazine’s hallmark affair, occurred in New York City and united prominent figures from the fields of writing, cinema, humor, broadcasting, government, and healthcare.
Emma Thompson, O.B.E., stands as one of the globe’s most esteemed imaginative personalities. She holds the distinction of being the sole performer to secure Academy Awards for both performance (Best Lead Actress, for “Howards End”) and screenwriting (“Sense and Sensibility”). Her cinematic resume also features “The Remains of the Day” and “In the Name of the Father,” for which she garnered Academy Award nods; “Good Luck to You, Leo Grande,” for which she received nominations for a BAFTA and a Golden Globe; and “Nanny McPhee,” among others. This year she is slated to appear in a pair of suspense films: “The Dead of Winter,” debuting in September, and “Down Cemetery Road,” launching in October. Thompson presides over the Helen Bamber Foundation, backs Greenpeace and Elect Her, and is a benefactor of the Food Foundation.
Helen Shaw, The New Yorker’s drama reviewer, became a part of the publication in 2022. In the past, she served as the drama analyst at New York and its cultural offshoot, Vulture. She has likewise covered drama and performance for 4Columns and Time Out New York, and has added content to the New York Sun, American Theatre, the New York Times Book Review, The Village Voice, Art in America, and Artforum. She was honored with a 2025 Grace Dudley Prize for her involvement with The New Yorker, and jointly received the 2017-18 George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism.
Sourse: newyorker.com